Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

You've got to feel for Phil on this one. At $500 he probably thought it was safe, but someone else wants it bad and only E bay and the seller are laughing. I,m in the market for a couple but at this rate the lapsteels are looking a better bet.

The main reason I sold mine was their ever increasing value. I prefer the punchier sound of the humbuckers anyway(I mount them on a plexiglass chassis installed with a 4003 bridge pickup surround and cover)so other than their cool looks, I didn't have to have one THAT bad. There has been a V63 horseshoe on the Bay every week for the past month. I'd seriously wait for the next one. At least then you'll only pay double!

Congratulations, Phil!
Wow, $585! Man, you were very determined!

...yeah, wow Phil congrats man!!

...I'd like a set of horsebooties for my '73.

Must say I thought I was well safe at a $500 max bid. All got a bit silly - hope it doesn't set a new standard. Still, exchange rate is in my favour, and the bass deserved it - don't want to spoil it for a ha'porth o' tar. + you just don't see them over here. Even so - oooouuuch!

BTW, how do you check a pup's output? I'm no techie and I've seen pix of various testers. What do I have to do, and with what?

One test is to determine the resistance of the coil with an ohm meter. There are other tests but they require fancy equipment.

Here are some pics of the HS in my March 85 V63 - obviously now just about 20 years old.

Some have said that the first V63’s that came out had the original HS in them. The shoes are magnetized, beyond that I don’t know how to tell.

I bought this bass in NYC just about 20 years ago now. I forget if it was Manny’s or Sam Ash, but they had just gotten their first two in, one MG and one FG. If I knew then what I know now, I would have grabbed both of them. The financial situation is a little different these days than it was back then…!

Are the newer HSs button-top or screw top or exposed pole?

Andy: Yours looks like it has magnetic shoes. Your poles are screws. The non-magnetic horseshoes come with alnico poles.

I know I wonder if they were New Old Stock they had lying around, I noticed those screw tops also, he has said that the shoes are magnetized.

That certainly looks like the old magnetized pickup: the curve of the shoes, the thinness of the shoes compared to later V63 shoes and the pole pieces are not like the Alnico slugs in the later ones, also.

V63 in my '73 4001:



My shoes have been reshaped to look like '60s shoes.

Ken's '67 4001S pickup:



Here is my V63 pickup before the reshaping:

Hey Shaun, don't know what happened to you but I only had to pay £83 duty/tax, despite the higher item value.

Have to say, I've heard lots of bad stuff about UPS but it left Kansas Sunday, got to me in London Tuesday AM.

Phil, your lucky,i sent my bass to mark arnquest in Seattle Washington,from Baltimore ,Maryland 3day for some reason it got there overnight on the trip back it took 3days [its insured for $5000.00 the whole time ]no big deal until i go to pick it up at ups[the work was already paid for]we did not know exact shipping so he sent it back c.o.d and when iget there they tell me i owe $5098.00 they put the shipping and the insurance altogether as the c.o.d amount. to make this story shorter ,i had to send this bass back to mark he had to resend it back to me they scrood up the paper work the bass travailed 9000 miles that week.when they told me the only way to straighten this mess out was to send the bass back to mark i upped the insurance to $10,000 of course i refused to pay shipping and mark left them a deposit for shipping he was supposed to get back from them .u.p.s. is a nightmare.

whoa!