Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Has anyone ever unwound the highgains? What were highgains wound to in the late 60s/early 70s?

Cole

Seems to me to be an oxymoronic pursuit.

You could call that 'new style toasters'

Or "Lo Gains"...

Seems like I vaguely remember some people around the forum expressing a preference for the lower gain Hi-Gains of the 70s and early 80s...?

Anybody know what K Ohm those tend to register at? If someone were so inclined, could the gain on modern Hi-Gains be lowered?

I love the high-gains of the late '70s and early '80s. Unbelievably, I have never measured one. They are the best Rickenbacker pickups of all.

My old '73 4001 had a neck hi gain with a DC resistance of about 7.5k. The bridge was blown when I got it and I had TV Jones rewind it. He nailed the sound and volume, and it was wound to 8.5k. I'm sure they are all over the map though. I like the sound of them too.

The hi-gain in my 68 is the weakest pick up in all of my basses. Sounds very nasally and it's not the cap factor either.

I have not measured it, but I'd say it's around 6K at the most. It is NOT a good pick up.

Hmm... I remember this '1968 high-gain'. I also remember that it looked like any 'final version' high-gain pickup, very unlikely to exist in 1968 if you ask me, but I won't go into that again.
I just would like to say that the cause for its 'nasal' tone lies probably in a malfunction rather than poor design. Just my opinion. A high-gain pickup wound to 6.0 K and with no treble-pass capacitor in line therewith should have excellent output.

Wonder why RIC switched over to the higains? Seems like if something ain't broke don't fix it. Was the toaster tops "broke?" Mind you I don't want to start a higain bashing,just curious.

Cole

The lowest high gain that I have measured has been 5.2 KOhms and it was from 1974.

Ah, Sergio, what does it take for you to believe...

And, therefore, what is a late 68 hi-gain meant to look like?

This bass screams 100% originality. The original owner who sold it to me told me that he had never touched anything. When I asked about taking the TRC off to see the rods he didn't want to do...

I tend to believe him....

It has the same green bobbin with screw polepieces once described in a thread with someone who had a Jan 69 4001. Here it is a couple of months earlier from a well known Sept 68...
http://www.rickresource.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=43&post=165901#POST165901
That's no coincidence...

Having never taken the guard off, and I'd bet it's never been touched, I could not say for certain, but I am sure it does have the cap in place. The sound is the unmistakeable "capped".

And, like I've said before, having seen, held and played more 60's basses than most, I'd bet my house that it's completely 100% stock.

A friend's '72 high gain treble pickup went south due to the magnet losing its flux density. It now sports a V63 horse shoe.

The neck higain on my '74 4001 measures 18.4K
Something's wrong here.
The bridge unit has 9k

But as john Hall already mentioned ; all Ohm meters and their leads ...

Uh-oh! My mistake, Andrew. I thought we were talking about a 'button-top' high-gain. Indeed, a high-gain pickup with a green bobbin and screws for polepieces on a 1968 4001 is period correct. It is probably one of the earliest high-gains made. Sorry again.