More Tips for Modifying a Rickenbacker Pickup

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 7:07 am

This one is about changing the looks, not the performance, of current high-gain pickups. Roughly, here's how you go about making these look like seventies high-gains: disconnect and remove pickup from guitar. Remove bobbin from casing (bass pickup) or from magnet (treble pickup). Taking extra care not to damage coil, remove drive screws (= the polepieces) from bobbin using a suitable pair of pliers (this may prove difficult but you'll succeed eventually). Sand off both 'ridges' on the top face of bobbin until you get an even, smooth surface. Fit '70s style polepieces to bobbin. Clean top face of bobbin and polepieces thoroughly. Spray bobbin black (two to three coats). Reinstall bobbin into casing/onto magnet. Use your new 'seventies' high-gains as you see fit.
I made this mod for the guy I sold my 1992 lefty 4003 to some months ago because he didn't like the looks of the current high-gain pickups.
Fell free to ask for further modification tips.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 1:31 pm

Here's another one. I've just finished modifying a 4003 treble pickup for someone who complained his recently acquired '93 Rick bass did not sound like the '70s 4001 basses. In short, I removed the drive screws and replaced them with staggered slugs (similar in size and diameter to F****r polepieces) after enlarging the holes therefor on the bobbin (yes, this can be done as the coil is not very close to the original polepieces). The new polepieces protrude from the bottom of the bobbin as well, so that instead of sitting on top of the original magnet they rather are flanked by two strong ceramic bar magnets. You get the picture? Then I proceeded to unwind the coil until I reached more or less an 8.0 K reading. Finally, I added a .0047 capacitor to the circuit. The result? The owner of the bass just said 'I have no words...' as he left my place a few minutes ago.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Thu Dec 05, 2002 5:15 pm

I love my 4003s5 ... I have been thinking of converting a 4003 into a 4003 5 string ... there are 2 problems with this the bridge and the bridge pickup .... I was thinking of trying a 6 string high gain pickup or taking a 4 string and removing the 4 pole pieces and replacing them with 5 pole pieces ... if you are not careful you can ruin a perfectly good ric pickup ...

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Fri Dec 06, 2002 12:04 am

Amen, Jeff.
With the current high-gain pickup design it is perfectly safe to remove the polepieces. Go for it.

aceonbass · Post by **aceonbass** » Fri Dec 06, 2002 7:37 pm

Since you already have a 4003/5, I don't know why you'd want to convert a 4003 just to make another one. But if that's what you wanna do then just call Rickenbacker and order 4003/5 pickups and tailpiece and bridge assemblies. They wont be available for long since the basses are no longer in production. I just ordered a 4003/8 tailpiece assembly and it was one of only a few left. Selling your leftover parts should recoup about half of your investment. You can even order just one tuning head to add to the four you already have.