Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Have any of you guys out there swapped the high gain neck pickup on your 4003's for a Toaster?

I see a lot about putting Toasters on 4001's but not so much on a 4003? Obviously the treble pickup would have too be backed off a fair bit to compensate for the relative low output of the Toaster.

This topic has almost certainly been posted before in the past, but has anyone got any comments on this?

I experimented with a Toaster on my 4001 and could never come to a decision as to which I preferred, I still have the Toaster pickup and am thinking of trying it on my 4003.

I did it one one of mine, put a horseshoe on the bridge too. I like it a lot, not a huge difference in sound, but definitely different, I'm not really sure how to describe it though. I also moved the neck pickup to the 1/2 inch spaces position since the body was routed to handle that. Not all 4003s are routed that way though so you might have to do some wood work if you want the 1/2 inch position...

I found this to be an unusual question because my 4003, and the many I researched before buying, came fitted with a toaster in the neck PUP position. The bridge PUP output was much higher so I thought I'd raise the neck PUP. No dice, the adjustment was fully up already. The last time I played with the bridge PUP, I removed the bezel and reassembled it in such a way that the cover was on, the ground wire was on but the adjusting screws allow me to sink the PUP deeper into the cavity without moving the cover down with it. At the depth I wanted for the PUP, the conventional method of securing the cover meant the cover itself hit the strings. That's why I reassembled mine differently. I get much better volume balance between the two PUPs now.

AndyM wrote:I found this to be an unusual question because my 4003, and the many I researched before buying, came fitted with a toaster in the neck PUP position. The bridge PUP output was much higher so I thought I'd raise the neck PUP. No dice, the adjustment was fully up already. The last time I played with the bridge PUP, I removed the bezel and reassembled it in such a way that the cover was on, the ground wire was on but the adjusting screws allow me to sink the PUP deeper into the cavity without moving the cover down with it. At the depth I wanted for the PUP, the conventional method of securing the cover meant the cover itself hit the strings. That's why I reassembled mine differently. I get much better volume balance between the two PUPs now.

The store I bought my 4003 from had on their web site that a Toaster was available as an optional item upon ordering, I do think though that the treble pickup on the 4003 is too powerful to be paired with it.

Well I bit the bullet and fitted the re-issue Toaster I had to my 4003 and I kind of like it. It seems to be a clearer sound than the stock high gain and in a way it seems to be a bit closer to the 4001 sound. Have only tried it briefly the weekend on a smaller amp but will gig with it on Saturday with my usual rig for the final test to determine whether I keep it on there or not.

I wasn't sure about the Toaster when I tried it on my 4001 as it seemed to make the sound too 'brittle' but on the 4003 it seems to work better.

AndyM wrote:I found this to be an unusual question because my 4003, and the many I researched before buying, came fitted with a toaster in the neck PUP position. The bridge PUP output was much higher so I thought I'd raise the neck PUP. No dice, the adjustment was fully up already.

I had a similar problem on my 4001, but with both stock pickups. Basically, the strings were just a little bit too high at the bottom of the fretboard, and I couldn't get the neck pickup any closer. This is almost certainly because the strings were slightly heavier than normal, but I never got round to tweeking the truss rods.

My solution, was to remove the rubber spacer between the pickup and the scratchplate, and fit a replacement set of 4 nuts/bolts that hold the pickup together. The replacement bolts had their head filed very flat (and very thin) just to get that bit closer to the strings, and it works an absolute treat. (mionimising the gap between the pickup "wings"and the pickguard.

I've since gone back to D'Addario lights, and the action is exactly where it is supposed to be, and the neck pickup is even better!!

Baker69 wrote:Well I bit the bullet and fitted the re-issue Toaster I had to my 4003 and I kind of like it. It seems to be a clearer sound than the stock high gain and in a way it seems to be a bit closer to the 4001 sound. Have only tried it briefly the weekend on a smaller amp but will gig with it on Saturday with my usual rig for the final test to determine whether I keep it on there or not.

I wasn't sure about the Toaster when I tried it on my 4001 as it seemed to make the sound too 'brittle' but on the 4003 it seems to work better.

You discovered the beauty of the Toasters on a bass. Why it made the 4001 sound brittle, I'm guessing the .0047uF cap was still inline with the bridge pickup? There should not have been too different of a sound between a 4001 higain and a toaster because the windings are close - 7.4k for a toaster, about 8.4 for a 70's higain. Hard to beat the 70s higains in a 4001, as long as the cap is removed or able to be bypassed.

