Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I was thinking of putting in a toaster in the bridge pickup slot of a Fender Strat HSS (it's big enough to hold a humbucker). First is this possible? Would there be any electrical issues? Is this an exercise in futility and could cause a rip in the fabric of space & time?

I have put hi-gain pickups in the "bridge" position of two Telecaster Basses and one Jazz Bass (neck position) over the years, the JB, especially, has a great tone. A friend of mine has it now, and he currently has a fretless neck on it, great tone from it, really.

Johnny_Voodoo wrote:Is this an exercise in futility and could cause a rip in the fabric of space & time?

No, but Ric pickups work best in Ric guitars.

I'm not a fan of major cross-breeding like that, though.....my views might be a bit conservative. (Hey, it's also a Ric forum--what did you think I'd say? !)

Yeah why not!
For many years I wanted to build a Mahogany Telecaster with a P90 in the bridge and a toaster in the neck. I never did it but I recon that the P90 and Toaster would co-habitate fairly well...
The toaster should be a little more even sounding than the normal strat treble pickup and should work well with the other pickups on the guitar..
Eden.

I would be concerned that the two E strings would be wider than the pole spacing of the pickup. The only way to know for sure that you are still in the magnetic field is to try it IMO.

That's a good point. It didn't occur to me.

Thanks everyone so far for your opinions!

First of all, welcome to the forum. I would like to ask you a few questions before answering.

1.) Why would you want to put a toaster in the bridge of your Strat? The tone, in that position, would probably be counterproductive in what you are trying to acheive. If I understand what you are going after, I don't believe you will acheive anywhere near the desired result.

2.) The toaster is not a direct replacement for a standard size humbucker. You will have to have a special pickguard made for it, and would recommend having a professional outfit like Pickguardian make it. If the person making the guard is just a little off, the pickup will look seriously goofy and not pickup the vibrations like it should. Well, there goes another 50 bucks minimum to have another made, which would probably require you to send the whole guitar with it so the person can line it up. Still, all the measurements in the world could still make it look odd. It will never look like a factory made guitar, even a one off.

3.) As far as electrically correct, I don't know if your the toaster would afford the humbucking qualities of the 2 and 4 positions on the Strat, but maybe changing the Strat pickups can restore that option.

4.) Finally, when all is said and done, money paid out, time invested, you may end up with a mediocre turd you can't give away, or a unique instrument you enjoy. Who knows? It seems like an expensive risk , but if you're a gambling man, what the hay?

I had an 88 Fender Strat 12 with a Dimarzio HSN2(I think, the YJM bridge model) in the bridge, a Rick high gain in the middle, and the stock pickup in the neck. The stock bridge was completely unuseable for anything other than making poor doggies cry blocks away, or puncturing eardrums, and the middle was not much different. The Hsn2 is a single coil size humbucker that has a good part of the shrilly highs removed, and was designed for high gain applications in a Strat without that icepick squeal deal coupled with 60 cycle hum. Clean, the pickup sounded quite good in the 12. The high gain was a gift from a customer in a Beatles tribute band, so I thought "cool", I'll stick this thing in the middle and have a Rick/Fender thing happening. Well, after many hours of murdering my pickguard with a dremel, I had it back together. The bridge sounded awesome, absolutely the ticket for taming the shrew, yet allowing the tone and character to shine through. Great choice. The high gain-similar output mind you-sounded weak with no real advantage tone wise, and if I had to do it again, some forumite would be slapping that hi-gain in to guitar here. The stock neck pickup sounded nice, round, and clear,the way a Strat neck pickup should, IMHO.

So, bottom line, I cut up a perfectly good guitar, and if I had just replaced the bridge pickup, would have been both a sonic and visual beauty.

If you are looking for a nice, bright, jangly cool pickup to replace the humbucker in your Strat, slap in one of those T.V. Jones pickups made for Gretsch guitars. They have exceptional tone and construction quality, look cool as anything, and will require no modifications to your guitar. If you end up not liking it, send it back, no harm, no foul. Fender also makes a humbucker under the name of DeArmond that is a fantastic pickup as well. All of these have a great classic look, and will more likely give you the sound that you are hoping the Rick Toaster will. Plus, if you find a winner in these choices, you can always sell the toaster and still come out ahead!

Whichever way to go, keep us posted, and we'd love to see pics!

Many thanks for your detailed response which makes a lot of sense. As a matter of fact I think I will try a TV Jones in place of the humbucker.

Thanks again!

weemac wrote:Yeah why not!
For many years I wanted to build a Mahogany Telecaster with a P90 in the bridge and a toaster in the neck. I never did it but I recon that the P90 and Toaster would co-habitate fairly well...
The toaster should be a little more even sounding than the normal strat treble pickup and should work well with the other pickups on the guitar..
Eden.

I think Hugh Cornwell of The Stranglers had a toaster jammed into one of his teles, just above the bridge pickup. You can see it at 1:21 in this video:



Not sure if it really added anything much to the sound...they were pretty raw anyways...

I have seen pictures of Randy Bachman from around 1975 with a heavily modified white Strat that has a toaster in the middle position. I often wonder if the BTO song "Let It Ride" was recorded with this guitar, since it has a jangly intro that doesn't really sound like it came from a stock Strat.

Johnny_Voodoo wrote:I was thinking of putting in a toaster in the bridge pickup slot of a Fender Strat HSS .... Is this an exercise in futility and could cause a rip in the fabric of space & time?

While it might be an exercise in futility, it certainly gives me pause to scratch my head and wonder what greater purpose would be accomplished.

Bear in mind that I've been an acoustic guitar player all of my adult life, at least up until 2 months ago. So mixing and matching parts from one very distinct guitar to another very distinct guitar impresses me as being parallel to crossing a chicken with a turkey and you get a churkey. People do it, but why? And the offspring are sterile. It just seems like it's a lot of bother to do such a thing just because it can be done.
JimK

brian_l wrote:I have seen pictures of Randy Bachman from around 1975 with a heavily modified white Strat that has a toaster in the middle position. I often wonder if the BTO song "Let It Ride" was recorded with this guitar, since it has a jangly intro that doesn't really sound like it came from a stock Strat.

According to Randy's on his CBC radio show Vinal Tap... The guitar in Let it Ride is a Gretsch 6120... It came up on one of the shows about Electric Guitars...

BTW Randy has donated his entire Gretsch collection to a new museum.. All of them other then the one Chet Atkins gave him to replace his stolen guitar from Chad Allen days..

I'd rather put most fenders in a toaster !!

This is just my opinion, of course, but won't that make the car look and ride a little funky? My bad. I'll just go now. Peace, out.......Goofyfoot.

David, you could simply balance it out with a can of manifold chili on the other side...