Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Does anyone know how to tell the difference between vintage and reissue toasters? I could not find a link on the forum for that....I'm sure there are some folks selling reissues toasters as vintage ones...

vintagemusicgear wrote:Does anyone know how to tell the difference between vintage and reissue toasters? I could not find a link on the forum for that....I'm sure there are some folks selling reissues toasters as vintage ones...

There are at least three types of "toaster-top" pickups -- 1) originals from the '50s through early '70s; 2) toasters on reissues and other random examples from late '70s through about 2000; and 3) the current (from about 2000) reissue scatterwound toasters -- wound to more closely reproduce the tone of the early toasters at around 7.0 ohms, more or less. The middle version (2) of the toasters generally have Phillips head screws on the corners and read at about 12.0 ohms (same as hi-gains).

That's what I recall off the top of my head.

The "Hot Toasters" read at about 12K ohms.

The vintage toasters come vary in ohms but are much lower at about the 7k range, and have slot headed screws at the corners. They look older, and IIRC the wire leads are different from the hot and reissue toasters. They also come in a long and short pole variety; the short pole toasters are about flush with the bottom surface of the base plate.

Usually a vintage toaster pickup will look like it's 40 years old, for starters...

Then there are the corner screws, nuts, power output, plastic dimples etc etc.....probably best to post a pic and we can tell you pretty easily if they are vintage or not.