Toasters to replace Hi-Gains - HOW?

[bill_yantz]

I just bought a MapleGlo 330 and it will arrive this Friday. It has Hi-gains. What is the procedure and are can Toasters be installed without invasive modification?

Thanks. When I get it, I will post pics, it's nice.

Thanks for the help.

[dale_fortune]

Very simple Bill. Unsolder the wires and resolder the new ones in the exact same spot.

[tony_carey]

Hi gains are flat backed, whilst toasters have protruding poles. Surely Dale, Bill would need to route the body to accomodate the poles.
I understand that there is a flat backed toaster available.

Before you do this Bill...have you heard a toaster equipped 330? I am assuming that your 330 is a modern 24 fret gtr. Toasters were designed to go with the wider pick up spacing of the 21 fret neck. The 24 fret neck has a closer p/up spacing & to my ears, this closer spacing does not suit toasters quite the same....they become a little more 'scratchy'. All the 60's gtrs had the wider spacing & if you are trying to recreate this sound, then I think you will be dissapointed. Just a thought.

[adam_swapp]

Tony,

Hi gains aren't flat-backed. They have a rectangular magnet that's made of impregnated rubber(?). They also need a routed cavity. RIC used to make a surface mount toaster, but I wasn't aware that they had done so (outside of some reissues) in many years. They may be like the reissue roller bridges in that they're only available when attached to a whole guitar.

AFAIK, all RIC pickups are interchangeable, with the caveat that a humbucker won't fit an older guitar. I don't know when the cavities were widened (with the introduction of the first hi-gains?), but a 60's cavity is 1/2" wide. The humbucker needs a 9/16" cavity

[tony_carey]

Thanks for that Adam. I was mistaken on the flat back thing & thanks for putting me right. I was under the impression that the poles on the vintage p/ups were longer than the space allowed for hi-gains.
However, I stand by the pick up spacing part of my post.

[fiveightandten]

I'm not sure about the spacing, but the toaster dropped right into the neck of my '99 360/6.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-2/957037/rick1.jpg

[bill_yantz]

Thanks for the pic. Nice setup.
Are you going to keep the highgain in the bridge? What do you like about the combination.

[scottpro1969]

I realize this is in the guitar section but, I am in the process of replacing a hi-gain with a toaster in a 4003 and there is no additional routing needed (at least on a bass) for this process. Indeed, the toaster's polepieces protrude more than the flat hi-gain, but it fits in the cavity just fine. I would assume (probably naively) that the rout on a 330 would accomodate the toaster just as well.

[fiveightandten]

Bill,

Actually...this just came up in another thread. So i'm just going to take the lazy way out and cut and paste my reply from that.

I've had the pickups like that for a while. And I intend to keep it that way for as long as I have the guitar.

My reasoning is that the neck position is so bass heavy, and the bridge position tends to be very bright with a toaster in there. To my ears, it really evens things out to have a nice clear pickup with less bass and more bite (the toaster) in the neck position, and a fatter sounding pickup with a smoother sound (high gain) in the bridge position.

The neck position has nice clarity with the toaster there, and I can switch to the bridge without ripping peoples' ears off. In the middle, it chimes like a Rick should. The volume balance between the 2 is actually fine.

I suppose it does look a little silly. But i've had it like that for a while, and i'm pretty used to it.

-Nick