Rick Bridge Neck pickups question

trancedental · Post by **trancedental** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 6:39 am

Are the standard high gain pickups on Rickenbackers 330 / 360 the same? Or is there a difference between neck & bridge?

I have a pair taken from a 330 & can't tell them apart is there any way of telling they look the same to me!

Can I check them a multimeter how do I do it?

brian · Post by **brian** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 7:18 am

This question is of interest to me as well. In my situation I have a new HB pickup to replace one which doesn't work, but wonder if I have a bridge instead of a neck pickup as the connecting wires are not long enough. How do you tell the difference between neck and bridge pickups or is there any ? (In my case the guitar is 10 years old and the model is not in production anymore, so maybe I have to modify the newer pickup leads to make them longer).

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:40 am

I can understand the confusion. On Mike Parks' site there is only one part number for the high-gain pickup (http://www.the-music-connection.com/ricpart.htm#pickups):

00020 Standard Ric single coil bridge/middle/neck chrome

but if one follows MP's link to the pdf file at the RIC site (http://www.rickenbacker.com/pdfs/gpickups.pdf)
there are separate part numbers for bass and treble pickups.

jwr2 · Post by **jwr2** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:02 am

the difference in the Ric neck and bridge high gain pickups is the spacing of the pole pieces ... as far as I know there is no other difference ... now for the bass the bridge pickup has a bigger magnet which makes it hotter and louder ... and the bass neck pickup is the same as the guitar high gains except it has 4 pole pieces ...

admin · Post by **admin** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 9:03 am

Brian: Increase the length of the leads.
John: There is no planned difference in the KOhm ratings of the modern high gain pickups that I have heard of.
Gary: Point taken.

tony_carey · Post by **tony_carey** » Tue Oct 18, 2005 1:29 pm

Jeff is right. The only difference is the spacing of the pole pieces. If you look at them side by side, it is easy to tell which is which.

trancedental · Post by **trancedental** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 11:24 am

Right, the one with the longer lead 11" has the pole pieces closer together, outside one is 3/16ths from the edge I assume this is the neck pickup.

The other one has a 9" lead with the pole pieces 1/16th from the edge I take it this is the bridge pickup?

Just checked my 88' 330 Ruby 6 string that's the same as above.

BTW the pickup pictures on the Rick site above show the same pickup for both bridge & neck!

wim · Post by **wim** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:44 am

Me think there no difference is

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:13 am

Wow, John, you have an eighty-eight foot Rickenbacker?

Where the heck do you buy strings for that thing?

When a string breaks, has it ever decapitated anyone nearby?

trancedental · Post by **trancedental** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:04 am

Sorry that should be inches not feet! We are just getting used to metric over here......taught imperial at school...LOL!

wim · Post by **wim** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:09 am

I think Paul was teasing you over your natation of 1988

trancedental · Post by **trancedental** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 1:40 pm

Doh! ....I'm starting to lose the plot!

ozover50 · Post by **ozover50** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:20 pm

Don't worry too much about that, John. It's a long, slow process - I'm nearly finished with it!!