Rare Rivoli

[Chris P.]

Beautiful bass!

[MARICOPAA]

I guess it is sort of the old 'urban myth' realized. As you say...'Little-old-lady-never-played-under-the-bed' etc.

Apparently there were 11 of these Rivolis shipped in 1960...rare bird indeed ;-)

The 'CHOKE' is actually a small canister (rectangular) that houses a coil of wire. It is located under a rectangular piece of plastic with rounded ends just under the two-point bridge. The plastic cover is usually sealed down with a sort of gooey wax...no screws etc. When the 'Baritone' push button is 'OFF' it is the single humbucker (mudbucker) almost alone and the pickup has the huge robust sound we know and love.

Fact is on Gibson EB-2's & Rivoli's with the CHOKE feature the stock wiring never truly isolates the pickup from the CHOKE...even when the pushbutton is OFF and the sound is at it's mudbucking best. There is residual bleed from the Choke circuit that colors the sound of the humbucker. There are mods that some of us do that truly eliminates the CHOKE completely from the circuit for a 'third' sound. I have it on a 1963 Rivoli and it is truly a great sound...the humbucker has more mids and growl...kind of like a wide open mudbucker and 'choked' sound combined...great low end with a touch of midrange growl...very, very nice! And louder than either of the stock sounds alone. It is the actual sound of a mudbucker.

When the 'Baritone' pushbutton is in the 'ON' position the coil of wire (the CHOKE) is inserted in the circuit (along with a cap or two that is part of the CHOKE circuit) and it rolls off the low end, at first listen relative to a open mudbucker as useless. Fact is if you EQ properly the CHOKED sound is super useful and it IS the sound of many of the 60's best British Invasion groups.

Here's a link to a couple live videos with a 1964 Rivoli using the CHOKED sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Tcs8LhOm4&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyCeru5UihI&feature=channel_page

Dave is right...most folks call the little bakelite pushbutton canopy switch a 'bass boost' button...quite the opposite, as Dave points.


Regarding The Raving Animals...we decided to take on doing the best set we could of the best Animals songs of the early period. I'm actually learning and playing all the Alan Price parts on a great Vox Continental. It has a sound that for what we are doing is THE sound!Of course the 64' Rivoli works perfectly for The Animals stuff as Chas Chandler was, besides Paul Samwell-Smith and couple others, the other huge officiendo of Rivoli's & EB-2's at the time. We did our debut gig A SLIM's in SF just this last Friday and from all reports on the money. Being I'm so new to this style of keyboards I'll take that as a successful gig ;-) Once we really gel it will kill.[/url][/url]