Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Also there is Tom Brantley in North Carolina. He does a wonderful job re-winding pups. Also Classic Amplification if you wanted to get a 60's spec pup.

Sepp

The high gain pickup bar magnet is brittle, being a formed component. It will probably break in two, like one of mine did when I sent it off to be rewound, if you try to remove it from the bottom. But if it is a "clean" break (meaning the two pieces do just come apart, and don't crumble, even if the edges are jagged) you can put the pieces back together.

{sigh}

So I unsoldered the neck pickup and removed it from the bass. Testing the resistance shows an open circuit. Which makes me wonder how I was getting any sound out of it at all.

Testing the bridge pickup shows 7.7k, and both volume pots show variable resistance as expected.

I show continuity over the length of the neck pickup lead, so the issue is somewhere inside the pickup. I'm not sure if I should bother looking inside the pickup, figuring it's unlikely I'll find anything that I'd be able to repair under the tape wrapped about the bobbin. Let me know if it's worth looking under there, else I'm going to assume a rewind is in order.

But I'm still gobsmacked that I was getting any sound at all out of it. Is it possible for the bridge pickup to have leaked signal?

{grumble grumble}

farace wrote:Is it possible for the bridge pickup to have leaked signal?

There is almost certainly some leaked signal. On my '86 4003 I can hear the bridge pickup through the neck pickup setting and vice-versa when using the stereo output, and to my knowledge the pickguard has never been removed, let alone any wiring modifications.

farace wrote:So I unsoldered the neck pickup and removed it from the bass. Testing the resistance shows an open circuit. Which makes me wonder how I was getting any sound out of it at all.

Inductance. You have a coil. You have a magnet. You have a moving string. It will put out something, just not a full signal from conductance if the coil wire were intact.

. . . And the pickup is off to Tom Brantley for rewinding. I guess in the meantime, I have a 4000 instead of a 4003.

Shame the pickup wasn't working, I did he magnet truck and it made the neck pickup my fave.

The repaired neck pickup is back from Tom Brantley. The bass is very happy now, and so am I.

Beautiful bass!

Ah, the black & white "pinstripe" binding. Niiiice!

Yes, I love the aesthetics of this bass. I traded my '72 Fender Telecaster Bass even for it. It didn't give me much pause, because I had hardly used it in the last fifteen years. It was one of those satisfying trades where I suspect each party thinks they got the best end of the deal.

Glad it worked out. Great looking bass. Then again, I'm partial to my 4002 WalnutGlo.