Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Since I'm in the market for a 4001v63 I browsed the internet looking for info about it.
Big was my surprise when I stumbled upon an old thread of this forum which is about removing the horseshoes on the bridge pickup.
So my question is: Are the reissue horseshoes FAKE magnets and if so : why? Are they even magnets at all?
And were the originals back in '63 also fake?

The current or reissue horseshoes are not magnetic. They are some early v63's that have reportedly come with magnetic shoes. I believe the pickups on those are different as well.

In the v63's I had, the shoes while non-magnetic, had a pickup that was very powerful. The originals from the 60's had magnetic shoes and a lower output pickup.

This is the HS that came with my 85 V63

a 60s horseshoe ...

Yes, and if i'm correct the shoes are magnetic. I see screw top pole pieces which would be different that the metal slugs on the later reissue jobs

I was commenting on Andy's pickup, but Jeff, that's the one from your 68, no? It looks like an older version of Andy's pickup.

I just put one together with a high gain and some old shoes...

Is there a reason for this?
I must say it's a bit of a turn-off for me.

How do they compare sonically?

I like that Marc. What does it sound like and are the shoes magnetised?

Those shoes are magnetised but are weak.

my 68 horseshoe was weak as well ... steel does not make a strong magnet ...

As I understand it, the 60's horseshoes are typically found or rated at approx. 100 gauss (pretty weak) at mid-gap but what a lovely tone!

The V63 bridge pickup has horseshoes that are non-magnetic, but they sound good anyway. The old ones used magnetic horseshoes, and sounded good too, but nowadays the horseshoes are very weak, and so the pickups are usually very weak too compared to what they were originally. Jason Lollar makes a reproduction of the old ones using horseshoes that are magnetized, but they are pretty expensive. I've heard they sound very good, but haven't tried one yet. Some of the people here on the forum have tried them so maybe they can post their impressions.

Greg, I bought a '68 4001 about a year ago and it had one of Lollar's first horseshoes in it. I'm really impressed as it indeed has that era Ric tone to it. I understand a lot of time and work went into the development of prototype production pickups to insure they were as close as possible to originals. I understand they went through like 10 different prototypes before they went into production! IMO they got it right!

Did Lollar have to get permission from RIC to make reproduction Horseys? I know it's a dumb question, since I believe they had to. Just curious.

I bought a set of genuine horseshoes for my 67 4001S project the other week. They are still charged and will form a pick up like Jeff's with a late 60's green hi gain pick up.

I'll compare them to my 64 bass, which is one of the very few with the original 'shoes still in working order

and, to my 68 which is one of the first which just has the green transistional hi gain pick up.