Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

So I have this problem of my neck pickup being way hotter (8.6) than my bridge pickup. Sergio custom wound me a hot bridge pickup and here is my review:

Sergio, you are the man!!! Nice and crunchy soloed and it is so sweet running along with the neck pickup! Very balanced sound now between the neck and bridge. Very good work. Thanks very much. You get all my dead pickups now!! They're in the mail.

This board is very fortunate to have you as a member.

Gregg

Thank you kindly, Gregg, I'm glad you liked my pickup. Whenever I can be of assistance, don't hesitate to ask. Rick on!

Pickups made by Sergio are real tone monsters, period!

It's been my privilege and pleasure that Sergio offered to make me a treble pickup to put on my Annie (my 4003 FG).

Adjustable polepieces are a tremendous blessing!...It has hex-screw adjustable polepieces that can be adjusted to obtain optimum string to string level balance, which helps a lot when changing string gauges or brands. The pickup is shielded too!

And THE SOUND:
The pickup is hot and very hi-fi---nice extension in the high (4~12 Khz) and low (100~400 hz) registers while maintaining that legendary RIC growl in the mids. It's got very nice penetration and cuts through the mix easily. With Sergio's treble pickup, I don't have to crank the treble and mid on my amp to hear the definition and sparkle with other instruments going full blast at the same time. The lows are tight too, not muddy and boomy but can shake the house!

Actually, my treble pickup is not the hottest that Sergio can offer but it goes very well with my 7.4K Toaster bass pickup. If HOT HOT HOT is what you want, Sergio is DA MAN.

Sergio, let me thank you publicly here.

You're totally qualified to be called "The Pickup Guru".

Many thanks, Paul.
'The Pickup Guru'? I like that.
Okay, I'll be your pickup guru around here, you Rick owners/players/lovers, if that's okay with you. It will be a privilege.
Paul, tomorrow I'll be testing the 'high-gain toaster' pickup as promised. It's similar to the one I've fitted my 21 fret 4001 with. Be sure to let it rip when you receive it! 'Annie' will thank you.

She can't wait!!!

P.S.-Check your mail for the hex screws issue.

Sergio,since you are now known as the "p\u guru" I figured this would be a good place to ask this question...how far should the pole pieces of the(stock) bridge p\u be away from the bottom of the strings on a "02" 4003?? I "had" to remove the p\u cover and want the p\u to be the same distance from the string as before..I tried to leave it on, but old habits are hard to break..I thank you in advance for you vast knowlege..

To get the most out of the pickup, I'd say 1/8" from the G-string pressed down at last fret. However, since your 4003 is a recent one, you may want to increase that distance a bit, otherwise the treble pickup will sound louder than the bass one at equal bass volume/treble volume settings. At least that's my experience with 90s 4003 basses.

Sergio ... I want to upgrade the pickup on my 1989 4003s5 ... I want the hotter current style pickup ... the 80's style pickup is nice but the one on my 1990 sounds better.

So I either need to take a current pickup and change it from four poles to five poles ... or hire you to do it for me.

Jeff: do you want me to remove the four polepieces on an original 90s pickup you'll be sending to me and to replace those with five polepieces, or do you want me to build you a five-pole pickup from scratch? Either choice is okay, it's no problem. Please advise.

I'll e-mail you and talk about it ...

The deal is when I got my 1989 4003s5 I was thrilled with the sound, and action and look ... etc ... Then I got my 1990 4003s5 ... and IT WAS EVEN BETTER!!!!

So I want to tweak the 1989 to be just as good ... the main difference is the pickups ... the toaster neck is pretty much the same but the bridge pickup on the 1990 model has so much attack ... I run the bridge on 10 and the neck on 8 or 9 ... then to smooth it out I turn the neck pickup up to 10 ... man that bass sings ... I use a line 6 pod to add a little Chris Squire type distortion and run it into an ampeg head and 2x10 and 1x18 speakers.

Also I might have you make a five pole high gain for the neck as well and then I can experiment with that and the toaster ... I have some Ric 4 pole high gain pickups that I could send you ...

Feel free.

1975 4001 with very weak original bridge P/U.

Well, in a previous posting some while back, Sergio noted the fact that my 75/4001 had a really weak neck p/u (in fact the output was so weak that I never used it).

Sergio is a real gentleman, and a true craftsman! He has produced the most awesome hi-output pickup, with adjustable poles, that really looks as though it is a Ricky original.

His attention to detail is superb. The spacing of the pole pieces exactly matches that of the strings, (unlike the original.) He even included the 0.0047uF capacitor within the pick-up body, to replicate the bite of the original bridge p/u.

But the output is awesome - it really sings - no -it flies!!! The balance with the neck pick-up is spot on, and through my Peavey, the result is just fantastic.

All new p/u requests in future will go straight to Sergio! (Sergio - can you make guitar pick-ups too?)

Thanks again for such an awesome top-notch professional quality pick-up. I'm totally indebted to you!

Guy Thomas

Hey, Sergio is DA MAN!
If you're looking for THE SOUND, look no further.
Sergio the Pickup Guru won't let you down.

Thanks again.
Guitar pickups? Sure. Name your requirements.