Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Something else your son. He'll be a good player for sure.

He's a handful. Funny thing is that he's actually pretty shy...unless he has a guitar in his hand. He gets in trouble at daycare because he climbs up on the tables and tells all the kids to check out his guitar solo and starts wailing on his "air guitar."

Funny thing indeed, my son does quite alike but with drums, he also plays a plastic guitar at home and uses the guitar stand as a mike and starts singing beatle tunes. What a generation to come

My kid loves Los Lonely Boys, Hendrix (even though he can't quite say Jimi...He calls him Baby Hendrix), and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Hola Sergio. Sorry I took some time to reply. Yes, oversize (= large diameter) polepieces do make a (treble) pickup more sensitive, hence hotter. I just built a prototype using such polepieces (courtesy John Allgaier) and a legit 4001/4003 treble pickup magnet. DC resistance is 8.0 K, and output is er... too hot to handle. Great for those who, like me, keep the much-maligned capacitor on their Rick basses - no more low output, just great Rick tone.

Thank you Sergio, I'm one of those who keep the capacitor on my bass but want it hotter. Great Rick tone, that's what I like.

John, how do I manage to get those biiiiger polepieces? do they have them at music connection?
Thank you

The answer is "No". But I can send you some. May I be so curious as to ask whether you're planning to modify an existing Rick pickup, or even building your own?

Sergio, you wound that bridge pickup to 8k? What wire did you use? I always thought the bridge pickups in the 4003 were more like 12k-14k with 44 gauge, and the older 4001 pickups were at least 9k with 44 gauge? Are the bigger polepieces making THAT much of a difference in the output that you wound it low on purpose?

On a different note, I have an Epiphone Dot that I've been messing with, trying to dial in the tone on. THe stock pickups were horrible, and I had some old Duncans laying around so I tried those. The neck pickup was a neck Duncan Alnico 2 Pro, and that was fine out of the box in the neck, aside from it sounding stiff due to too much wax potting. In the bridge, I put a Duncan Pearly Gates bridge pickup. It uses Alnico 2 magnets and is too bright. I put in a fully charged Alnico 3 magnet and it TOTALLY made the pickup sound better for blues based stuff. It is more nasty now with a bit of the top rolled off, but still too stiff due to all the potting wax. I'll still have Dave at Sdpickups make me some new ones, but now I have a better idea of what I want him to do. Its pretty cool to mess around with these pickups and get different sounds so easily.

Sergio A - looks like Sergio S has you covered. To take a regular treble coil and drill out the holes for the oversized polepieces, you damage the coil winding - don't ask me how I know .

There is nothing more than electrical tape protecting the windings. That is how you know!

Well Sergio, sorry about this late answer (I've had very busy days). Answering to your question, I was just wondering why the bridge PU sounds so thin and was looking for an option without losing Rick's great sound (I mean, no decap). I know too little about electronics or circuits and I'm afraid of messing things up, so maybe I should try what John told me about the height of the pickups. Anyway, how difficult is to modify a pickup? Thank you very much.

Okay. It's 10:00 a.m. local time. Today my schedule is insanely busy, but at 01:00 a.m. I'll be back to answer all your questions, guys. Talk to you then.

I'm back at last.
Greg: yes, I wound my bridge pu to 8.0 K using AWG 44 magnet wire. I don't care for the current pickup specs really - too much wire. And yes, bigger (meaning large diameter) polepieces make for a much more sensitive, hence hotter pickup.
John: well, yes, anyone certainly oughta know better than modding a pickup in the fashion you describe haha!
Sergio: what you need is a very hot bridge pickup, something the original one clearly is not. That's how I've modded all my Rick basses: keep the original neck pickup on the bass, replace the bridge one with a "custom-made", hotter one, and leave the cap alone, of course, otherwise your Rick will not sound like a Rick...

Thanks Sergio! Thats helpful to shaping my own sound.

Late but at last here. Crazy days… crazy days
Thank you again Sergio, I'm quite busy right now but I think I will replace the bridge PU asap. So as you can imagine, I'll need more hints... Thanx again