Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

So I just purchased a NOS 2006 Bridge pickup for my 79 rick. Couldnt find a 70's. maybe someday. I bought the bass with a BArtolini but I took that out. Any suggestions when putting the new Rick pickup in. Will it work well with the original Neck pickup. Volume wise. Neck pickup seemed a little low in Volume compared to the Bartolini. Just curious.

A '06 pickup is going to be a good bit hotter than a '79, so it may bury the neck pup somewhat. I would suggest a toaster for the neck position.

Dane, would that p'up of yours be good as a neck replacement for a 2008 4003FL? Is this p'up hotter than the stock 4-pole that came with my bass? Would the tone be different, or just louder?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks Dane. I suppose I'll pass, but I'm sure you'll move this at a good price for both sides.

Cassius recommended that I install toasters in my 4003FL, and I suppose that the lower gain toasters was what he meant. I'll have to ask him, I suppose.

FretlessOnly wrote:Thanks Dane. I suppose I'll pass, but I'm sure you'll move this at a good price for both sides.

Cassius recommended that I install toasters in my 4003FL, and I suppose that the lower gain toasters was what he meant. I'll have to ask him, I suppose.

I'd recommend that, too. Here is the original implementation of the dual scatterwound toaster FL, my former 4003FLV.

I just could get to grips with the placement of the dots on the fingerboard and binding.

That's a mind-mess for sure at first. I always play in a way that I can only see the neck binding and not the fingerboard to alleviate that problem. I have five fretless electrics, and my Rick is the only one with fingerboard marks. Side marks are all one needs, and anything more is just unnecessary and distracting. A plain wood fingerboard is really hot to boot! But damn, that '04 4003FLV is sweet! I wish I'd joined here earlier. I would have been all over that one.

So, if I were to put toasters in my FL, which toasters are we talking about? Vintage? I'm not very electronics savvy, but are there lower gain non-vintage toasters that can still be had? If so, I suppose replacing both the neck and bridge pickups would be necessary, or else the difference between the hot treble pickup and the lower gain neck pickup would really be unbalanced.

Sorry to hijack your selling thread, Dane...

John, Jeff's bass had side dots in the wrong spot--they lined up with the center of the fret, not with frets themselves. A bad way to do it no matter who you are, unless you ONLY use your ears. I can understand why he sold it in a way although I might have tried putting new holes in instead (just considering how f-ing obsessed I am with my own fretless). The fretboard inlays are just beauty marks, and (at least based on how I play bass), you can never look at the fingerboard while you are playing anyways so the side marks are the only things that are useful for intonation. The rest come from your ears. You don't want to be looking at the bass the whole time you are playing do you?? This is why I'm opposed to lined fingerboards, unless it was a defret.

Two ~7k Toasters in a fretless sound great--in fact they sound LOUD together because now they are only relative to each other, not to a Hi-Gain. They are warmer and also more precise. Tomorrow I am going into the studio with my Double Toaster FL... Good times.

wings012345 wrote:So I just purchased a NOS 2006 Bridge pickup for my 79 rick. Couldnt find a 70's. maybe someday. I bought the bass with a Bartolini but I took that out. Any suggestions when putting the new Rick pickup in. Will it work well with the original Neck pickup. Volume wise. Neck pickup seemed a little low in Volume compared to the Bartolini. Just curious.

Jeff, welcome. The neck pickup in your '79 is a higain, but it is only 8.4k vs the 12k the bridge pickup you bought. A toaster is 7.4k, except for some guitar and V63 bass toasters, which are about 11-12k. First try it in the bass as is. If you like it, there you go. If you find it too aggressive and hard to match to the neck, I would unwind it to around 8.5k. The original bridge pup in that bass was wound to the 8.4/8.5k range. The later 70s higains are the best sounding Rick pups, IMO. But as I said, try it as is first.

Thanks John. I figured I would mess with the volumes to try and get a nice even blend. I imagine un-winding a pickup would require me taking it to a guitar tech?

wings012345 wrote:Thanks John. I figured I would mess with the volumes to try and get a nice even blend. I imagine un-winding a pickup would require me taking it to a guitar tech?

You could also play with the height of the bridge, but you loose some attack when too low, so volume would do it too. Actually it is not that hard to unwind - take off the black tape, take off the masking tape strips, break the 44 ga. wire from the black lead-out, unwind till you get the reading you want, solder the wire back to the black lead-out, put the masking tape strips back on, put the black tape back on, then ROCK OUT LIKE MOTORHEAD!!!!

Or your artist of choice....

So john, I may try un-winding. How much wire do you think I need to un-wind to get down to say 8.4. if I find the pickup is around 12 k or so. We talking like 10 unwinds. More, less. just looking for a ballpark to start with Also, with the ohm meter, I familar with them, but does the pickup need to be reconnected to the pots to get a reading or do you just connect the meter to the wire and ground on the pickup out of the guitar to get a reading?

Thanks