If course, that is my opinion, and we all know opinions vary.

johnallg wrote:

Baker69 wrote:Well I bit the bullet and fitted the re-issue Toaster I had to my 4003 and I kind of like it. It seems to be a clearer sound than the stock high gain and in a way it seems to be a bit closer to the 4001 sound. Have only tried it briefly the weekend on a smaller amp but will gig with it on Saturday with my usual rig for the final test to determine whether I keep it on there or not.

I wasn't sure about the Toaster when I tried it on my 4001 as it seemed to make the sound too 'brittle' but on the 4003 it seems to work better.

You discovered the beauty of the Toasters on a bass. Why it made the 4001 sound brittle, I'm guessing the .0047uF cap was still inline with the bridge pickup? There should not have been too different of a sound between a 4001 higain and a toaster because the windings are close - 7.4k for a toaster, about 8.4 for a 70's higain. Hard to beat the 70s higains in a 4001, as long as the cap is removed or able to be bypassed.

If course, that is my opinion, and we all know opinions vary.

The sound with the cap in is what I'm into and is how I play my 4003 most of the time. It's a shame that the 4003 doesn't quite get the 4001 sound, even though I've seen postings by people who say the 4001 sounds the same as the 4003!

No, the toaster sounded a lot different to the 4001 high gain, I swapped the pickups over twice before deciding the toaster wasn't for me, it does however sound better on the 4003 and gets it closer to the 4001 sound that I like. Looking forward to gigging it the weekend.

Baker69 wrote:

johnallg wrote:

Baker69 wrote:Well I bit the bullet and fitted the re-issue Toaster I had to my 4003 and I kind of like it. It seems to be a clearer sound than the stock high gain and in a way it seems to be a bit closer to the 4001 sound. Have only tried it briefly the weekend on a smaller amp but will gig with it on Saturday with my usual rig for the final test to determine whether I keep it on there or not.

I wasn't sure about the Toaster when I tried it on my 4001 as it seemed to make the sound too 'brittle' but on the 4003 it seems to work better.

You discovered the beauty of the Toasters on a bass. Why it made the 4001 sound brittle, I'm guessing the .0047uF cap was still inline with the bridge pickup? There should not have been too different of a sound between a 4001 higain and a toaster because the windings are close - 7.4k for a toaster, about 8.4 for a 70's higain. Hard to beat the 70s higains in a 4001, as long as the cap is removed or able to be bypassed.

If course, that is my opinion, and we all know opinions vary.

The sound with the cap in is what I'm into and is how I play my 4003 most of the time. It's a shame that the 4003 doesn't quite get the 4001 sound, even though I've seen postings by people who say the 4001 sounds the same as the 4003!

No, the toaster sounded a lot different to the 4001 high gain, I swapped the pickups over twice before deciding the toaster wasn't for me, it does however sound better on the 4003 and gets it closer to the 4001 sound that I like. Looking forward to gigging it the weekend.

You could always put a toaster in at the bridge, or unwind the bridge pickup from the 12k down to around 8.4k.

johnallg wrote: You could always put a toaster in at the bridge, or unwind the bridge pickup from the 12k down to around 8.4k.

Or use an early 4003 bridge pup, or a 4001 bridge pup, or even better, an HB1 with a push/pull coil tap!

I put a toaster in a '08 4003. Along with a few other mods.

Very nice Jeff !!

jps wrote:I put a toaster in a '08 4003. Along with a few other mods.

Did you keep the stock bridge Hi gain in there? If so what are your thoughts on the sound?

I did have the stock hi-gain pickup in the bridge position for a while, until I got the magnetic horseshoe pickup you see in the photo. Given that I could drop the bridge pickup down I did get a good balance out of the two pickups, for my tastes and needs. In general (IMO) the neck pickup should be a bit lower in volume than the bridge pickup to get the "right" sound from a Rick bass, although I do find I use the neck pickup by itself fairly often, these days.

The neck pickup, especially on a Ric, will seem quieter than it is by virtue of the frequencies it is picking up... The closer you get to the neck the more fundamental is picked up and fewer harmonics. Because we hear the midrange so well, that is perceived as louder than an equal (or often greater) number of decibels of lower frequency.

For me a good Ric bass tone (or any two-pickup bass) is probably like what Jeff is describing, where the neck pickup seems to be quieter and cushions the resulting sound with a fat layer of bottom end. Whereas a lot of the perceived loudness and articulation is really the bridge pickup's job. However if you put it to a dB meter you'd likely find the neck pickup is a lot louder than your ears are able to appreciate, which is why a good amp and cabinet will really bring a neck pickup to life (especially on a Ric, even more so a Hofner or EB-0). Fenders are the least this way of the classic bass designs because their "neck pickups" (the split P pickup or the Jazz neck pickup) start not too far from where Ric's bridge pickup is!