Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

just an update on tapping athe HB1s - there is little if any difference in tone. only at high vollume do I notice a little more brightness. the coil tap switches effectivly work as volume cuts - about half = go figure.
Well althought the HB1 lends itself to "hotrodding" so far Im disappointed in the results.

guess I should have just been happy with the HB1s
amazing tone as is.

anyone have any suggestions to a tone mod I can do with 2 on/on switches - currently my coiltap/volume cut switches ... or I could replace those switches with something else if need be...

Depending on what kind of switches you've got, how about using one as a phase switch (pretty easy), and the other to put the two pickups in series (probably tougher, but with enough poles anything is possible

Cheers,
David

hmm,
how would you wire a phase switch, and would it be possible to make a phase switch for each pair of single coils in each hb?
like have the one switch change phase for the bridge and likewise for neck?
or did you mean more one hb to another?

Does wiring in series get a much different sound?

JP

I meant putting one humbucker out of phase with the other one. Because of the 24-fret neck, the two pickups are close enough to each other that you should get a fairly good 'quack' out of it. You only need to do this to one pickup, using a DPDT toggle. Not sure how to explain wiring it - try http://www.guitarelectronics.com/diagrams.html for diagrams - there are other sites out there, and plugging 'guitar wiring diagrams' into Google will get you lots of them.

Wiring the two in series should get you a louder, more middle-y sound. My Danelectro Hodad has this arrangement. I also have a mutant 'thing' with two single-coils and a humbucker on it, which I wired all in series - it's killer with all three on! Brian May's home-made Red Special also has series wiring for its three single-coil Burns pickups.

Cheers,
David

Hey Josh!

CORRECTION!! (I hate when this happens)........

I met with John Hall at NAMM and we discussed the humbucking pickup issue. Apparently the pickups I have are some sort of R&D prototype, very unusual indeed but not at all what you were inquiring about. Mr. Hall assures me that the standard Rickenbacker humbucker is totally accessible without dissassembly and that it is as versatile as any other four lead humbucking setup. I haven't seen one up close, and he didn't offer me a schematic, but if I can get ahold of one it should be easy to figure out. He also mentioned that, as he recalls, the pickups I have were intended for bass guitar use (??). Strange, they are cosmetically identical to those found on the 650.

Sorry about the confusion.

Yeah, I was wondering about that...so the coils are stacked rather than side-by-side on HB1s?

Well now, he didn't say that either. Hmmm....okay, what is it after all? Here I go assuming again: I got the impression that they were side-by-side the conventional way, like PAF's, no? I guess I'll just hafta take one apart or maybe Mr. Hall can jump in here and clear it up

They are side by side, but the coils are obviously thinner than some other humbuckers, as evidenced by the small package.

The pickups I think Tracy was referring to were made for the 4002 bass and aren't humbucking at all. They're bifilar wound, that is two separate coils wound together. These coils would never be interconnected but are used separately into two inputs of different impedances.

Ahhh...I see...I always thought they were "stacked"...this is good news...