For giggles I plugged into the stereo output of my '96 360/12 and noticed the overall volume of the bridge pickup was considerably louder than when plugged into the mono output. This was done with the same amp and amp settings and with the same cord. I just simply switched the cord back and forth between the outputs and could hear the difference clearly while playing. The bridge sounds anemic to me now when using the mono out.

To tell you the truth, I love the sound of this "hotter" bridge pup. I took my multimeter and did a down and dirty reading of the bridge pup by measuring the tip and sleeve of the cord. Mono out = 9.6k and Stereo out = 10.2k. Could 0.6k make that much of a difference? Neck pup reads the same in both inputs btw, and no change in volume between outputs. I am the original owner of this guitar and the wiring is still stock. I'm not an expert with reading schematics, so the wiring diagram doesn't shed any light for me.

So my questions are; is this normal for the bridge pup to be louder (hotter) when using the Stereo Output? And would it be possible to mod the mono output to match the stereoe? I would rather use the mono than bother with the stereo.

Thanks.

First of all, you shouldn't be using the same cord with the two different outputs - one is wired for a stereo plug (tip, sleeve, and ring), the other for a mono plug (tip and sleeve). I don't know for certain, but that probably has an effect on what's coming out of the amp. I'd try it again using a stereo cord for the Rick-O-Sound output and a mono cord for the mono output.

See pages 5-6: http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/manual.pdf

The other part of this equation is the amp - with ROS you need to be using either a 2-channel amp, or two amps, or a stereo amp. Remember also that when using the ROS, the bridge amp/pickup volume will stay pretty constant, and the fifth control knob mostly just controls the neck amp/pickup volume. Finally, where is your p'up selector during this experiment, and how is your fifth knob set?

Please excuse any obvious comments if you knew all of this already.

Given you're inserting a tip-sleeve plug into a tip-ring-sleeve jack, there's some shorting of the circuitry and/or rerouting of the pickups. I'm pretty sure you're hearing more than just the bridge pickup in there.

A little tracking on the schematic might shed some light on this but since this is not a recommended use I can't say it's a priority for me.