What's in the Box?
We start with the box itself. We use the best project box on the market - Hammond. It's the highest grade plastic,
tough and durable, and reinforced on all inner surfaces and corners. Since it is not a stomp box (foot switch), we
chose plastic to help reduce the weight (and additional expense to you). Then the holes are drilled to receive the
Switchcraft™ jacks.
Next the heavy-gauge foil shield tape is
applied to all surfaces, including the top. The tape adhesive is very strong and assures a complete, tight
and secure fit. It will never come loose. This foil shield is conductive throughout, and
shares common grounding with all three jacks. We do this to help reduce interference or hum
from external sources. A continuity meter tests
the complete shield/ground system.
All jacks are genuine Switchcraft™ jacks. They are
simply the best.
You can feel the difference as soon as you plug
in. The spring resistance is strong (you want that) and you can tell it
will stay strong for life. Then you get that "snap" of
confidence when your plug is fully engaged and securely held firm in
place. You don't get that same feel and confidence from any other jacks.
The jacks are installed (after the foil
shielding) and mounted to large industrial washers to add sidewall strength for a lifetime of plugging in. Then the connections are made. We use heavy gauge strand wire with heavy
jacketing for the pickup send circuits. Then comes the grounding braid common to all jacks. All connections are pre-soldered, then
join-soldered using premium silver solder.
A lot more happens before the final label is
applied.
All connections are first stress-tested with
tools to look for (and correct) any potential weaknesses. Then all
connections and shields are checked and cross-checked with a continuity meter.
Next, the lid is securely screwed in place and
the Rich-E-Split box goes to instrument testing. We use an ART stereo dual tube pre-amp with headphones on our Rickenbacker 360/12 to test the individual
pickup circuits. We do this to make sure the signals are clean and clear,
with no noise induced by regular amps. Finally we connect our Ric to two
amps, one for each pickup, and make sure the box performs flawlessly and
responds properly to the Ric pickup selector switch.
If everything passes testing, the laminated
label (with connection guides) is applied, and the box is packaged with an
inspection-passed tag and the owner's manual - ready to ship to you!
