Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Has anyone ever swapped a hi-gain bridge pick up to the neck and/or vice a versa?

And, if so, what kind of tone did you get?

The reason I ask is this:
I have a 610 FG that I'm thinking of putting a humbucker in the bridge spot and moving the hi-gain bridge p/u to the neck. Just wondrin' if the tone would change at the neck with the bridge p/u installed.

Thought I'd ask here first for opinions.

"....and then I poked it with a stick...."

David: There is a good chance that you will not notice any difference in tonality as the pickups may have the same KOhm rating. Should they be different, then you may notice the change. Why not measure the resistance of each pickup and let us know the KOhm rating for each.

I would be inclined to keep the high gain in the bridge, however, I say this without knowing what you hope to accomplish with the humbucker at the bridge.

for the most part the neck and bridge high gains for guitar are the same except for the spacing of the pole pieces ... however there were some high gain neck pickups in from the 80s that were wound to 13k and 15k ohms ... some of the toasters from that era were over wound as well ...

So most high gains from 1980 to now are about 11k ohms and from the 70s they are about 8k ohms

Thanks fellas, that's info I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.

As far as a humbucker at the bridge, I'd seen a few 620's like that and figured "Hey, might be somethin' to it!" ('Course they had humbuckers at the neck and bridge)

But one humbucker at the neck might work on my 610 pretty good.

One thing though, I sure ain't gonna fool with that neck pick up now. It stays!

try a hb1 in the bridge and a toaster in the neck ... growl, bite and jangle ...

Sounds like my wife, my daughter, and me...