Active Rickenbacker Project?

[Mudbass]

I'm considering doing a little Baron von Frankenstein job on my Ric. Before the Ric purists among us hyperventilate and pass out, hear my idea through first.

 

The object: To install active (probably Bartolini) electronics into a 4003 using the stock pups.

 

The Plan:

 

1. Order the electronics from Bart and a replacement pickguard from Ric.

 

2. Remove the stock pickguard preserving the factory pots and as much of the stock wiring as feasible and set it aside should I ever decide to return the bass to original condition.

 

3. Mount the Bart electronics to the the replacement pickguard and wire it up to the stock pups.

 

The problem: What to do with the battery(s).

 

Presumably there isn't enough room in the control cavitiy for the battery without doing some routing and I do not want to do any routing, even then, there's the problem of having to remove the pickguard every time the battery needs replacing.

 

My soloution:

 

Don't put the battery inside the bass in the first place. I propose to make an external battery powered (phantom power) box and power the electronics from there. I figure it can be done using a stereo guitar cord and the stereo jack in the Ric. The box would contain one or two 9v batteries, a stereo input jack and a mono output jack. The voltage gets fed to the electronics in the bass using the ring and tip connections of the stereo cord. The audio signal feeds from the bass to the phantom box via the tip and barrel connections which are wired to the mono-output on the box (which of course plugs into the amp). The ring and tip would see a voltage of 9 or 18 volts (depending on how many batteries I decide to use), but the ring a barrel connection (where the audio signal goes) would not see any voltage because there's no complete circuit.

 

So I guess the question is, before I dump a bunch of money into this experiment, does anybody see why this wouldn't work? I sure can't, but mebbie some of you can see some flaw in the idea that I don't.

[Onkel Bob]

EBS amps include phantom power for active basses and their own pedals. And by the way I find it sacrilegious.

[illidian]

If you do that, you deserve to be mercilessly flogged.

[Jazz Ad]

Just use an external preamp.

This way you won't butcher your bass and will get just the same results.

[bassmaniac]

Do yourself a favor and not sell your Rick pickups. The Barts will sound nice, way better than Seymour Duncan replacements for Rick basses, but you won't get that bite that the RIC pickups are known for...but if you insist on selling them, I'd be interested.

[SpaceGhost]

Doesn't Alembic make Ric replacement pups? Has anyone tried them out?

[no-logic]

Originally posted by Jazz Ad Just use an external preamp. This way you won't butcher your bass and will get just the same results.

Big +1. Leave her alone.

[s4001]

A few suggestions, and no, I don't consider it secreligious. Go over to the Ricresource forum and there's a guy that cuts everyone's stock Rics into 5 bangers. Thats wild.

 

Anyway, get a pickguard from Pickguardian and damage it. (they'll even make one custom for you.) Save your RIc pickguard.

 

I've heard many a story about folks who have switched their Ric pups. To Barts, Seymores, Alembics, Fenders etc. All of the people I've heard firsthand from who've done it have said it never sounded better than the regular pups. I've played Rics with Barts and Seymores and both of them sounded like Rics minus balls.

 

HOWEVER I've heard several folks who have switched their stock pups out and put in the pups from the 4004 series and they've been ecstatic about the results. Pickguardian even makes a plastic housing you can put the pickup in and it fits directly into the bridge pup rout.

 

My 2