pulling the nails on a hi-gain?

[dgwguitars]

I have done several conversions by removing the magnet, pressing out the "nails", cutting off the heads and re-inserting the remaining rods. It's a pretty straight-forward operation, but I caution anyone who does it to be very careful in removing the magnet with a razor blade - they have a tendency to separate suddenly and in addition to the hazard to your hands, you may find yourself repairing either the wire at the center of the magnet or from the coil. If you've not done one before, it's easy to kill a working pickup, so I'd recommend turning the process over to someone who has done it before.

[johnallg]

I have done several conversions by removing the magnet, pressing out the "nails", cutting off the heads and re-inserting the remaining rods. It's a pretty straight-forward operation, but I caution anyone who does it to be very careful in removing the magnet with a razor blade - they have a tendency to separate suddenly and in addition to the hazard to your hands, you may find yourself repairing either the wire at the center of the magnet or from the coil. If you've not done one before, it's easy to kill a working pickup, so I'd recommend turning the process over to someone who has done it before.

Excellent advice Larry. The older higain magnets seem to be glued on better then the newer ones. So even with those you need to be careful because if you damage the inside wire (the one soldered to the metal blob in the center of the bottom), you "may" be lucky enough to repair it, but will most likely need a rewind. Cutting the outer wire will necessitate taking the tape off the coil, and replacing the lead out wire, soldering to the #44 wire that is finer than human hair.

[kiramdear]

Right, I dismantled a couple of ****** squier pickups just to have a look inside, and maybe modify the bobbins. I even had the crazy notion of re-using the wire for a minute. It's about as strong as hair, and I'll bet it's not even as fine as .44. Is there a coating on the coil wire that you need to scrape away? Is it possible to handle this stuff without a costly machine?

[ken_j]

Kira here is a method I used. The end result was a high gain with some addtional growl disguised as a toaster. Link: viewtopic.php?f=33&t=262576 Since the cross post in that thread no longer works here is the link for that: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=262580

[kiramdear]

Thanks, Ken. That's interesting, much the same as what Mr. Hall suggested, white iron or cold-rolled in your case have good magnetic property and put your hi-gain on steroids, compared with lower iron content in modern fastener material used for the present pins or even set screws. I like what you said about getting a good fit. Could one use wax or epoxy to acheive a gapless field?

I wouldn't do the mod just so it could wear a toaster cover. I'm more interested in the affect of various materials on the tone. Don't toasters and hi-gains use different kinds of magnets, or is it just the use of magnets for pole pieces that gives the toaster its voice? If I imagine it correctly, the magnet pole pieces connect to another magnet as usual below the coil? Or do they replace it?

[kiramdear]

Oh yeah, one more thing. I picked up some rare earth magnets at Radio Shack, 1/4" dia. dots 1/8" thick. Holy moley, these little things are powerful! I'm imagining a stack of them in each pole socket. I'd probably have to raise my action or they'd lower sustain.

[ken_j]

... Don't toasters and hi-gains use different kinds of magnets, or is it just the use of magnets for pole pieces that gives the toaster its voice? If I imagine it correctly, the magnet pole pieces connect to another magnet as usual below the coil? Or do they replace it?

Yes a high gain has a ceramic magnet that is glued to the bottom of the pickup. The pole pieces contact the magnet. A toaster has 6 individual Alnico magnets/pole pieces. I would think that the rare earth magnets may be too strong. The stonger the magnet the more likely it will dampen the string movement and reduce sustain.

Note: the pickup wires are very thin. If you are going to tackle this you need to limit the movement of the outer end of the winding.

[johnallg]

Ken, interesting you didn't hit copper when drilling the wider spaced bridge bobbins to 1/4". I am surprised, but will definitely remember that.

[ken_j]

Ken, interesting you didn't hit copper when drilling the wider spaced bridge bobbins to 1/4". I am surprised, but will definitely remember that.

No I didn't hit copper but I did try it on a spare pickup prior to drilling the ones I intended to use. I only did the 1/4" poles so that I would have no dead spots when string bending. I have a few more pickups that I intend to convert in the near future. This time I am going to try some flat head screws ground to length. There will be less drilling this way but there will still be a wide magnetic field. I milled a piece of steel to the proper thickness, tapped and countersunk holes in it. This way I can load the screws in the steel then grind them to length. It is a very simple jig.

[aceonbass]

I "unbuttoned a couple of high gains from a 2005 RIC 620 and installed them in place of the Ricky humbuckers in my 4004CiiTR. From what I know, this can be done on any 1991 to present high gain. First I removed the covers and then screwed the pickup back together so it wouldn't move around on me. Then I grabbed the center four poles with a pair of vice grips and rotated them counter-clockwise and pulled them out. The outer poles were more difficult to remove since they sit right on the plastic bobbin surface. I used a Dremmel with a cut-off wheel to flatted out two opposing sides so I could grab those poles with the vice grips to remove. Heat that could melt the plastic builds up pretty fast, so I did this work in short bursts. Once the poles were removed, I cut off the heads and then slotted them for a small flathead screwdriver and screwed them back into the pickup. I topped them off with a pair of new toaster covers. The reasons I did this were 1: When I play hard with my fingers, the strings tended to hit the poles...and 2: I wanted a single coil RIC pickup that looked like a toaster, but was more powerful like a high gain. Toasters are about 7.5 ohms and high gains are about 12 ohms. The first time I plugged the bass in after the new pickups were installed, I was playing Free Will by RUSH when my wife yelled "Now THAT'S the sound!" from the next room.