Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Does anybody put any non Rickenbacker pickups in their guitars, ones that actually fit straight in without butchery that is?

I've got a GFS Retrotron New York bridge S/C pickup although I have not tried it yet,supposed to sound D'Armondish with a bit of Gretsch Dynasonic / Hi-Lotron.

It's just slightly higher than a normal High Gain so it should fit same width / length.

I've tried a pair of GFS Retrotron Nashvilles on a Epiphone Sheraton which sound much better than the stock humbuckers, fat but twangy!

PS I originally posted this in the wrong thread about Bass pickups!

You mean putting non-Rickenbacker pickups on Rickenbacker guitars?

It is interesting that for the most part, Rickenbacker stays with the same dimensions on their pickups. I would think that would be limiting my company to the various sound possibilities out there, but it also makes for easier production. Maybe Mr. Hall can comment on why this has happened?

I'm suprised that other pickup companies don't make Rick sized pickups like they do replacements for Rick basses?

A bit more choice could be a good thing! How about a P90 or Filtertron type that fits your Rickenbacker?

http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfsnyodestsu.html

Well a P90 and Filtertron aren't the same size as a RIC guitar pickup. If you change the design of those pickups to fit a RIC guitar size hole, then they don't sound the same.

Seymour Duncan makes a P90 and a few others for a Rick.

Yes, but since the stock P90 is longer than a RIC pickup, if you change it to fit in a RIC guitar or bass without routing, then it won't sound the same as a P90 because the coil dimensions are different.

Just as an interesting side note. I do believe the original bass horeshoe coil former used from 57 to mid/late sixties was the same one used for the P90.

I thought the P90's are surface mounts like on the Epiphone Casino?

Well the P90/soapbar pickup from Gibson is either mounted through the dogear mount like on a Casino, or as a soapbar style like on a LP Jr. The soapbar style is height adjustable and the Casino style is not.

I am not sure what you're talking about as far as the former being the same for the P90 and the original horseshoe, and I don't see why it would be since they are different companies. Are you talking about the bobbin for each pickup? If that is what you're talking about then no they aren't the same at all.

a bit off topic, but... the P90 are high ohmic, high impedance (6Henry or more) single coil pickups. Leaving all other
discussions behind, the high ohmic toasters (10 and more KOhms) can't be too far away in sound from the P90s. I wound all my three 12kOhm short magnet toasters (325V63) down to 7.5kOhm, now regretting it a bit. We should buy 7.5KOhms Toasters as spare parts and leave the high ohmic Toasters as they are...

In my experience the toasters sound nothing like a P90. They're made very differently too, which affects the sound.

The toaster has a lot of metal in the cover, which weakens the output. The toaster uses alnico rod magnets, and has a wide bobbin that is short in height, and is would with 44 gauge wire, which all things being equal, will be brighter than 42 gauge.

The P90 has 2 alnico bar magnets with the like poles towards each other butting up against screw polepieces that go through the bobbin to the top of the pickup. The bobbin is wide, and short in height, and wound with about 10,000 turns of 42 gauge wire. Most vintage P90's used alnico 2 or 3, and have about 8k output, but are very powerful pickups due to all the magnet mass in there. They sound more like a combination of a Strat pickup and a full size humbucker to me, but with less clarity than both. They also hum a lot.

The toasters are pretty quiet for a single coil, and are much lower in overall output, and have a much higher frequency emphasis. The 7.4k ones are of course brighter, but even the 11k ones are still bright, and sound similar to the RIC high gain pickups and don't really sound like a P90 to my ears.

hello Greg, lets make some calculations:
the P90 has about 6.6Henrys inductance and about 8KOhms (on my korean Casino they have 12kOhms)resistance

Toasters have 7.5 kOhms and about 2.5 Henrys

Toasters with 12kOhms then have about (12/7.5)x(12/7.5)x2.5Henrys= 6.4Henries and are about 4decibels louder than 7.5kOhms Toasters, but not far as loud as P90s.
With an average guitar cable of 1,000 picofarads
(and the volume knob turned fully on) both pickups have a resonance frequency close under 2,000 hertz.
The P90 peak is about 3 decibels, the high ohmic Toaster peak is maybe only one decibel.

btw: a 3.5kOhms Toaster then calculates as low as 0.55 Henrys!
Take out your inductance meter...
And thanks for your pickup measurements, excellent work!!
p.s. guitar solo on Michelle? My guess: McCartney on Casino, with the neck pu on, tone pot fully cut, volume fully on.

Aren't Rickenbacker pickups the exact same size as vintage Dearmond Dynasonics? (or whatever dearmond called them...200's)
Has anyone every put a dynasonic on a ric?