RESURRECTED A DEAD 4001 PICKUP...

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

in that "rickenfaker" my buddy had (see basses of bad ronbo"thread) i had installed a set of rick pickups. well two weeks after i did this , he came back to me and said the rear pickup (from UF-6622 4001s) was not working. i checked the circuit and all was ok and confirmed the coil was dead. i installed another spare for him. the dead pickup was the pickup that F.C. Hall had sent me at no charge 4/27/'82 to replace the original pickup in UF-6622 stopped working two weeks after i got the bass new . after removing the protective coil wrap tape i discovered some windings were cut from a possible thumbnail as the damage was on the bass side of the pickup. i thought fine, i'll just toss it on my workbench and wind it later. that was a year ago. today, i thought...hmmmmm, maybe i'll try unwrapping the coil until i feel all the damaged windings were gone. i did about twenty unwinds and sanded off some wire laquer to test. guess what...it works and measures 7.64 k !

[chrisdski]

Mint!! I tried that on a tele single coil bass pickup. Needless to say, I had to send it to Sergio for a rewind

[antipodean]

Great story Ron! It takes a brave heart to begin that unwinding process! Have you installed it and heard how it sounds yet? That spec Higain (~7kohm) is possible my favourite Rick pickup.

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

haven't finished it yet. still have to wrap the end of the coil wire to the insulated lead , solder it , feed it thru the hole in the lower bobbin , then wrap electical tape around the coil as it was from the start. don't have a donor bass to run it in at the moment. i'm certain that with 20 wraps less, it will be identical to what it sounded like before. i was lucky on this one. maybe when i make my 4450 project, but that will be a while down the road yet. still have to finish my '70 deluxe as well. i do have a 1/2 pound spool of #40 belden magnet wire i bought in 1977 in moncton i was going to use, but i guess i'll find some other project to wind someday.

btw guys...now that i've seen how RIC wraps their pickups, here's a word of caution. be very careful when removing pickups from these basses. the actual black leads that go into the coil are about 3 " long. once the lead goes into the bobbin it is soldered to the end of the coil wire then taped to the side of the bobbin coil with electical tape...and not that much. if you pull on it too much, the insulated lead will break from the coil wire = dead coil ! if you are soldering a new shielded wire to the coil and heat it too much it may conduct up to the solder joint at the coil wire and disconnect = dead coil ! the coil wire is like fine hair so caution is the key here.

[johnallg]

Way to go Ron. Saved another great sounding pickup. But I have a suggestion. When you go to put it all together again, feed the leadout wire through the coil form hole first, then wrap the hair-like coil wire to the leadout and solder. Then tape it with the thin black electrical tape. If you try to feet the leadout wire after connecting the very fine coil wire, you will be soldering the coil wire more than a couple times.

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

tried that in a dry run...can't do it. need to calculate a certain distance back (reverse) of where the coil wire meets the insulated wire on the opposite side of where the small hole is in the form. then will have to wrap the coil wire many times around the tinned end of the insulated wire and solder it. then carefully feed it around the bobbin and thru the small hole. this will ensure it's tight against the coil before i tape it. (think carefully many times, do once !)

[BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS]

ok, john ! pickup is repaired. dot soldered the coil wire to the insulated lead, then spun it around in circles like fly tying for a fishing lure. then i soldered the tinned area the coil wire was wrapped on . i split a length of electical tape to 1/4 " and finish wrapped the coil. looks brand new. actually had not used the pickup after "titan" in '82 until i installed it in the buddy's rickenfaker which lasted two weeks...so basically brand new old stock from UF-6622 with repairs. i was lucky on this one. maybe i'll install it in my '99 ford escort wagon !

[johnallg]

maybe i'll install it in my '99 ford escort wagon !

Only if you want it to growl! Glad you saved another one.