Question for Sergio and/or Mr. Hall

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Mon May 28, 2007 10:59 am

Hey Sergio, I was wondering if you have any experience with the RIC humbuckers? I've got a RIC 1989 230 guitar that was my first guitar. I refinished it in Blue Boy and have been working on getting it back together. I put the pickups back in yesterday and somehow one of the magnet wires broke on the neck humbucking pickup and since it is all epoxied, it is impossible to find it. I used the soldering iron to melt away some of the epoxy and still can't find the lead wire. It would help if I knew what the pickup looks like under all that epoxy and where the wires are located in there. The one that broke is the one attached to the green wire. I think it is probably a coil start wire. I was hoping you might have worked with these in the past?

If I can't fix it, I hope the new humbuckers are the same as the old ones like mine. Maybe Mr. Hall could help too since he designed them? I need to get this guitar back in shape as I really miss playing it now after a year.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:42 am

Based on my (very limited) experience with Rick humbuckers, I'm afraid there is nothing you can do to fix your pickup. Anyone?

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:51 pm

This was also asked by e-mail but I'll answer here for everyone's info.

The lead goes through a small hole in the bobbin, which is encapulated. The chances of you finding that in the epoxy without going through the bobbin is close to nil.

This would be a standard HB2 pickup so you might want to check with customer service to see what your options are.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Tue May 29, 2007 3:40 pm

Thanks for the replies guys. Where on the bobbin is that small hole? Towards the middle by the magnet or towards the edge of the bobbin? This was the wire attached to the green lead, and I think it was the start of one of the coils maybe? Green is grounded btw.

I've gotten the epoxy down to where I can see the bobbin, and there is still some epoxy there in the way in places, but if I'm careful I think I can chip it away and eventually find the coil wire and its hole if I knew where on the bobbin to look. A friend suggested I bring it into work and use one of the microscopes here to zoom in on it, which is a great idea.

Mr. Hall, if it is a standard HB2 pickup, then do I just need the pickup itself and not all of the mounting stuff since it mounts differently on the 230 than how it mounts on the models you make nowadays? I think it is part 00065?

I'll probably just order up an HB2 since I want to get this guitar up and running ASAP, but I'd still like to fix this one as pickups are always individual sounding, and I liked the sound of this one very much.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Tue May 29, 2007 4:26 pm

No, the HB2 mount is with the rubber shock mounts- that's what you have, isn't it?

The holes in the bobbin are tiny ones, just the size of the wire, at one end of the bobbin.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Tue May 29, 2007 5:48 pm

Yes, I've got the rubber shock mounts too, and the pickup has the circuit board on the bottom and the samarium cobalt magnet with the steel bars on either side. I posted some pics.

Thanks for the hole location Mr. Hall. I'll see if I can find it with the scope at work later this week I hope. In the meantime, I'll probably just order a pickup so I can get this thing back up and working.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:13 am

Well I won the auction for the HB2 that RIC had up on ebay, so I'll be able to put this thing back together as soon as I get it from RIC.

On another note I found the coil wire on my broken pickup but I'm not sure how to fix it or if it is possible. I can see the tip of the wire poking through it's hole in the bobbin, but there isn't enough to solder to unless you can get solder to stick reliably to the end of a wire? I thought maybe a laser cutting place may be able to carefully cut around where the wire is so I could get some extra to solder to, but I have no idea if they can be that precise. Or if there is a hollow drill bit made then I could carefully drill around the hole and get some extra wire to solder to. I need to know if the epoxy is under the bobbin also, or if it is just wire at that point? If anyone knows it would be helpful.

Realisticlly, the pickup is probably going to have to be declared dead though I would guess. Most people would probably not waste any time on it. If it is dead or if I make it dead as I try to fix it, then I'll probably take it completely down to see how its made and steal the magnets and bars for some other project, or if it is easy enough, try to recreate this pickup to use in my guitar again. Half of it reads 7.63k.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:32 am

Re-creating the pickup, as you say, whilst not being impossible to do, is hardly worth it. I'd get a new one, honest. As for the magnet on it, it certainly is worth keeping for use on other projects. Cheers.

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:00 pm

Greg, if you get to the point of declaring it dead, I would try melting plastic with a pointed solder iron and then using an Xacto blade to clean up to the copper wire. I just had to do this on a specialized potentiometer that was snapped off a circuit board. Wasn't pretty but it works again.

doctorwho · Post by **doctorwho** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:53 pm

You probably can't get access to it, but the organic solvent tetrahydrofuran (THF) might dissolve the epoxy (some epoxies are THF-soluble, based on experience).

johnallg · Post by **johnallg** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:25 pm

Gary, would the THF also attack the plastic bobbin and the insulation on the wire?

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:29 pm

Well my pictures above aren't all that great, but if you look on the left side of the circuit board, you'll see that I've melted the epoxy out of the way up to the bobbin. Since I took those pics I scraped and melted a little more away to where on the left side there of the circuit board, all you see is the bobbin. It looks almost like nylon to me instead of plastic, and it certainly doesn't melt very easily. The tip of the 44 gauge wire is now able to be seen poking through a hole in the bobbin with a keen eye, or with a visor or under a scope, but thats all that is there is the tip. I don't think its enough to solder to. I've thought about trying to melt the bobbin to get at it but as I said, it doesn't seem to melt so I think its nylon. Maybe Mr. Hall could confirm what the bobbin is made out of?

I won the auction for the HB2 pickup so I'll be putting that in the guitar in the meantime once I get the pickup. There aren't new pickups of this model available anymore Sergio, so I had to get a used one on the aforementioned auction. Thanks to Richard at RIC for alerting me to the auction number too! I'm sure it will sound different than the old one, but it will probably be close enough.

johnhall · Post by **johnhall** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 4:42 pm

The bobbins are indeed nylon.

Geez, Richard isn't the one who got all dusty in the bins looking for parts for you . . . !

charlyg · Post by **charlyg** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 5:10 pm

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:01 pm

"Geez, Richard isn't the one who got all dusty in the bins looking for parts for you . . . !"

LOL! Yes, well, he was my contact when I called. I appreciate you getting all dusty looking for it Mr. Hall....I'll send you a dust buster for your birthday!

Better yet, have Richard dust the bins once in awhile!

I was hoping you would have just sold it to me directly once you found it, but I'm glad I won the auction. I was all worried and stressing about it for a week and planned a massively high esnipe bid to make sure I'd get it. (not telling how high!)

I figured the bobbins were nylon....thats good. If I can't fix it and decide to take it apart, I can find something that will dissolve the epoxy and the plastic and just end up with some bobbins that will need a rewind in addition to the magnet and bar polepieces. I'd just have to fashing some kind of cover for it then. I wonder if the circuit board would hold up to whatever I'd use to dissolve the plastic and epoxy?

I'd still like to fix it if possible, but now that I have another pickup on the way, I can take my time and figure out how to fix it. Ok, back to the fretwork now so I can have it ready....