V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

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jdean
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V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by jdean »

I have a re issue V63 that had a ******* out horse shoe bridge pick up,.I pulled it out and gave a call to my pickup guy about rewinding it, Wondering what size the wire was we both went on line and found it was 43 awg (we musta.. looked at the same site) not having that size, he ordered it and went to work. I got it back and the resistance measured out at 15.4k. pretty hot I,d say.Now I,m reading everywhere that it was originally.. 44awg. This whole thing seems to be a mystery.He measured the old wire and it was in fact 43awg. This is a new harness and horseshoe I bought from Rickenbacker back in the late '80's.It has the correct 2 .047 caps but the pots make me wonder. their all stamped #07341. I cant find any info on these anywhere. they all read out at the same 250k. Huh?. why would they use these with a bridge p/u that measures 15.4 and a toaster neck p/u that measures 11.9? .Are there any V63 owners out there that could chime in on what their specs are. I,ve had this Bass for roughly 20 years and it always sounded OK, but never "blew me away". I realize that the pots should probably be 330k,but with p/u's that hot should,nt at least the volume pots be 500k ? I have it apart ,so nows the time to get all I can out of it. Does anyone at least know what a #07341 pot is ?. Thanks in advance for any info.
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jps
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by jps »

If you really want it to sound great, unwind the toaster to around 6K to 7K, and the HS PU to about 8K.

My two RI HS PUs were around 11K (one I bought used, the other is what came on the bass), which matched up well with the hot toaster that was in it originally, but I swapped it out for a scatterwound 7.4K toaster shortly after getting the bass in winter '05 (April '98 4001V63). The RI HS PU was quite a bit hotter so I bent the shoes up at an angle to allow for lowering the pickup without hitting the strings. The V63 sounded great like that, especially after adding a .0047µF cap in line with it.

In 2009 I got a rebuilt early '60s magnetic shoes HS PU and installed it in the V63. Perfection! :D

As to the pots, it depends on the DCR of the pickups paired with them. Vintage specs for the volume pots were 250K, and those that are in your V63 will work fine once you unwind your pickups to my above mentioned suggestions.
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aceonbass
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by aceonbass »

The original wire used was indeed 44awg. Current reissue Horseshoe pickups are between 10&12k, but in the 60's these were about 8k, which I think sounds better and clearer. The pots you have, although originally advertised as 250k, actually measure closer to 175k. The tone pots should have been 500k, and the volume pots should be 250k. The current REVISED specs on the RIC website show all the pots as being 330k, but they actually measure a tone sucking 280k. I stock the correct spec OEM parts to build correct harnesses for Rickenbacker guitars and basses back to the 60's. PM me if interested.
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jdean
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by jdean »

Thanks for the replies, just might take you up on the offer aceonbass. I,m just looking for a low end punchy sound with clarity .And alot of the time ,it cost's me a fortune taking the trial and error route. My problem here is not totally understanding the correlation between all the components. ie; p/u impedance to potentiometer values etc...and Bass guitar dynamics.So am I to understand that a hotter p/u is not necessarily better for bottom end and clarity. I,m alot more knowledgeable with guitars having played, built and worked on alot more on them as compared to bass guitars. I have this Ric 4001 and a fender P bass that I run through my home ampeg BA115V2 and use loaners to fill in ,in band situations, I just want to get heavier into Bass, because there's always a demand. I,m looking into making an investment in a bigger ,better amp rig. I just want to get the most out of my 4 strings.My fender needs some attention,But my ric's on the bench right now. I,m a huge Geddy fan but dont know a single guitarist that ever liked Rush. .So in short; If I were to re-wind my bridge to 8k and neck toaster to around 7.5 and put all 250k pots in it w/.047k caps, do you think I'll realize a vintage '70's rock tone?. And what about magnetizing the shoes like in the old days.I have a great p/u guy, thats all I have to do is give him the specs to work with.
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thx1955
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by thx1955 »

I've 3 v63's and a CS Limited (a v63 in a different set of clothes)

So, some interesting and widely varied results here, Arranged by age:

v63-1 Jan 85
Neck 16.66k --- Bridge 96 (yes 96k) This is a live magnetized pickup so that may have some bearing on the reading. I measured several times and used 3 different meters, all read simialry

CS-2 Sept 1991
Neck 10.79k --- Bridge 10.97k Of all the v63's this was best balanced set

v63-3 May 1998
Neck 18.4k --- Bridge 9.47k

v63-4 April 2001
Neck 5.8k --- Bridge 9.6k

Bridge pickups (non magnetized) were all relatively close 9.6-10.9k

Neck pickups were all over the place 16-10-18-5 .....
Physicaly they all look the same, obviously internally they are wound differently.

I also have two other v63 Horshoe pickups of unknown age but, I suspect close to same manufacturing date
Horseshoe-1 10.47k

Horseshoe-2 10.41k
"It's Red Jim, but not as we know it...."
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thx1955
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by thx1955 »

aceonbass wrote:The original wire used was indeed 44awg. Current reissue Horseshoe pickups are between 10&12k, but in the 60's these were about 8k, which I think sounds better and clearer. The pots you have, although originally advertised as 250k, actually measure closer to 175k. The tone pots should have been 500k, and the volume pots should be 250k. The current REVISED specs on the RIC website show all the pots as being 330k, but they actually measure a tone sucking 280k. I stock the correct spec OEM parts to build correct harnesses for Rickenbacker guitars and basses back to the 60's. PM me if interested.

I've several of Dane's wiring harness, including two period correct persons for 72&73 they all sound great and will really open up the sound of your v63
"It's Red Jim, but not as we know it...."
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jps
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by jps »

thx1955 wrote: --- Bridge 96 (yes 96k) This is a live magnetized pickup so that may have some bearing on the reading. I measured several times and used 3 different meters, all read simialry
That's a pretty incredulous reading!
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thx1955
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by thx1955 »

jps wrote:
thx1955 wrote: --- Bridge 96 (yes 96k) This is a live magnetized pickup so that may have some bearing on the reading. I measured several times and used 3 different meters, all read simialry
That's a pretty incredulous reading!
Could not agree more, I'll go back and remeasure once again. :shock:
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thx1955
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by thx1955 »

Neck
Neck.jpg


Bridge
Bridge.jpg
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jps
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Re: V63 reissue horse shoe winding wire size & pot values.

Post by jps »

:shock:
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