Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but if I wanted to run a pickup (toaster or high-gain) as a separate circuit with it's own output jack and grounded to the bridge - and that pickup would be run with both the tone and volume controls wide open all the way, all the time (those functions would be controlled at the amp) do I even need the tone and volume pots, cap etc.? I'm looking for the most simple circuit possible to run a pickup full blast.

Good question Todd and yes that will work, it is the simplest wiring you can do, but I would suggest having it run thru a seperate Vol. control that is isolated from the rest of the instruments electronics. You don't have to but this will allow you to control it. When the control is at full output, it's the same as by-passing it. No tone control or capacitor is needed.

Thanks Dale, I do have a hole available where I could plant a volume pot. Looking at available "wiring for dummies" websites it seemed like this might be the way to wire it up. Does this look like it would work or am I liable to rupture the space-time-continuoum if I plug my guitar in?

That will work.

RIC always puts the (+) from the pickup to the wiper arm (2) of the pot.

That's because there are two pickups. With only one pickup it is better to wire it like above to ground out the output when the volume is turned fully CCW to prevent any hum with the volume turned down; this effectively shorts out the input to the amplifier.

Since this is all a foreign language to me, is there a different configuration which, for one reason or another, might work better than the one in the drawing?

No, that is exactly how you want to wire it.

Great, Will do. If the entire universe winks out for a few seconds and you hear a faint, distant, jangly sound, you'll know what happened.

You have entered the Twilight Zone...

Strange but true....Twilight zone maybe...The day before I read this post I had just tried wiring a dearmond 2k pickup with a 500k volume pot into my el cheapo epiphone sj 200 jumbo. I could not understand why it had a terrible buzz/noise when the volume was turned down. I could not find any wiring tips on the net but when I did my usual check on this site the answer was here. Thanks Dale, Todd and Kris for the correct grounding. Actually I had a look inside my Gibson Les Paul 40th Anniversary model to see how they wired theirs. They weld lug no. 3 straight back onto to pot for earthing purposes. By the way Kris the I think toaster tops sound the best without a tone pot! I used to own a 370rm and when you plug into the rick'o'sound' output it bypasses the active circuit to give a really pristine and pure sound from the toaster tops. I like the thought of a two pickup rick with Just one master volume and blend knob for tone control. The pickups would be complimentary polarity to provide hum-cancelling properties as well.
Cheers
John