Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was just wondering...what are the differences between the old toaster pickups and the newer button top ones?

The button top pickups are the high gain pickups and they have a larger amount of wire wound on the coil for more output, and they also use a ceramic magnet and steel polepieces instead of alnico slug magnets. They have some of the character of the sound of the toaster since the bobbin is the same size and shape for the most part, but they are hotter and thicker sounding, with more mid-range emphasis than to vintage style toasters. Very recently RIC stopped making the button top high gains and went with adjustable pole pieces, but other than that, I believe the new high gains are the same as the older high gains.

I see. I don't think the pole pieces on my '05 4003 are adjustable so they must be the older kind.

One other difference is the high gains have 4 polepieces and the toasters have 6.

Yeah as long as you're talking about the bass high gains. The guitar high gains have 6 pole pieces, and will work ok on the basses too.

Jim, with no adjustable polepieces, then yes your high gains are the older kind, but keep in mind that there have been many changes to the high gains since they were introduced in '68 and there are many different eras with different amouts of wire turns on the bobbin, and different materials used for the bobbins, etc. I actually prefer the ones you have for modding instead of the newer ones with the adjustable polepieces.