Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

howdy,

i bought a pair of toasters from rickenbacker about 3 weeks ago. a local luthier is installing them; he called to tell me that one of the pickups is faulty. i went to his shop and listened to him plug in the guitar and get response to the pickups by the 'metal on metal' method. sure enough, one pickup made a fairly loud crackle and the other a *very faint*, almost nonexistent crackle.
first of all, i am assuming that both pickups are in the same ballpark, ohm-wise (he didn't have a meter in shop). i am also under the assumption that no other wiring modifications are absolutely necessary in replacing the toasters (capacitors etc). so this leads me to believe that there is, in fact, a problem with one of the pickups.

this leads me to a number of questions:

1) has anyone heard of problems with toaster pickups sold in the rickenbacker boutique before?

2) if the problem is a soldering issue with one of the wires, is it a fairly painless operation?

3) if not #2, what other problem might there be with the pickup?

4) is there a web site with some detailed photos on toaster repairs, step by step or...well, anything?

i've never done any pickup work, so please, any responses, no matter how basic in description, would be helpful.

thanks!

First thing I would do is to call Rickenbacker and see what can be done.

Second thing is that you're luthier should have a meter around at all times....if he doesn't, then he doesn't work with pickups very often. The ohms of both pickups should be checked and should read around 7.4k.

Third, the biggest failure mode on toasters is that the coil shorts, either due to a wire in the coil breaking, or shorting out against the magnets. In my experience, it doesn't happen very often at all.

I would measure the DC resistance of the pickups with a proper meter. If one pickup reads low and Rickenbacker will not replace it, then a repair can be attempted, but you need to be very xareful as the wire inside the pickup is smaller than the human hair. If the pickup does need to be repaired internally, then it would be best to have a pickup winder like Sergio do a repair for you.

Greg

I'd like to add that with the luthier not having a meter in his shop and being perplexed by this, I would pick up my instrument and parts and run. IMHO

Welcome, John!

Something to look for is the wiring where it attaches to the pins on the toaster. The way the shielding is split to ground the case of the pickup and to provide the shield in the lead it is easy for it to twist and short out.

jps wrote:Welcome, John!

Something to look for is the wiring where it attaches to the pins on the toaster. The way the shielding is split to ground the case of the pickup and to provide the shield in the lead it is easy for it to twist and short out.

Yeah, welcome! I missed that that was your first post!

Jeff has a very goos point. I just got bit by this on my toaster/4003 the other day when I had the pickguard up and out. I thought I had a switch problem when it was the ground touching the hot lead right where the cable attaches to the toaster.

Maybe the negative terminal on the pickup is toast , in which case a rewind would be in order - after duly insulating said terminal from the innermost coil windings that is.

My toaster sucks. Even on the highest setting, I have to run my English muffins through twice.

Huh... I hasten to point out that on any toaster pickup, past or present there's no way the coil is going to short out against the magnets.

Yah Sergio, I didn't mean against the magnets specifically to Rics. I was referring to coils in general and that is a failure mode often attributed to Fender single coils. I've seen RIC toasters short out to the ground point inside the coil with that uncovered solder blob on top of the screw post before. I don't like that aspect of the design personally.

Greg

You're right, Greg, sometimes the negative terminal on toaster AND high-gain pickups proved (proves) a bit of a pain.

soundmasterg wrote:....The ohms of both pickups should be checked and should read around 7.4k.

I have toasters that range from 6.11 to 7.5 k so all toaster aren't the same FWIW.

ben_brown wrote:

soundmasterg wrote:....The ohms of both pickups should be checked and should read around 7.4k.

I have toasters that range from 6.11 to 7.5 k so all toaster aren't the same FWIW.

New re-issues or old ones, Steve?

Reissues I imagine.

It's just I never heard of a reissue toaster that was very far off the 7.4k measurement, whereas the mid 60s through early 70s were around 6 k. Not sure how the guitar ones measured.

johnallg wrote:It's just I never heard of a reissue toaster that was very far off the 7.4k measurement, whereas the mid 60s through early 70s were around 6 k. Not sure how the guitar ones measured.

I'll send you acouple pics of them if you like.