Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

A problem you will have is with bobbin height.
from late 68 onward, the bobbin was taller. This
creates problems with string clearence, particularly the E string.
You can screw down the A and D screws(gingerly!!!!!) but it
could be fatal if you mess with the E and G screws.
I've resorted to grinding off the tops of the screw heads(a little at a time
in order to not over heat the screw). This creates a real rippin' horseshoe!
The closest to the "Squire Tone" I ever came was with one of these....

Yep, I've removed a few horsies from laps, but I've tried to do it from
basket case lower models, such as the 100.
Wouldn't touch a B, BD, G,59, A22, A25......

but - a pre-68 would be a correct drop-in , with 4 screw heads?

i'm at a loss of where the compatibility/similarities start and end with a 60's bass horseshoe and a lap steel w/ 1.25" shoes...

thanks to anyone who can clarify.

I thought the lap horseshoe pups have 6 or 8 poles?

Bryce,

It drops in, but with 6 polepieces. As John says, the clearance between the screw polepieces and the horseshoe is the problem here, and one has to be careful on how to find that balance.

wints wrote:Bryce,

It drops in, but with 6 polepieces. As John says, the clearance between the screw polepieces and the horseshoe is the problem here, and one has to be careful on how to find that balance.

i see. so - this would require the type of modification to the bobbin that you allude to with the '64 deluxe?

tonally similar?

Bryce,

My one fits just right. I had to raise the shoes slightly, and offset that against the action. Like any 60's HS bass, if you play too hard, the strings can hit the polepieces, or the shoes themselves.

Bryce, you could always just remove the shoes and put them on the existing pickup coil, after removing the under-coil magnet. If it is a high gain with the nail pole pieces, you could remove them and put in slugs or set screws to gain clearance.

The lap steel bobbins are totally different from any
used in the basses.They are usually black plastic(shiney like bakelite) with rounded
ends and are very tall. They have metal headless slugs for
the pole pieces. A thick string such as an E would not clear at all.
The basses had a black bobbin with round ends in the 50's.
A whitish resin bobbin with squared ends in the early 60's. An injection
molded bobbin with squared ends and a raised lip around the top from 64
to maybe 67. A snot colored resin bobbin with squared ends in 68.
The snot bobbins were varying in height; the latest ones had clearence issues....

There might be some others, but this is just from what I've seen over the last 30 years
of collecting these......I certainly have not seen everything.....

John...

As both myself and Vincent Gallo found out this year, when in the space of two days he bought a 67LS and I bought a 64, the bobbin is exactly the same as the one used in the basses from this period, with the softer black plastic, with the upper lip.


They just have more polepieces.

Like I said, I have yet to see it all.
That type of bobbin is the injection molded type but
until today, I had not seen it used on a lap.
Good score!
I had only seen the big black bobbin in all the laps
I've ever had....

Well, here is one from a mid 60's 100...

how does one date a LS?

The usual way Bryce, by the jackplate. They follow the usual Ric system in the 60's.

chefothefuture wrote:Well, here is one from a mid 60's 100...

That looks like the economy version John!

wints wrote:The usual way Bryce, by the jackplate. They follow the usual Ric system in the 60's.

just figured that out!

at first, i was looking at an earlier model 120(?) w/ no jackplate...

this makes things easier.