Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Can these be converted to adjustable pole pieces Sérgio? And congratulations on your new section.

Hi Bob. Thanks. To answer your question, yes, very easily.

Is that something I could do myself or should I send them to you?

Well, if you can remove the original polepieces and find suitable, adjustable replacements therefor, I'm sure you can manage. I did this mod a couple years back on a forumite's 4003 pickup set. I replaced the original polepieces on it with Phillips head screws of similar dimensions. It worked beautifully.

So all I do is remove them and find screws that exactly fit in the holes?

To resume the above discussion, yes, replacing the original steel rivets with longer, cross- or slot-head screws, or even headless socket screws, AND replacing the original single magnet with two bar magnets arranged in P-90 fashion will make for a fully adjustable, VERY hot Rickenbacker pickup.

And if you use P90 magnets, you can get alnico ones instead of ceramic if you like too. You can even try different types of alnico magnets to change the sound. Alnico 2 will sound a lot different than alnico 5 for example.

Hmm... Brighter? Darker?

A2 as compared to A5 has less magnetic strength which usually results in a more open sound and something that is more chimey. Sometimes it can be brighter too depending on the design of the pickup. There are also A1, A3, A4, A6, A8, and others, and there are different grades of ceramic too, and of course samarium cobalt magnets like in the RIC humbuckers too. Ceramic magnets don't have any self-inductance, so they are usually brighter than alnico. Samarium cobalt magnets are usually very powerful and bright.

The best approach is to have a test coil of a given design, say a P90 pickup, and using the correct setup with a very low wind dummy coil and a signal generator, etc, you can sub magnets in and out and see how it affects the inductance, AC resistance, Q, and resonant peak. A friend of mine does some of that when he has the time, in between winding pickups for customers. You need a lot of test equipment to do a proper test.

The first and best piece of equipment you should get would be the Extech 380193 meter, which will check inductance, Q, and AC resistance at two different frequencies. They're under $200 and work very well for a pickup maker who is trying to put some numbers to what he hears.

If you haven't seen it yet Sergio, you should go to the Ampage pickup makers forum. It is on two sites right now since the host is in the process of moving the site to a new setup. Lots of existing boutique pickup makers post there and it has some very good info about making/modding pickups. The links are below, with the first one being the original, and the 2nd one being the new site. No one likes the format of the new one yet so they're still posting on the old one.

http://www.firebottle.com/fireforum/fireBB.cgi?cfg=gt&forum=pmgd&enter=go

http://music-electronics-forum.com/forumdisplay.html?f=11

Hey, thanks Greg. Just went to the "Firebottle" site - sure looks impressive and comprehensive!

You're welcome Sergio. I'm a regular on there, as are some other pickup makers worldwide. (I don't make pickups myself yet...I just know a bit)

You can get good info on suppliers and techniques there, among other things.