Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Thought I would start a new thread rather than hijack this one: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=411680

Took the pickguard off and I can't tell one pot from another by their codes. Measured all the standard volume and tone pots and they all hover around 180K. The original treble tone pot I removed when I did the push-pull mod measures 186K. This would suggest mine had 250K pots all-round, which should not be the case unless modified? If mine was modified, then they did a stellar job, as everything looked completely untouched until I took to it

Measured pickups while I was at it. Neck pickup measures 12.1K, bridge pickup is 10.9K. With the Sprague 0.0047cap IN, the bridge pickup reads 11.7K. I guess that's normal?

Oddly enough, my supposedly 330K official Rickenbacker CTS push-pull pot reads 512K.

I am going to reference another thread here from 2011, about pot values: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=401390

So this brings me to more questions:
1. Do you suspect the previous owner changed any components?
2. Should I be considering changing anything over? For example, installing 330K pots all-round?
3. I like the sound of the neck pickup, would there be any reason to replace its tone pot with a 330K or 500K at the moment - ie would this affect the tone greatly when both pickups running?

My only gripe is that she can sound slightly muddy at times when running both pickups. Not a deal breaker though. I'm not against modifying her, since she's a player I will do my best to keep clean. She does have some minor scars, nothing glaringly obvious thankfully. I won't modify anything that can't be returned to standard or hidden.

Bonus question, if you were to install toaster and RIHS, would you rout this for the 1/2" neck pickup spacing?

In relation to the 1/2" pickup location question, I did just that on my 2002 model with no issues whatsoever. If you look at the existing rout you'll see that it's deep enough for the pickup all the way up to the neck, but there is some wood that will need to be removed, just from the body wings. The bits of wood that need to be removed aren't structural, they are part of the wings not the neck and as they aren't parts of the wings that are glued to the neck (i.e. just the bits of wing-wood that are the edges of the current pickup rout) removing them is a non issue. Mine was routed 6 years ago and is 100% fine.

Hope this helps.

I've done a 2004 and a 2008 with no issues.

Just noticed this morning that the neck pickup tone knob doesn't do a whole lot. Compared to the bridge pickup it is much less sparkly. Yes I know that's the neck pickup but it should sound s bit more open no?

Would you guys recommend replacing the tone pot with a 330K, like maybe it should have been?

What pick guard did you guys use after the pickup move?

VRICKY63 wrote:What pick guard did you guys use after the pickup move?

I got mine from Tony at Pickguardian.com...

With the .0047 capacitor inline to the bridge pickup, you should be getting an infinite reading on the ohmmeter, since a capacitor does not pass DC. If you are getting a reading, it is the loading of the rest of the wiring.