Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Barry,
Yes that's a 1976 Walnut.

the horseshoe on my 68 had a weak magnet and was wound to about 6k ohms ...

that bass was really incredible with 2 modern high gain pickups in it ... the construction and 500k ohm tone pots gave it a real treble bite ...

I have 2 1982 high gain guitar pickups ....same thing ?

No, they're probably a tad hotter than the late '80s ones. At least that's my experience with late '80s high-gains.

Good Golly Man! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the horseshoe in my 4001c64! I guess it is different strokes, but I would put one on all three of my Ricks if I could! The only drawback is the cumbersome nature of the thing! It sounds so great, that I'll learn to play around it! I actually took the bridge hi-gain out of my 82 -4001 and put in a Dimarzio Jazz PU I disliked the Hi-gain so much. I saved it though, and am considering re-installing it!

"Why is the tone so different in the V63 ?"

Barry, coil windings and pole/magnet differences. Your '77 high gain had a ceramic magnet under the coil and metal button head pole pieces, with a coil winding around 8.5-9k. The RI horseshoes have 4 alnico5 magnet rods as poles/magnets, and are wound to about 12k.

I had a '77 4001 that was a really nice bass. It was a real warhorse that could handle anything I threw at it. The hi-gains in it were very good sounding pick-ups. I hate I sold it back in '84, but I really needed the money at the time.

I think I'll install the guitar pickups and see what it sounds like . Ow !!! Who just hit me upside the head ?

Rickenbacker Guitar and bass pickups are identical ... except for the high gains and the only difference there is the number of pole pieces ... the toaster is a 6 pole guitar pickup ... the horseshoe was originally developed for guitar and the hb1 on bass and guitar are the same pickup ...

Thanks Jeff . So.....the toaster on my V63 is the same as the guitar high gains I have without the poles sticking up on top ? The toaster on the V63 sure sounds different than the toasters on my 4004 but I think that could be wood and strings .

Barry, a toaster is a toaster is a toaster - the only differences are pre-2000, when they were wound a lot hotter. Since 2000, they've been wound to 7.4k ohms. You can tell one from the other by the "dimples" on the top of the pickups - if it has them, they're post-2000.

Higains and toasters are different animals alltogether.

Very good . Thanks John .

"Higains and toasters are different animals alltogether."

Which gets complicated when you take into account the different and overlapping coil windings of the two types over the years. The only consistent difference being the high gain's bar ceramic magnet under the coil with the button-headed (and now allen-headed) pole pieces, and the toaster's 6 rod alnico5 magnet pole pieces.

You're right John - early reissue toasters were essentially repackaged Higain pickups. I was under the assumption that as time went on, they gradually got lower in output until finally the new scatterwound 7.4k's were settled on right around the time of the Carl Wilson LE 360.

I am not aware of the gradual lowering, but of a decision to go back to the 60's windings of 7.4k as the toaster standard. But then I'm not an authority on the minutia of Rick pups either!