Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi all!
Maybe this was discussed before, anyway I couldn't find a solution.
Is there a fix for having at least 10 dB less output from the toaster than from the horseshoe?And with the pu selector in the middle position (and everything wide open) the overall output is less than the horseshoe alone? Is there a way to make the toaster equally hot as the horseshoe?

Zero reply is a slight disappoinment.
Did I miss out nettiquette or touch something special? Did I adress involved persons not properly? I'm new to this so please don't let me hang like this. Mr. Arnquist or somebody else who might care, any reply would be appreciated.

It probably means that no one knows the answer. Anybody?

Lower the horseshoe a bit, or turn the volume on it back a little until you find the sweet spot (fitting a treble bleed capacitor can help with achieving this sweet spot apon volume roll back as well)

I have been REALLY busy of late ... for one , a restoration on a 12 string headstock that is a really boogered job .Some one else tried to fix it and had NO business doing what they did .That and about 25 other guitars .... lots to do .

So to answer this ........

You have two different types of magnets , and two ways for the pickups to "SEE" the strings .

Do you have long polepiece magnets ? do they hang out of the bobbin on the underside?
or are they short magnets ? - flush with the bobbin on the underside ?
You will need to remove the guard ,of course , to check this .

While you are there .... how many rubber grommets are being used as spacers on the neck pickup mounting screws ?

Next question ... as I am answering this via a forward from Peter Mac. , ....
Is this a reissue or an old bass ? and what era ?


I will assume it to be pre 1973 .

Now what to do about ALL of the possibilities .

Press all of your strings down at the last fret on the neck ..... are the tops of the neck pickup , and the polepieces of the bridge pickup the same distance from the bottom side of the strings ? .... if not they HA !!! we have an easy answer .


If they are adjusted properly , then there may be a problem with your pickup .A Volt/Ohm meter is needed to test the resistance of both coils .

After this test , then the strength of the magnets can be assessed .

More often than not .... pickup problems are either , coil problems or height adjustment problems .

And Neck pickup toaster troubles are unbelievably rare when the magnets are a problem .

Give me some more info and I will assess that info .

Thank you Mark for investing your time on my problem!
So to the details: We're talking about a '00 4001v63 MG, SN 0008883. The toaster has those long polepieces hanging out from the underside of the bobbin. No more rubber grommets, since I removed them plus the four screws on the corners. I replaced them with adhesive tape as described in another post here to achieve maximum height. That made an improvment if only a slight one. When before the difference between toaster and horseshoe was around 15dB we are down to say 10dB now.
When pressing down all strings on the last fret the distance between strings and toaster surface is 2-3 mm varying due to fretboard radius. To the polepieces of the horseshoe it is a quite even 2mm, though measured only by eyeguess.
I really don't think that it is an adjustment problem. I have been playing bass for 25 years now and though far from beeing an expert I do all neck, string height, intonation and pickup adjustments on my basses myself (and usually successfully).
Anyway I'll get me an ohmmeter and see what that will read.
Thanks again Mark
and best regards
Walter

So here is what I would start with ;

Again get a screw driver (#2 Phillips)and back off the horseshoe pickup .
As the neck pickup is a SET pickup and you have it up as far as it will go , that is the easiest alternative to you .
Here is where you might run into trouble .....the strings may be too close to the horseshoes!!!!

If that is the case ............here is what you do ;

Again , get a screw driver (the same #2 phillips) and take the horseshoe apart .

Remove the horseshoes .You will need a spacer to replace the thickness of those 'U' shaped pieces .

This is the secind choice.

3- install the .0047mfd cap .Remove the wire that runs from the bridge pickup volume to the selector switch , replace it with the capacitor .
This will give you the 'vintage' crisp tone / Chris Squire tone of "Fragile".

4-This is the tricky one ... unwind the bridge pickup .....you WILL need a volt/ohm meter for this , also a soldering iron , patients , guts , a strong will and a great mind set .
If the coil is greater than 8K let me know ... if it is less than 8K now you have a real dilema .

These are your choices .

Should you decide to go forward with any of them ...the secretary will disavow any knowledge what so ever of our presents .
Sorry ... that was an ILM joke ...Jim Phelps where are you ?


Really ... this is fixed by any one of these .Hopefully the screwdriver does it .

Now if you want a middle selection to give you a nice smooth tone , and a hum canceling mode , rewinding either coil reverse wound is the answer to that .
This gives a midrange bum (just slightly ) and gives a nice transition through the switch selections .


TIP: Never ask me WHY does Rickenbacker NOT do something .... I have no idea why.

Most of my suggestions are based on bench time solutions (sort of research and Developement /R&D)
and have solve many instrument problems .Not just Rickenbackers .
They may be "Misinformation" to the factory , yet for another company ...they are an "official" answer.

There is more than one way to fix a problem .

huh, quite a load.....

1- you were guessing right - I can't back off the horseshoe enough.

2- I'm not ready to have the horseshoe removed. I like the looks, I like it as an armrest, I like it cause it's truely rick.

3- that's the most intrigueing to me. I understand that the cap will add treble while simultaneously reducing volume so we might have a chance to achieve even outputs from both pu's.

4- ahem. Okay I got the instruction to do this from the faq-section, but........
I got me nice little multimeter this afternoon and here come the bad news:
toaster coil - 6,3kOhms
horseshoe coil - 10,9kOhms
Seems that unwinding is out of competition if I understand this right.

To completely unwind and rewind reverse one of them coils wouldn't solve the volume issue either, right?

So it's gonna be that cap thing I'm going for. Any cap that reads .0047 would do? Hopefully there is no difference between european and american specifications!

If you unwound the horshoe to about 8.5K that would give you a good balance .Having the exact same resistance is not what you want .

First - the cap

second , unwind the horseshoe.

USA Euro specs should be identical ,they are for amps .

I installed the cap this morning and that did the trick for me. Horsehsoe out is down and its crispiness is nearly frightening. I'm gonna gig with it tomorrow and then I'll know more.

Thanks again!