Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi all,
This is my first posting here. I have a 650D that has died on me, I've tried all of the suggested remedies put forward on the RIC site to no avail, I've metered the pups and they are officially dead. Does anyone have any HB1's they would be prepared to sell me?
Thanks in advance.
M.

Welcome Mark!

I am surprised both HB-1s would die at the same time. Are you sure the pickups are the problem?

Hi Jeffrey,
I agree, it is strange. We have put a meter on both pickups and there is nothing coming from either of them. The symptoms are that they began cutting out as if there was a loose connection either with the lead or inside the guitar somewhere until they eventually cut out out completely, well almost, only when everything was turned full up (guitar and amp) could you hear a barely audible signal coming through the amp.
We have taken the pups out and loosely dropped alternatives in and they worked fine, we put a meter on both HB1's and are getting nothing. This is so frustrating, I've been without my Ric for a year now, can't find a solution and can't find any pups, it's driving me insane. I've seen pups come and go on the RIC boutique, but of course they won't ship to the UK! Rosetti have been trying to get stock in but it has been just as futile for them.
One thing I am yet to try is re-heating the solders which I'll attempt tomorrow.

I have actually heard of a couple of instances of cold solder joints on pickups recently, probably due to the new lead free solder (which is a royal pain to work with, btw). It's fairly reasonable that if you had bad solder joints on both pickups, the corrosion in the joint would progress at a similar rate and both would go bad at about the same time.

One big difference with lead free solder is that it takes a higher temperature than the old lead/tin alloy. You may not have an iron that gets hot enough. The old solder melted around 183C, the new stuff is usually between 215C and 230C depending on the exact alloy. There are other differences such as having to hold the iron on longer to get everything up to temp, having to remove it quickly when done to avoid "icicles" of cooled solder, and the fact that the appearance is NOT smooth and shiny, but rather, dull and grainy like a cold joint with the old solder. This makes it doubly difficult to tell if it's a good joint or not.

It's worth a try to reflow the solder joints though. If you can find some good liquid flux (it comes in pens a lot like marking pens) it can help a lot. Good luck with the resoldering...

Hi Mark, welcome to the forum. What area of the world do you live in? Perhaps there's a forumite near you who can help.

cjj wrote:I have actually heard of a couple of instances of cold solder joints on pickups recently, probably due to the new lead free solder (which is a royal pain to work with, btw). It's fairly reasonable that if you had bad solder joints on both pickups, the corrosion in the joint would progress at a similar rate and both would go bad at about the same time.

One big difference with lead free solder is that it takes a higher temperature than the old lead/tin alloy. You may not have an iron that gets hot enough. The old solder melted around 183C, the new stuff is usually between 215C and 230C depending on the exact alloy. There are other differences such as having to hold the iron on longer to get everything up to temp, having to remove it quickly when done to avoid "icicles" of cooled solder, and the fact that the appearance is NOT smooth and shiny, but rather, dull and grainy like a cold joint with the old solder. This makes it doubly difficult to tell if it's a good joint or not.

It's worth a try to reflow the solder joints though. If you can find some good liquid flux (it comes in pens a lot like marking pens) it can help a lot. Good luck with the resoldering...

This is progress in our modern world!

Using lead free solder is the only way new Rickenbackers can be sold in Europe, As the EU has banned tin/lead solder in new electronics.

Lead free solder... Progress... Uh, don't get me started.... What a crock....

And yeah, pretty much all of the EU requires it if you want to sell there. And it's coming to the rest of the world...

Better stock up!

So long as there is a need for high reliability electronics there will be leaded solder. Even in Europe the use of lead free solder in military and civil aviation is frowned upon if not explicitly forbidden. Unfortunately the do-gooders have convinced the policy makers that lead in solder is evil since it will (among other evils will leach out in landfills), the irony is that lead exists naturally with other metals like...TIN! Imagine that!

Another irony is the lead-free alloys are less reliable than the good old eutetic (tin/lead) solders, resulting in premature product failures which will end up in the landfills sooner. Isn't progress wonderful?

We now return you to the regular program.

Thanks for all the input guys, haven't had a chance to try the solder trick yet, gotta wait till tomorrow. I live in the South of the UK, Wiltshire. United States of Europe.

BTW, I've managed to track down one pup, just need one more.

Tin Solders, isn't that an old Stiff Little Fingers track?

Almost, if you include an additional 'i'...

Like Stiiff Liittle Fiingers?