Hofner 'staple' pickups for neck

[meursault42]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here...just picked up my first Ric: a midnight blue 4003. All of this talk of modding out your instruments is very interesting to me. I'm not sure if I'm ready to take that plunge yet, but thought I'd throw my hat in the ring with a question.

Anyone ever tried the Hofner pickups in the neck position? Just curious.

Cheers,
Jacob

[iiipopes]

The Hofner staple humbucker is a good pickup. But it has a completely different geometry and mounting system. I don't think it will fit without at least significant modification to the pickguard.

If you want a humbucker in the neck position, the two choices reasonably available, outside of the pickups that we collectively don't believe have the RIC "vibe," or are custom-wound, are the RIC HB-1, or the new Barden is reasonably close.

Here is a link that talks about the mounting method and dimensions:
http://www.voxshowroom.com/northcoast/h ... er_pu.html

[meursault42]

Thanks Scott!

About the Bardens...can you drop those in without any modifications to the other electronics?

[iiipopes]

Thanks Scott!

About the Bardens...can you drop those in without any modifications to the other electronics?

Supposedly, you remove your existing covers from the guts and put them on the Bardens - unless you can find covers otherwise:
http://jbepickups.com/r-4000-2/

[aceonbass]

About the Bardens...can you drop those in without any modifications to the other electronics?

While the Barden and HB1 pickups are direct drop in parts, the electronics in a 4003 aren't even a good match for the original single coil pickups, let alone humbuckers. Depending on when your bass was made, the pots could be anywhere from 180K-500K for tone, and 180K-330K for volume. RIC humbuckers (as well as humbuckers in general) sound better with 500K pots. The stock tone caps are .047uF, while humbuckers sound better with something closer to .022uF.

[meursault42]

I believe mine was made in 2014. From what I've read that probably means that it has 330k volume pots? Why does Ric use these if they aren't a good match?

[aceonbass]

Why does Ric use these if they aren't a good match?

I've no idea really. It seems most people don't really care what's actually in their bass or guitar because in truth, you can just fix the mismatched electronics in the tone section of your amp. The problem there is that if you have your rig optimized for a single coil pickup bass (like a 4003), then plug one with humbuckers into it (like a 4004), the 4004 will sound comparatively muddy, which has been a common criticism of 4004 basses, and people with 650 guitars looking for a brighter sound. On the other hand, many players will say there is no difference between the sound of one pot and another, or that measuring and matching the components that go into a guitars wiring isn't important because they can't hear the difference.

[Chris P]

A Höfner toaster would look cool, but that's a single coil. The Staple is a humbucker.

[iiipopes]

Why does Ric use these if they aren't a good match?

I think on older instruments 250 kohm pots were used for volume and 500 kohm pots for tone. I think the reasoning was that instead of sourcing different pots, a 330 kohm pot could serve everything.

I've heard and worked on newer instruments that had the now standard complement of 330 kohm pots. They all sounded fine to me. but, then again, on my other non-Rick instruments, I bridge a 1-megohm resistor from the wiper to ground to get a 500 kohm audio taper pot to emulate a 330 kohm hybrid taper pot.