Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was going to take the horseshoes off my bridge pickup just to see how it sounded. But when I took the covers off, I noticed the pickup is not solid, but a top with the exposed coils underneath. How does someone play one of these with the shoes off? If I would've pulled hard enough, I could have pulled the entire pickup apart. I have played a V63 with the shoes off and I remember a hard plastic cover on the pickup.
So now my problem is that when I put it all back together, the string buzzes up against the pole piece, and when I lower the pickup, the string buzzes against the horseshoe. Is there something I did wrong when putting it back together? It wasn't like that before I took it apart.

dwinn wrote: If I would've pulled hard enough, I could have pulled the entire pickup apart. I have played a V63 with the shoes off and I remember a hard plastic cover on the pickup.
So now my problem is that when I put it all back together, the string buzzes up against the pole piece, and when I lower the pickup, the string buzzes against the horseshoe. Is there something I did wrong when putting it back together? It wasn't like that before I took it apart.

Pulled hard enough? Uh-oh! Once the pickup/base plate is freed from the surround, all you have to do is remove the 4 screws from the back of the base plate to separate it from the pickup. Then put a few washers in there to take up the space where the horseshoes once were, re-attach the ground wire, use the 2 smaller screws to attach the pickup to the base plate, and re-assemble.

I'm guessing that maybe when you pulled on the pickup you may have caused it to separate slightly from the base plate? Hopefully it isn't damaged. Try re-tightening the screws under the base plate.

It looks like the "A" and "D" magnets are sitting further up than they normally do. They may need to be carefully pushed down again.
Eden.

weemac wrote:It looks like the "A" and "D" magnets are sitting further up than they normally do. They may need to be carefully pushed down again.
Eden.

I noticed that too. I didn't know that they could move though. If it is possible, that would be great 'cuz it would be nice to be able to adjust the string to string volume.

I've noticed on at least one of my HS equipped basses that the A and D strings seem to be louder than the E and G.

I tried to push down the pole pieces but they do not move. And after I successfully set it up with washers underneath to hold the pickup in place, I managed to break the grounding solder. Damn! I should never have attempted to do this.

You also may have turned the pickup around. Notice the one end slug is lower than the other end? Likely the lower one is the E string, so make sure it is on that side of the bass. Also, looks like the pickup is now humped in the middle, possibly from your actions. Don't know if trying to "unbend" it is possible/advisable.

I'm going to have it looked at by someone who is familiar with these basses. Anyone know of a Ric luthier near Atlanta?

Dan, while the pickup coil is loose from the mount plate, look at the magnet slugs and see if they are through the bottom cardboard coil former. All 4 should be just even with the cardboard former. The slugs are 2 different lengths, the A and D being longer then the E and G. Be careful if you try to align things to push the magnet slugs through the cardboard former as the coil wires are hair-like and wrapped around the magnet rods and you could pinch and break a wire when pushing the slugs back into the bottom former.

Good luck, you or who you have look at it will need it. Work very carefully and you should be okay.