Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I'm looking for a bridge pickup. Anybody have a spare one?

Why? I have a 1976 4001. A very lovely bass, my mainbass at rock-gigs. But sometimes I have troubles with the bridge pickup: sometimes there comes no sound out of it. When I bought the bass, there was the same problem and a guy at a store told me he had to rewind it. I have the bass now for two years and the problem came back two months ago.
I was at another store and the guy that took a look at it thought there was a bad contact. When he wanted to fix it, he was very surprised that the wire on the pickup was so short it couldn't easily be fixed. He was wondering if the pickup was realy rewounded the first time.
Some time after the soldering was fixed, the problem came back.
At that time, I went to the guy that fixed the pickup the first time and he told me that there was something wrong with the magnet in the pickup. It was broke he told me, but he think he fixed it. He was not sure it would stay ok, but I could give it a chance. Can this story be true? I don't believe that guy anymore I think (certainly about that rewinding story)
So, to come back to the start of my topic: do I need another bridge pickup? (damn, they are expensive - there was one for sale at a reasonable price at a local site, but I was just to late for it). Does anybody have a spare one at a reasonable price?

Welcome to the forum, Bart.

Check the contacts on the output jack and the pickup selector switch. They might need to be cleaned or bent back into proper shape.

aceonbass wrote:I'd send it to Sergio, who hosts Winding Up With The Best on this forum. He fixed a dead toaster I send him with an improved design and rewound the pickup to 10 ohms to better match the output of the HB1 used in the bridge on one of my customers 8 string conversions. His workmanship was superb and the price very reasonable.

10K ohms, Dane. 10 ohms would not output any appreciable signal at all.

Bart - welcome to the RRF. I would look like Joey said at the switch and the jack first. The standard jack (mono) has switch contacts in it to common the two pickups and if they get corroded or bent then you'd only get one pickup. Check those two things first.

And yes, the first guy is feeding you a line. He doesn't sound like he knows much OR he's trying to get rid of you because he doesn't know Ricks.

Thx guys for your warm welcome and thx for the advice!
The problem with that first guy I think is that he doesn't know much about Ricks but that he won't admit it because he hopes he will still get some work (and money of course).
The second one is more honest and I'm not sure he's very familiar with Ricks, but he's a good overall technician (and he did check my pickup for free, so that one isn't after the money and he did already some very nice work on another bass and on my Ampeg B15S). The selector doesn't stay easy in the bridge pickup-mode so that can be the problem (or the jack). I'll check these two things first (and I'll let the selector replace).

contrabassie wrote:Thx guys for your warm welcome and thx for the advice!
The problem with that first guy I think is that he doesn't know much about Ricks but that he won't admit it because he hopes he will still get some work (and money of course).
The second one is more honest and I'm not sure he's very familiar with Ricks, but he's a good overall technician (and he did check my pickup for free, so that one isn't after the money and he did already some very nice work on another bass and on my Ampeg B15S). The selector doesn't stay easy in the bridge pickup-mode so that can be the problem (or the jack). I'll check these two things first (and I'll let the selector replace).

I will go out on a limb here and say the pickup switch is the cause of your problem. Pull the guard and observe how the switch contacts work. Both ways you throw the switch should work the same, the leaves of the contacts should be shaped the same. Use needle nose pliers and bend the offending side to look like the working side.

Also your 4001 neck truss rods do not work like any other instrument. Make sure you understand how to properly adjust them before ever trying or letting anyone else adjust them.