rickenbacker B6- can metal flanges be removed?

[erl]

hi-

i have an old bakelite B6. it has big, nickel-plated, metal flanges directly above the pickup (i'm not sure what they are called) that you can rest your hand upon while playing. these pieces look cool and maybe help the pickup respond to the strings, but they make dampening the strings awkward. can these metal flanges be removed easily? thanks for any feedback/advice you may be able to offer.

erl

[johnhall]

Take those off and you will have a worthless piece of plastic!

Those are the horseshoe pickup magnets that make these guitars what they are.

[erl]

hi john-

thanks for your reply. i had a feeling that they were part of the pickup. i know that it wouldn't be optimal, but i'd sacrifice some of the sound (if it isn't too much of a reduction in output) to get a little more dampening control. years ago i read about, and saw, ry cooder plying a strat which had a ricky lapsteel pickup installed, but without those flanges. what i'm wondering is if those pieces are easy to remove/replace or if they part of the same piece of steel and would need to be cut off (which i wouldn't do). if it's just a matter of unscrewing a few screws i'd give it a shot. do you happen to know how those pieces attach or know where i might be able to find out? thanks again.

erl

[sloop_john_b]

Eric - the pickup will not make sound without those!

The more modern Rickenbacker pickup, the "High Gain", has a similar look but with a non-functional horseshoe-style cover; perhaps this is what you were thinking of?

[erl]

hi john-

thanks for letting me know about the different kinds of pickups. i guess i won't be pointlessly taking my B6 apart. thanks again.

erl

[jps]

Here is a patent drawing of what your pickup looks like.

[Seans]

Wow not seen that, thanks for posting Jeff. Is this an original Rickenbacher patent?.

[cjj]

Yes, that's from the June 2, 1934 Beauchamp patent application (granted Aug 10, 1937). Here are the rest of the drawings and the first text page from the patent:

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