Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I've just recently bought a beautiful Jetglow model 620, and I love the way it looks, sounds, and plays. The high-gain pickups are somewhat noisey, as expected, for single-coils. Other single-coil guitars that I have reverse the polarity of the pickup magnets between the two pickups so that when both are on, in the middle position they cancel hum by being wired "reverse phase, reverse polarity", giving a basically in-phase sound, with out-of-phase hum cancelling. The high-gain pickups are, of course, of the same magnetic polarity, so this isn't possible. I was wondering if there is a way to flip the magnets in one pickup to achieve hum-cancelling in the middle position, or if Rickenbacker makes high-gains with south poles instead of north, or vice-versa. Is this possibly not done because it would somehow interfere with the "Ric-O-Sound" effect, or something?

People do this with their 4001/3 basses all the time, BUT, the hum cancelling effect only works if both pickups are up full, and it won't work if you're playing in stereo. If the hum is that bad, you probably have other issues that should be addressed.

aceonbass wrote:People do this with their 4001/3 basses all the time, BUT, the hum cancelling effect only works if both pickups are up full, and it won't work if you're playing in stereo. If the hum is that bad, you probably have other issues that should be addressed.

I assumed that it would only work with both pickups on full, and I also have possible shielding/grounding issues, it seems, but thanks for the information. I know that Ric pickups have some extremely delicate wiring, and I'm wondering if this I magnet-flipping is a job I can do myself, or if you or anyone knows someone who can do this work, or who even has a reverse-pole high-gain pickup for sale?

Hi Griffith,

I did this to my circa 1995 Hi-Gain a few years ago. I first used this as a guide: http://palka.com/rickpick.html.

I posted about it in viewtopic.php?f=13&t=402990&start=15#p821685.


You just have to cut off the magnet and flip it over 180 degrees, and glue it, then reverse-wire positive to negative.
There's 2 difficulties:
1. don't cut the tiny wires that surround the magnet: the glue is strong, and the knife can slip easily. Just aim away from the wires.
2. don't cut the magnet material, its brittle, almost rubbery, like a magnet for a refrigerator. Some of it may pull apart from itself and stay in the glue.

I used an exacto blade to cut, and plain old epoxy to glue.

Good Luck!

Thanks for your answer. I'm not sure if I'm up to that delicate work, however. I'm also considering the use of a passive hum-cancelling coil mounted inside the guitar, or under the pickguard. That worked for me years ago when I had a Rickenbacker 325 (wish I still had it).

This is an easy mod to do and well worth the effort.