Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi there.

I just had a like new Toaster Pick Up, today i measured the impedance and it scores 6.9K, instead of the correct (as far as i know) 7.3 / 7.4 value.

Is this correct ? Or maybe it mean that the pu has been rewound or could it be a short ?

Doesn't Cassius have a toaster in his bass that meters out at about that? I think it is in the neck position, if my memory serves. Maybe we can get him to chime in. Mark

6.9 is fine, don't worry about it. Some have a few more turns than others, a few hundred ohms doesn't make any difference in tone or gain.
FYI, You measured the DC resistance not the impedance.

ricmic wrote:Doesn't Cassius have a toaster in his bass that meters out at about that? I think it is in the neck position, if my memory serves. Maybe we can get him to chime in. Mark

I do. It measures 6.8 K out of the circuit and 6.5-6.6 in. Scott Pope and I swapped it for a 7.4 K Toaster and the difference (if anything) was a slight cut to any "mud" coming out of that pickup position. It came measuring 6.8 K from Pick of the Rics.

I sold Mattia his Toaster through a friend in New York who apparently delivered it to him. When it left me I was measuring it in the low 7s, which is basically the same spec as a 7.3-7.4 K Toaster. What I told Mattia via e-mail when he brought his reading to my attention is that I thought multimeter calibration might be the culprit here, as I am not sure why else impedance would decrease.

Anyways, Mattia, I think you're good to go ahead and install it like the others have already said.

Yes, you will really not hear the difference, and as Josh states, I believe it is the difference in meters that is really what we are seeing.

cassius987 wrote:

ricmic wrote:Doesn't Cassius have a toaster in his bass that meters out at about that? I think it is in the neck position, if my memory serves. Maybe we can get him to chime in. Mark

I do. It measures 6.8 K out of the circuit and 6.5-6.6 in. Scott Pope and I swapped it for a 7.4 K Toaster and the difference (if anything) was a slight cut to any "mud" coming out of that pickup position. It came measuring 6.8 K from Pick of the Rics.

I sold Mattia his Toaster through a friend in New York who apparently delivered it to him. When it left me I was measuring it in the low 7s, which is basically the same spec as a 7.3-7.4 K Toaster. What I told Mattia via e-mail when he brought his reading to my attention is that I thought multimeter calibration might be the culprit here, as I am not sure why else impedance would decrease.

Anyways, Mattia, I think you're good to go ahead and install it like the others have already said.

FYI: It's DC Resistance you are measuring. I forgot to mention temperature, the typical reference is 70 degrees. Any "mud" is from something other than the ohms you are reading.

Ok guys, the point of my post was if a 6.9K Toast could work anyway (now i know that it works), i didn't wanted to point the finger on anyone.

And in fact Cassius was right about the multimeter thing : thanks to Murphy's Law, i had the only one mtmeter measuring the wrong value : i tried other 5 friend's multimeters and all of them gave the expected 7.3 KOhm, so i'm really sorry if i accidentaly raised a storm ... tomorrow i will trash my multimeter ...

No prob Mattia, when you are unfamiliar with a new subject such as this it is easy to have concerns and/or get confused so we all understand. Anyways, you're educated on it now and that's what counts. I hope you enjoy the new Toaster.

Mattia, your multimeter has been "Toasted"!


Eden.

weemac wrote:Mattia, your multimeter has been "Toasted"!
Eden.

Very sad about this, cause when i bought it, the guy at the store asked me if i wanted the ******/economic one or the professional/reliable one.
I choosed the second and the result is .... mine is reading the wrong value and those of my friend (****** ones of corse) are reading the right value ....

argh

No need to trash it, It may just need to be calibrated or a new battery. If it's still not accurate it still has value as a go/no go meter with your readings being plus or minus 10 or 20 percent.

Yeah, 6.8, 6.9 – whatever it takes.

bassduke49 wrote:Yeah, 6.8, 6.9 – whatever it takes.

?

It's a play on a quote from "Mr. Mom" where Michael Keaton's character, feigning machismo, is asked if he has something wired 220 (volts). He has no idea what they're asking, so tries to cover his ignorance by saying "220, 221 - whatever it takes."

My point is, would 6.8 really sound that much different than 7.0?

Am i wrong or the very early toasters were wound to very low values ?