Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hello.... I have two 480's from 1973 (January and March). Both have the original transitional hi-gain pickups and I found sound diferences between both guitars.

In my newie and profane words, the January guitar has a deep and crisp sound...It's very vibrant with a long sustain. The march guitar is not as deep and crisp and the deck pickup has less output volume....may be a little muted. When I try to correct that, using more amplifier volume, the March guitar sounds great!!!!, but not as wonderful as the oldest....

Any idea about? Has the march neck pickup guitar less voltage or impédance that the other one? How to measure that? Old cables? Bad connections? Pots?..... I will be very happy if I can learn all about Thanks in advance

fp

Sounds like one has the .0041 cap removed and one does not.

hello Erik... what is the .0041 cap?

Apologies, .0047, the 41 was a typo. On older Rickenbacker guitars it is a bass cut cap on the bridge pickup in the wiring harness, it was later phased out. Many people replaced the cap with a shunt because it makes a drastic difference in the sound of the guitar, but some left them stock either due to preference or ignorance of the caps' existence.