Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I just recieved a high output era Toaster pickup, and it's dead.

It's twin is reading 12.4K and healthy, but this one isn't giving any output reading whatsoever.

It looks like someone may have left a soldering iron on the "hot" contact point for too long, and it has uprooted itself, as it's not sitting in the plastic at a slight angle, as opposed to straight in.

Is this an easy fix, or complicated? I haven't gone too far into taking Ric pickups apart before, other than soldering them into guitars.

If I needed to have this repaired, where should I send it? I'd love to send it to our pickup guru, Sergio, but with the price and time of overseas shipping.....is there anything stateside?

Thanks!

-Collin

I would send it to Sergio for repairs.

admin wrote:I would send it to Sergio for repairs.

+1 It doesn't take a lot of time or money to get a small package like a pickup back and forth. Just a few extra days, maybe, but what the hey ... Sergio's work is a known commodity and well worth it.

I have fixed one coil like this with the center pin broken loose from the inside of the coil by taking the pin all the way out, scraping the coil winding and getting solder on the open copper, then putting the pin back in and hitting it with a soldering iron. It has held up but it is not an optimum repair. It will lower the number of turns, but not appreciably on a 12.4k coil. Maybe to 12k or more.

Thanks guys, I'm pretty capable of lotsa repairs----but seeing as I'm in unfamiliar territory, I will contact Sergio and have it done right!

You can fix it yourself, you can straighten out the slug with heat, ( a little super glue if needed when your done) unwind a turn or two and resolder.

schoolside wrote:You can fix it yourself, you can straighten out the slug with heat, ( a little super glue if needed when your done) unwind a turn or two and resolder.

The slug is connected, or more precisely in this case, was connected to the inside of the coil where there is no access to unwind.

Thanks! Sorry, I forgot that toasters are wired reverse polarity of hi gains. I have the same problem with two new hi gains from a 330 where the ground (center) is open. I'm going to have to unwind them to make repairs. I've got to make a device to hold the pickup for rewinding first.

Uh? Toasters are wired reverse polarity of high-gains?

Hmm... Yes. I find those terminals on toaster pickups to be a bit of a weakness, though I'm well aware that any viable alternative would tend to be more time-consuming on the factory floor.

Almost invariably, a toaster negative terminal that starts acting up requires the pickup to be rewound, period, whilst fixing a defective positive terminal is generally way easier.

Just my 2 cents

rickcrazy wrote:Uh? Toasters are wired reverse polarity of high-gains?

Double thanks! I guessed right the first time and then changed my answer

Yes, Call Sergio. That wire is very fine and will break if you look at it cross eyed.

Eh!

rickcrazy wrote:Eh!

Hi Sergio, I first tried unwinding, I quit that exercise in futility after two days and a few thousand feet of wire being blown about by the fans in my house.
In one final act of desperation, I tried heating and twisting the center screw ground (with the pickup fully disasssembled) and finally made contact with the winding inside. Now I have a 7k and a 12.5k hi-gain as spares. Of the 10 new pickups I have (5 guitars and 5 sets of toasters) made between 07 and 09 Three of mine were bad. JH said:

"I think what you'll find is indeed a cold solder joint where the wire leads join the screws. When the switch was made to lead-free solder last year, solder connections were made to the brass-plated steel screw which tested good but failed after some period of time.

As a result of this experience, in production we've switched the connecting screw to solid brass which makes a more reliable connection with RoHS solder over the long haul."

I envy you for the patience and dexterity you have to work on these things. In the future I'll send it to Sergio

Thanks, Dwight.

I concur with John, of course. Actually I've found the cold solder joint issue on a few F*****-style pickups as well.

There's only one reliable, fast way to (part-) unwind a pickup: using a pickup winder. Unwinding it by hand is, as you so well put it, an exercise in futility.

Cheers!

Freaking ROHS *%@^&_%&* solder. I hate the stuff! I'm of the opinion that it was completely unnecessary, and everything made from it will fail in 10 years or less due to solder whiskers. We'll see if it occurs or not....haha.

Greg