Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Now that my thread title has grabbed your attention, here is my question. How do I properly Gauss a 1960's horse shoe magnet?? My 1968 horsie (hence Mr Ed) has arrived and I can detect zero magnetic pull on the magnets.

Any assistance rendered would be most appreciated and please layman's terms with pictures if you please!!

Sepp

I've read through a few different threads about how to re-gauss horseshoes but I'm not understanding how to put the magnets on. I have 3 rare earth magnets out of a computer hard drive but how do I know how to install them in order to gauss them properly?

Another method is to insert a magnet like the one on the rear of a speaker cone, in the gap but I'm assuming it has to be snug fitting? Not sure if I have any of those and does it matter how I orient the horseshoe??

I once saw a vid of a fellow doing it to an RM 1999 on YT.....from Britain. I don't know if it was the correct procedure.

Wilbur, where's my feedbag?!

You may be thinking of Eden from Oz.

I have that You Tube video saved but he does not explain how to tell which side of the magnet you run along the horsie! Very little precise info given there.

Oh for the record. The green bobbin, slotted pole piece bobbin on the 67 horseshoe pup is the exact same height as the non horseshoe green bobbin with slotted pole pieces. Exact same! Like I speculated, RIC just had wider open shoes made to accommodate the taller bobbin. My rough measurement of Mark Walkers bobbin was spot on. There was no shorter bobbin made in 1968 for use with the horseshoe pup. Earlier raised lip bobbins, yes. 1968, no.

Sepp

Good to know, the more we learn, the better.

As to polarity, I thought Eden, or was that Mark, who did discuss that some, in a video?

I spoke to Mark at length last night. Actually IM'ed on Facebook. Knowing the polarity of the magnets is key with charging them. even though the shoes are dead, he believes they'll still have some indication of polarity. I've ordered a polarity tester from Stew Mac and he gave me the name of a guy in Cali that has charged many pairs of horseshoes for him. While I hate to box these back up and send them back tot he left coast, if that's the best option, I'll do it. I'll give Tom Brantley in NC a shout as well to see if he can do them. These things won't even pick up a #6 flat washer. No tack whatsoever!! I also inquired about the inspection period from GC. while I imagine they can be re-gaussed, I need to be sure of that or I'm out a boatload of cash once the grace period ends if they are shot.

On a better note, the slotted pole green bobbin clocks in a 6.4 Ohms. Perfect!! I just just need to clean up the wiring by adding some shrink wrap to the splice used to extend the wire and maybe re solder the splice. Easy fix

Sepp

What condition did GC list the pickup as, working, for example?

Jeff,
They did not advertise it at all. I snagged it here, a preemptive strike before the arms race escalated. I have a call out to the national vintage acquisitions mgr. There has to be an inspection period. i think it was 30 days.

Oh, the 66 4001S the pup came with, it was not a 4001. it was a 4000 with the neck pup routing. the sad part was/is, it is also a re-fin. Use to be a Fireglo. The red stain still occupies the control cavity. Two pots are matching 1966 the other are not. Wrong caps too. An under the hood foto revealed a ton of info. So if any nicely figured Mapleglo 1966 4001 advertised out of a California GC pops up, is may not be what it seems.

Sepp

I take it the neck pickup route is not factory if the bass is indeed from 1966. Could be a good player bass if in decent shape. Back to my question, did GC test the pickup to check if worked/produced sound?

If your HDD magnets are thick enough, you can charge them like this:

http://files.rickresource.com/tech/magnet-shoes.jpg

Info I've garnered:

http://files.rickresource.com/tech/Re-M ... eshoes.rtf

There is also a thread with pics showing shoes being put on a large woofer's magnet structure. I have done this also, having a 12" woofer with a magnet structure that is just tall enough. Both shoes go on the woofer magnet the same way, i.e. the side with holes both up or both down.

I have a pair of thicker magnets out of an old IBM drive (10MB Star Trek Enterprise looking model) that I had an old pair of shoes that were very very weak and these magnets have the shoes charged and a year and a half later they are still just as strong.

jps wrote:I take it the neck pickup route is not factory if the bass is indeed from 1966. Could be a good player bass if in decent shape. Back to my question, did GC test the pickup to check if worked/produced sound?

Jeff,

Weird thing is, the series of forsner bit cuts to make the wiring channel to the neck route has red paint in the receses, like that route was original. The neck route looked like it conformed to factory but had no red paint in it.

John,

I'll take a peek at those files you posted. Thanks for putting them here. I sent the shoes out this afternoon to Brantley. he has re-gaussed countless pairs so I hope he'll get them where they need to be. However, I'd like to be able top know what I'm doing in case they need to be charged. I hear some of the magnets don't hold charges for very long. My 1965 is not that way, those are still as strong as the day I put them on!!

Sepp

Do try do get it gaussed correctly, as my method is really for naughty shoes that will not hold their charge using the correct method...
Eden.

Here are some under the hood pics.

The neck pu route does look factory. It is bizarre that there's no trace of paint in it.

Pics of the bass...