Rick Black Box Amp

[Al Terhune]

A friend of mine is putting on the "finishing touches" of getting this going for me. Does anyone play through one of these? I think it's Rickenbacher's third or fourth amp or so. The first photo is from a Rick amp site, and the back side photo is an actual photo of my amp. Preliminary comments are that, while not loud, it sounds pretty good through that Rola field coil speaker. It's actually a very tiny fellow.

[Bill Creller]

I know a couple of folks that have those, but never heard one. Cool looking antique

[Robbie Lee]

Yes I have one and it sounds great! It sounds especially nice with the guitar meant to go with it, with a horseshoe pickup, but they work well with modern instruments, and with "spanish" guitars too... I like it with a telecaster. The sound is hard to describe, but at low volume, it's surprisingly sophisticated. Great for recording, or playing at home.

[Al Terhune]

Bill: To me (other than, yes, a cool-looking antique!), it looks like its something right out of a Terry Gilliam movie. Mine is in excellent shape, too, hardly used if at all.

Robbie: You're motivating me! This amp is purely for recording purposes, and my understanding is that it's output is quite low, which suits my technique perfectly -- I typically record with my amps at a tad higher than acoustic volume level. And I've got three horseshoe pickup Ricks to play through this guy.

The fellow replacing the caps and making it playable commented that the fact there are no volume or tone pots will make the signal purely clean, which was an interesting observation and makes total sense. Tube amps, when turned on, are always going full blast (the tubes, anyway). The volume pot simply turns down the volume, not the intensity of the tubes. Why even have pots on an amp?

[Robbie Lee]

Who needs volume? Who needs tone? Not I! You'll be happy with it. For playing at home and recording it should at least lend a different sound than you already have. Good luck! Write back in, when it's done. I'd love to hear how it turns out.

[Mike Neer]

Al, those are cool amps and would be great for your Frying Pan. If you should ever consider an amp for gigging with the Frying Pan, I would highly recommend the 1940s Electar Zephyr amps made by Epiphone (in fact, many of them were actually built by Nat Daniels (a/k/a Danelectro) in his shop on Cortlandt St. in downtown NYC, which used to be known as Radio Row, but is now the World Trade Center area). That is a combination that is hard to beat.

I no longer own these amps, but I sure wish I still had them!

[seldomfed]

I have one of those, it was part of a set - guitar and amp. I don't play it much cause it's, well... 'old' Has a nice sound, seems to work ok, however I should have a tech restore it sometime.
The bakelite ricky that came with it however I play all the time!

Not being good at electronic repair myself - the tubes look to me like replacements may not even exist? Do they? Mine prob. needs some caps replaced too. It does hum a bit. But a dang cool looking little amp.

[Bill Creller]

I have a 30s Gibson that's really a basic amp, no switch, no volume or tone control. When plugged in, that's it!! I rebuilt it a few years back, and found it had only three filter caps and one resistor in it! 10 inch speaker that needed help, and I talked to (the late) Ted Weber, and he told me how ti fix it, which I did.
Sometimes an old amp will really surprise you.

The old tubes for these ancient amps are available yet, just have to know where to look.

[Al Terhune]

Here' a finished shot of the front and back. Chris used a "Fender" handle I found and made it black with shoe polish.





Mike - coincidentally, an auction just ended with one of those amps, and I thought long and hard about trying to get it, but I do have a Gibson EH125 and BR1 (both 12" field coil speakers) that sound great with the frying pan. The BR1 is a strong, strong amp that is so crystal clear 3D -- I can't think of a better way to describe it. I'll bet you wish you still had those beauties.

We were a little worried about one of the tubes (although when tested, they're all good), but found out not only is it still being reproduced, there are others that are equivalent.

One resistor in the Gibson, Bill? I'd like to see a picture of that amp.

Robbie, I'll see about posting a song once I record with it -- which will probably be this weekend.

[Ben Jones]

Hi Al,

I'm the steeler in your friend Chris's band.
Chris is a great guy and he sure knows his gear and amps! I didnt get to hear this little gem yet, but Chris said the tone was addictive.
I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers
-Ben

[Al Terhune]

Hey, Ben -- I'll be picking it up tomorrow at your show at the Blue Moon in Seattle. You guys have put together a great band (I've been a fan of Chris's songwriting and singing for over ten years), and I look forward to hearing you play your steel live -- I've heard the cuts online, and your pedal adds a really nice feel, Ben. Til then!

[Ron Whitfield]

I think Ray Montee has one of these old Rick amps, he's a big fan of the Rola speakers.

I would highly recommend the 1940s Electar Zephyr amps made by Epiphone (in fact, many of them were actually built by Nat Daniels

These are indeed awesome steel amps for a vintage tone.
Nat lived his retirement years in Hawaii Kai/Oahu, and was listed in the phonebook Over the course of talking to him occasionally, I mentioned his day's of having been involved with these and he replied "I did?" I never did get a straight answer..., but he was cool and very interesting, still involved with ingenious ideas like his mega-cat that he tried getting the Navy interested in and sent me a full layout of.

[J D Sauser]

I have one... like brand new.
I like it so much, I wore out the speaker cone... had that replaced and later somehow shorted the field coil (now THAT was a though one, but thanks to some Forumites, I had that taken care off too).
It's one of my best sounding amps, and yes, I used it with my PSG too.
The came along with the pre-war and later war time B-series guitars. A more simple version was also offered in a combo with the NS sheet metal guitars.

When trying to have the field coil fixed, we found that actually most none of these amps are exactly equal in design or values. It would seem that it was an ongoing process. Some schematics can be found flying around the Internet.

I also have an equally "as new" predecessor, a similarly shaped but wood boxed original, which was offered with the Fry Pan. THAT one, while a little weaker in volume, sounds even better. Probably a design very close to the original VoluTones.

... J-D.

[Mike Neer]

Damn, guys, sorry for the huge pics. Maybe I can fix that tomorrow.

[Al Terhune]

When trying to have the field coil fixed, we found that actually most none of these amps are exactly equal in design or values. It would seem that it was an ongoing process. Some schematics can be found flying around the Internet.

... J-D.

That's what Chris found out -- the schematic he found was not what was inside my amp. I'll have to pass that on to him. Wouldn't this mean that the tones might vary, too, from black sheet to black sheet?