Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

OK,
I now have 4 scatter-wound Toasters : -
7.40k
7.36k
7.19k
7.12k

I also have 3 Ricks : -
1994 330-6 FG
1996 360-6 MG
2008 330-6 MG

Which pickups in what positions on which guitars?
Any other "mods" needed, caps replaced, pots replaced etc.

Strings will probably be Rickenbacker Compressed Roundwound 10's, or maybe GHS flat-wound 9's or D'Addario XL 9's.... or any other suggestions welcome.

Also just as an after thought, has anyone ever tried putting Rick pickups on any other type of guitar?
If so, in what and how did they sound compared to what was replaced.

Cheers
TRM

Considering my recent experience with installing scatterwounds, I would suggestion changing your volume pots to 250k and your tone pots to 500k all audio taper. I have found that the range of the new pot values is more useful. The volumes bleed off less treble so I can use them a bit more to clean up my sound on the fly(if you want the whole range of the pot to work for this you probably would still need some kind of treble bleed which I will try eventually). Actually the tone knobs aren't drastically different, although since I went with CTS audio taper pots, I find the taper is more gradual and smooth. This is probably a function of the quality of pot more than the change in value methinks.

I would personally avoid the .0047 cap. In my guitar it made the bridge pickup unusable (so bright!) by itself unless the tone knob was rolled way back. In the middle position I could get a usable sound by rolling off the neck volume and blending the dark bassy neck sound with the insanely bright bridge sound. Kind of cool but when I shorted out the cap, I instantly like all positions more. I can now get a HUGE range of sounds in the middle position and the bridge and neck both sound absolutely stellar by themselves. That being said when it comes to stuff like this you never know if you don't try it.

As far as which guitar to install the pickups in I think you could look at it two ways. One would be to use the two hotter pickups as bridge pickups and the two lower winds as neck pickups. So the ones that are 7.4kish in the bridge and the ones that are 7.2kish in the neck. The other way would be to use the two lower winds in one guitar and the two hotter ones in another. I think the difference between them is great enough that the second option will work great. My pickups are 7.41k and 7.38k or thereabouts and they balance very nicely. The blend knob helps if they aren't exact anyhow.

If it were me I would choose the guitar of your three with the best sounding pickups and leave it alone. Then I would have one guitar with cleaner sounding pickups and one with slightly hotter sounding pickups (as far as which guitar of the two that were left I don't know just pick one!). It would be interesting to hear the difference. I would suspect that for my taste, the hotter ones would sound better clean and the lower output ones will sound a bit clankier/metallic/woody/twangy when overdriven than the hotter ones. To me that is a good thing! I love the sound of low output pickups with a dirty sound. I used to have a Gretsch with HiLotron pickups which had an output of just shy of 4k! They needed the amp to be CRANKED or some kind of boost in line to get the amp to breakup but when it did what a glorious sound! So clear and clanky/woody/twangy etc. So yeah hope this helps.

ROCK ON!

P.S. You have an amazing dilemma you lucky guy! Three Rics and pickups with a range of outputs to experiment with. A bit fiddly but pretty rewarding when you are done with it I suspect. Good luck!

Thanks for the in-depth reply, very much appreciated.
I now just have to find the time to install them, maybe try out a few combinations of guitars and pickups.
The odd thing is that all 3 guitars sound and feel different.
In order of preference, it’s the 360, 330FG then the 330MG.
I must admit that the 330MG (2008) still has that "it's too new" feeling about it and the other 2, granted, they are both over 10 years old, feel like a pair of nicely worn in leather shoes... so I really don't know which to use but I suspect that I may try the 360's pickups on the 2008 330 and see if that makes it sound any different. Acoustically it has a sort of nasal banjo sound to it that the other 2 don't appear to have which also shows through when it is played clean, might temporarily try a pair of toasters on it as well just to see what that does, but it is my least favourite of the 3.

Danhalen wrote:I would suggestion changing your volume pots to 250k and your tone pots to 500k all audio taper.
I would personally avoid the .0047 cap.

What values are fitted as standard?

Also, as a completely unrelated after thought, is it worth taking the "blend" control out of circuit?

That's a lot of tweaking/moving around! That is how to figure this stuff out though. The stock pot values are 330k in all positions. I should mention that I was wrong about the quality of the pots. The pots I took out of my guitar are CTS! I am not sure if they are Linear or Audio taper, I couldn't find a marking. I believe the reason for the difference is that the 500k allows more range for the tone pot and the 250k loads the circuit a bit more when full up, so that it bleeds off less treble as it is turned down as compared to a higher value (330k in this case). I wouldn't call the pot change drastic but I prefer the new values. If you want more information on the .0047 cap, just search there are tones of threads on the subject. New guitars do not have this cap at all. It has not been present in new Rics for many years with the exception of some more recent reissues.

I suspect that the nasal quality your 330 has will be present regardless of pickups. It is probably a characteristic of that particular guitar and possibly something that will fade as it breaks in.

I love the blend knob and use it all the time. If you don't use it I'm sure you could find a use for the 5th pot. Master Volume maybe.

...250k loads the circuit a bit more when full up, so that it bleeds off less treble as it is turned down as compared to a higher value (330k in this case).

Then 250k pot will bleed off more treble than the 330k as there is less resistance to ground. The reality is since the two volume pots are in parallel the end result is the pickups see 125k and 165k or less respectively. There is not alot of difference as far as bleeding off the treble, Pots are generally not very accurate and are only within 20%.

As far as aesthetics go I would consider putting one set of toasters on the 2008 due to it having a smaller more vintage looking headstock. The toasters would complete the look.

Right when it is full up. So it gives the illusion of bleeding less treble off as it is turned down because it already loads the circuit more than the higher value when on full.

I think I prefer the newer High-Gains over the older ones, and would put the toasters on the older guitars.

dph wrote:I think I prefer the newer High-Gains over the older ones, and would put the toasters on the older guitars.

I was going to suggest the opposite, but that's a good point, Doug. Are the new hi gains hotter? Or lower output? What's different about them other than the adjustable pole pieces? I can't remember.

Gareth, when you describe the tone of your guitar too nasal and banjo-y, is that unplugged, plugged in, or both? Either way, that might be an indication of a really resonant guitar.

If you're describing the tone with the guitar plugged in, you might want to adjust the pole pieces on the new guitar before trying out new pickups, taking advantage of Doug's thought. If that doesn't work, then the new hi gains aren't doing the job for you tonally, so you might want to try the toasters, definitely with the hottest one in the bridge position. Scatterwound toasters seem to bring out the qualities of a really resonant guitar quite nicely.

I'm basing my judgment off of a limited sample, but to my ears the new high-gains seem a lot more articulate than the older ones. This seemed most noticeable for me in the neck pickup. My '88 330, which was a wonderful guitar, had a neck pickup that was muddy to the point of near uselessness. By contrast, my 2009 330's neck pup sounds great to my ears, and is very usable and responsive to changes in the tone control, not too unlike a P-90.

Again, I'm basing my judgment off of only two guitars.