6-pole Horseshoe Lapsteel PU to 4-Pole Bass HS PU Conversion

[fireglo330/12]

I wanted to reach out to the Ric Resource community, to see if any of you might recommend a pickup wiz who can correctly convert my '66 Ric 6 string Lapsteel HS PU to a bass HS PU. As far as I can see, the horsehoe, bobbin height and materials are identical to a Bass HS of the same period (including a judicious arch and spacing between the top of the bobbin and horseshoe magnets. I even get a decent 6.2K ohm reading from the pickup. My ultimate goal would be to retain everything, including the windings, pull and plug the 6 holes, and re-drill for 4 poles pieces. According to mark Walker, you can use the outer polpiece holes in the bobbin sometimes.

Anyway, both Mark and Sergio seem to have "left the building". Mark isn't doing this kind of work at the moment, and Sergio has dropped off the radar completely.

I'd really like to keep the pickup as original as possible during the modification. Some pickup guys don't want to get invlolved to that extent.

Can anyone here recommend someone?

Cheers,

Terry

[Kopfjaeger]

Terry,

I spoke to Mark a while ago and it's confirmed, he's not doing this mod. anymore. Actually, the bass raised lip bobbin is a little narrower (less tall) than the lap steel pup you have.

Have you attempted to contact Tom Brantley in North Carolina? He's the only one I can think of that may be able to do it.

Sepp

[jps]

One guy who used to post here has rebuilt some 6 pole bobbins to 4 pole for bass use. The one example I have had the opportunity try (a Mark Walker rebuild, IIRC) sounded great but was wound out of polarity to the neck toaster pickup in that bass. So, make sure it is wound properly to work correctly with other Rickenbacker pickups, say, a toaster, which would be the most likely candidate to go with the HS PU. You will have to have the pickup rewound as the bobbin has to be completely dismantled to do the conversion.

Hope this helps.

[fireglo330/12]

Thanks for the input guys. The raised lip bobbin on my lapsteel looks so damn close, oh well. I'd still be happy with making that a 4 pole PU, as it stands. Thanks for the info Sepp, I'll contact Tom, in the hopes that he can take it on.

Btw, I just noticed recently, that Geddy ended up with your '68 BG 4001! Ged & Skully popped by my place the other day to pick up the lightest 4001 any of us has ever encountered... a 1968 FG 4001. It came from a local, one owner family, and included the original Stevens St. addressed green polish cloth, strap and patch cord! He was pretty happy about it... That bass just checked off all the boxes, all 'round! Not a screw was turned on it since it left the factory. It was one of the first run of Hi-Gain PU 4001's. I will miss it dearly.


Thanks for that info jps, polarity is a good point. I'd be restoring it as a 4000 though, so I'm content with retaining the original windings ...if the conversion is successful.

[jps]

IIRC, the windings are wrapped directly on the pole pieces, so extreme care will be required during the unwinding process of the rebuild to be able to retain, and reuse, the original wire.

[antipodean]

Amazingly stupid question - does a 6-pole horseshoe work on a bass? The toaster is a six-pole unit, and it works well!

[fireglo330/12]

Amazingly stupid question - does a 6-pole horseshoe work on a bass? The toaster is a six-pole unit, and it works well!

It's a fair question antipodean. Unfortunately, the answer is... partially. If you're lucky enough to have a string relatively centered over the polepiece, it will work. The only hitch is that not all of the stings line up over the polepieces. The field generated over the polepieces are relatively narrow. I've tried this out already. The E, D, and to some extent, G strings sounded but the A string was dead. As you pull on the string into alignment, you can hear the signal becoming stronger.