Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Could someone tell me what they tnink about the neck pickup in the picture below?

As you can see, the bridge pickup has the familiar Toaster look, but the neck pickup has the toaster slots divided into two sections, and there are rivets on the pickup cover.

I haven't been able to find a picture of this kind of pickup on any Rickenbacker.

Does anyone recognize it?

Can anyone offer a view about whether it's a non-original pickup cover or a non-original pickup? (The dark material in the slots of the pickup in question looks very similar to what's in the bridge pickup.)

Thanks in advance. (BTW, I've already determined that the bridge is non-original, being a Tune-o-matic type.)

Its not original. It's a DeArmond pickup. These were available as aftermarket parts, and were often seen in the soundhole of flat tops. I think they're a swell sounding pickup.

customxke wrote:Its not original. It's a DeArmond pickup. These were available as aftermarket parts, and were often seen in the soundhole of flat tops. I think they're a swell sounding pickup.

Yup, it's a DeArmond. There are no extending pole pieces on these, and I would imagine that after the original toaster was lost, this was the only thing that would fit in the shallow cavity, without routing. My 64 4001 bass had one too originally....

Oh, welcome Vance!

Thanks for the replies and the welcome.

I know what happened. The neck pickup failed a number of years ago, and I took it to a good repair shop in Birkenhead, England. When I got it back, it sounded good, and I never really looked at it closely until recently; I assumed they had fixed some wiring.

I never could play the narrow neck on the 450/12 to my satisfaction, so I've bought a 660/12 which I'll register here soon. I'll be selling the 450/12, and I want to make sure I'm representing it accurately.

That's a cool pickup!

It would have been cool if the shop had returned the original pickup to you when the repair was completed; you could have eventually had the pickup rewound.

It is odd that they didn't return it.

When I took my '71 Les Paul standard (the '54 reissue with P-90's) in to the same shop to have the tuning keys replaced, they pointed out that the replacement could hurt the collection value. I didn't really mind, I wanted to play it; besides, I had already stripped off the gold top for a natural finish.