Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Hi,

I'm a newbury on here so forgive any poor forum etiquette!
I've just had 3 shiney toasters put on my 2009 370 12 (FG) and it generally all sounding gorgeous, but I am wondering if the middle pickup is actually working properly.

When I use the blend knob all the way clockwise with the selector in the middle pos, I get the bridge (p3) only - as you'd expect. But, if I flick the switch up - to engage p1 and p2 together - with the blend still all the way clockwise - I'm getting only the centre pickup, p2, (tapping p1 and p3 reveal them to be off). But, here's the thing: p2 is then very weak and muffled sounding on its own. If I move the blend all the way counter clockwise I get the bridge - sounding strong and clear on it's own. It's as if the blend is attempting to issolate the two and p2 is just not performing properly.

Can anybody suggest what's going on here? There are plenty of comments on here about how you can't issolate the centre pickup with standard wiring; but I seem to be able to, only it's not putting out a decent level. It makes sense to me that if p1 and p2 are wired together, effectively as one pickup, the blend might do nothing at all, but this isn't the case here - it's definately treating them differently.

The toasters were purchased from and installed by reputable outfits, so I'd be quite suprised if anything is physically wrong, but what I'm seeing does not seem to agree with the comments I've seen on here so it may be the wiring is non-standared in some way? Any informed comments from 3 pickup experts greatly welcome!

Thanks!

That does not sound like you'd expect from standard wiring.

The standard 3-p/u wiring has the neck and middle pickups wired together in parallel, so you would always get equal contributions from them. Further, with standard wiring the blend knob is just a second volume pot in series with the main bass volume pot, and not wired to ground. So no matter how far the blend knob is turned it doesn't cut out the neck/middle pickups entirely, but merely changes the amount of their contribution to the signal.

In other words, with normal wiring if you put the selector switch in the middle and turn the blend knob all the way clockwise you would not get all bridge pickup, but would still get a mix of all three.

Likewise, with normal wiring if you flick the switch to the up position you would get equal contributions from neck and middle, with nothing from the bridge. Turning the blend knob would change the volume a bit but no matter how it is turned you would not get any contribution from the bridge p/u.

So it sounds to me like yours has been wired in a non-standard way, or else in the process of installing the new p/u something was messed up.

Do you have any familiarity with reading wiring schematics? If so, you can get the 370 schematic on the Rickenbacker company website and compare it to your actual wiring.

Thanks for the detailed reply Jdawe,

I agree - what you're saying sounds correct to me.

Yes, I have seen that 370 wiring diagram - the way p1 and p2 are strapped together as one isn't consistant with what I've got going on.

I can't help thinking that if (switch in the up pos) the blend knob was able to split the contribution of p1 and p2 (in much the same way that it's splitting p12 with p3 in the middle pos), that would actually be quite a nice wiring solution to have. This is pretty much what I seem to have, only my p2 is very quite and muffled. I've seen there's a bit of chat about alternative wirings on here. I'll take a closer look.

I think I'll fire an email to the workshop where the toasters were installed and see what they have to say - they're a very professional outfit. I just don't want to miss out on a properly working p2 as it cost me $140 - way too much to pay for a shiney thing which does nothing but interfere with your right hand technique!

Thanks again,

Mark

As I'm on ill leave and feeling a bit better I decided to test Mark's observation on my 340 to see what I hear on my three PU model.

Selected the middle setting first, closed the blend knob... played an Emajor, opened the blend knob slowly... works all fine.
Selcted the bridge PU setting, closed the blend knob... played an Emajor, opened the blend knob slowly... works all fine.
Selected the neck/middle PU setting, closed the blend knob... played an Emajor, opened the blend knob slowly... sounds like another volume knob! Blend knob more open means less sound in total though; blend knob fully open still leaves some sound, bit it's not even 3rd of the level at fully closed.

Grabbed the 360, as it only has two PUs... selector to neck PU, I hear the neck PU fully when the knob's closed, when I open it to blend sound like on the middle selector setting the sound drains away like a volume knob, although at fully open there's always a bit of sound coming out.

I always thought one could blend in the bridge PU on the neck PU when the selector is set to neck and one uses the blend knob?

@Mark: is the middle PU in the way when picking? I really, really, really had to get used to that center PU being physically there!