hey guys,
my question is if anyone knows how to get the rick sound on another type of guitar, with an alternative pickup (the toasters are f*****g expensive)

could be software??? some emulation maybe

could be a pedal????

thank you very much in advance!

i have an old roland vg8x or something like that but i haven't plugged it since i lived in the U.K (l.tm.ago). what i remember is that it has some very decent (at least) emulations of both a 6 and 12 rickenbacker strings guitars. the things is that i'd rather prefer another way to get the sound i'm looking for

 

Last edited: Feb 27, 2021

I use it for the 12 strings model, the 6 one is less interesting in my opinion. https://www.musiclab.com/products/realrick/info.html

You can try it at the sister site.

 

hi rudolph, thank you for your answer but what i want is to either change the pickup/s of a kitchenbacker/ thomannbacker (guitars) or use some software or pedal to achieve the target sound

 

Have you tried Overload TH-U? Amplitube 5 perhaps? I haven't tried Amplitube 5 yet. I get excellent sound with TH-U. I never owned a Rickenbacker so I wouldn't know the sound.

 

i WillyA, thank you for your answer, I haven't tried any of those. rickenbacker = to me the beatles sound. + - the 'jangle' sound

 

Oriental knock-off (cheap and fairly abundant) Danelectros are capable of a Rickenbacker-esque tone. The original 1964 pickups on the Rickenbacker 330 and 360 models were rather low impedance, single coil, making for that thinny sound you probably have in mind.

 

hi Aileron, thank you for the info, i will have a look but...my intention is to get a chickenbacker/ or a harley benton rd-600 and retrofit some rick sounding pickup/s. don't want to get the ones from rickenbacker because they are very expensive

if there was a software option, i would be very happy or as i mentioned earlier as well, some pedal would not be bad either

the idea is to match a fake rick guitar with the right beatles sound. i am able to do some simple luthiering jobs in order to make a cheap guit playable

 

Aside from pup type & circuit - the biggest factor in THE SOUND of an electric guitar is placement of pickups in relation to scale length. You could wire up a 2X4 like a Rick & as long as the scale length & pups are placed at the same spots as they would be on a Rick it will sound 80-90% like a Rick.

 

Hi Moogerfooger, thank for the info. anyway, i am not confident to relocate the pickup hole by playing bloodymary (wooden version) with a router and make the rest of the guitar good for composting
i will have to play with what i will get and pray to xxxxxxxxxxxxxx to get a right sounding pick / soft/ pedal to do the job i want

 

Beatles sound besides specific guitars is achieved by using fairly high gain amps (their AC30s of the day had both straight and treble-boosted channels) and recording fairly loud though staying below feedback pressure. Use low ratio compression on a large membrane condenser mic, always roll off bass on the recording input. A parametric EQ will help dialing in a preferred characteristic. The Beatles never were too scientific about their gear.

 

You can download TH-U from the sister site. Give it a try before you spend money. It has a massive range of Amps, cabs, effects etc. There's also Positive Grid also a myriad of different sounds, also from sister site. Try before you buy, nothing to lose. Depends on how exact you want the sound to be, if you insist on exact, best go buy a genuine Rickenbacker. Check it out :

I come from the Beatles era. I HATED them with a passion, all the hype, bullshit, drugs, Indian Gurus, the ridiculous suits and dress. I didn't like their music either, I preferred Gerry and the Pacemakers and just about any band EXCEPT the Beatles. My playing was influenced by Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin. I still love the music from the late 1950's and 1960's, but not a single Beatles album ever crossed my door!

 

BTW : MusicLab do a Rickenbacker, you might try that

 

yeah, the vox ac30 sound is not difficult to get with a pedal, dont want to get the amp, and have another reason to go this way:
i have a digitech pedal that emulates the guitar sound/s of bryan may, he also used to be a ac30 user
i can understand the technical details and i appreciate your knowledge very much but to me the main component to get is the source of the sound, real or emulated

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2021

WillyA, thanks for the info! have to go to sleep,(unfortunately)

i will respond to your input tomorrow

good night everyone and thank you for jumping in!

 

I haven't bought any and I am not really attuned to the Rickenbacker sound, but I sometimes run across JBE Pickups R300 on Reverb while cruising through what's for sale for around two hundred bucks for a set. From what I've gather they are meant to be replacement for the toasters on original Rick's with that New York sound intact.

200 isn't that big of spend when you are looking for something so specific and low volume.

GL

 

Some of the old Rickenbacker guitars/basses had a .0047μf (4.7nf) capacitor in series with the bridge pickup (between the pickup's hot wire and the selector switch). This not only cuts bass but more importantly, when both pickups are selected, puts the pickups half-out-of-phase with each other (HOOP), resulting in the unique Rickenbacker jangle. It's worth trying that before you think about changing pickups etc., especially as a capacitor only costs a few cents. I recently did just that to a 2 pickup Precision/Jazz Bass and it not only sounded Ricky-ish but was slightly louder than stock wiring with both pickups on.

 

Last edited: Feb 27, 2021

Try the Neural Gojira. I use the (I think) "Crystal Waters" preset, but turn off the delay and reverb. It leaves a near perfect 12-string sound. With a little EQ, and boost tweaking, I get a great Rickenbacker sound. I use it to play some old Byrds songs on my Strat. The octaver in the Gojira plug is dead on, more than any I've tried. I am not near my rig at this time, but pretty sure the above mentioned preset is correct. You can download a trial.
Before, I was using the Blue Cat 12-string in Axiom, but the Neural is way better.

 

Have you tried Re-Guitar? It does have a Rick pickup model.
Even if it doesn't sound exactly like you want it to sound, it's a great plugin that widens your tonal palette in a very nice way.

https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_ReGuitar/

 

Do you mean Re-Guitar? Or does Axiom have a 12-string simulator pedal?
Btw 100% agree about Neural's octaver. The whammy is miles ahead of any other plugin too. Come to think of it, they're pretty much the best on all fronts :D

 

You can try Blue Cat's Re-Guitar Pickup modeling software this is a great program and should emulate what you want, it has many types pickups including Rick and Gretsch pickups as well as acoustic guitar emulations give it a try, you may be surprised.
WillyA above mentioned MusicLab's Real Rick, but I don't think it even comes anywhere as close as "Orange Tree Samples Evolution Rick" this is the real thing I've played Rickenbacker 12's and this is exactly true to the real thing 100%, their "Evolution Sitardelic" is also amazing again true to the original.

 

Last edited: Feb 28, 2021