Help needed on HB1 pickup

axel · Post by **axel** » Thu Jun 21, 2001 3:45 am

While cabling the two HB1's on my refinished 360, the luthier stumbled on some last-minute thing from hell : one of the coils isn't functioning ! (and it probably never has since I had never used this particular pickup before but the original HiGain).
Is there a way to get the cover (the black and grainy plastic) off to see if there's a problem on the small circuit board -or is it sealed for life with some kind of venusian glue ? And if so, is there a way to do so without knocking the other coil to oblivion ?
ah hope there is
can anybody help ?
axel

markthemd · Post by **markthemd** » Thu Jun 21, 2001 1:07 pm

This is something to ask Rickenbacker .

They may be able to give you some tips on how to take it apart.I have never seen one across my bench.

The cover is most likely ABS plastic .I would not try cooking it to remove it .I don't know if the cover is epoxied on or not .

I may be just double faced taped!
If that is true ,then NAPTHA is the trick ,but check with the Rick Guys.

axel · Post by **axel** » Fri Jun 22, 2001 9:26 am

Well - statement from ric service is :
"The answer is no, you cannot remove the cover--it is sealed. Unfortunately, when a humbucker pickup goes bad it needs to be replaced."
too bad, aint it?

markthemd · Post by **markthemd** » Fri Jun 22, 2001 4:31 pm

Did you ask if the coils are potted in epoxy?

If they are not they there could be a solution.

Maybe if John Hall is lurking ,he could answer this one.

axel · Post by **axel** » Fri Jun 22, 2001 8:50 pm

I think they are :
"Each unit is completely potted in an epoxy material, and also, during manufacture each wire is bonded to the wire lying next to it." (John Hall, somewhere else in the forum).

Guess that's about it. The faulty pickup is wired as a neck single coil because I need the guitar (even though I'm more on the 620 side nowadays.)

- but I would really like to know if ah have to throw it away, turn it into an cubist avant-garde sculpture or if it can be fixed one way or another (blondie, was it?, on 'parallel lines'?)
thanks

rkbsound · Post by **rkbsound** » Sat Jun 23, 2001 4:15 am

You have to throw the whole guitar away. Fortunately, I am an authorized Rickenbacker Guitar Disposer. Send it to me ASAP and I will take care of it!

axel · Post by **axel** » Sat Jun 23, 2001 7:06 am

too bad, I'm one too - have any natural 620-12 I could dispose of ?