Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Has anyone here tried using the Bill Lawrence Q-Filter with Rickenbacker Toaster pickups? I'm building a new harness for my Tele partscaster with Ric Toasters and I'm torn between a conventional tone control (probably a greasebucket circuit) and using the Q-Filter. As I understand it, the Q-Filter changes the pickups impedance, effectively making them sound as if they have less winds and more sweet/vintage. The Toasters I have were purchased about five years ago, and from what I've read they're more heavily wound and higher in output than the old Toasters from years ago. I'm wondering if the Q-Filter might contribute to them having a more traditional vintage tone.

The Ohms rating has not changed on Toasters since you bought them. They're still 8K Ohms.

Thanks for the reply. I'm surprised but pleased to hear that they're still the same as the old ones. I know that I've read somewhere online that they were greater number of winds, machine wound rather than scatter-wound, and higher in output. For the life of me, I can't seem to find that information again, but I'm sure the information on this forum is more likely to be reliable, and I appreciate it.

Still interested in knowing if anybody's tried Toasters with the Lawrence Q-Filter.

Use the "Advanced Search" on this forum for "hot toasters" and you will find posts that indicate that the hotter-wound (12K) toasters were made from 1981 to 1998 or so. They were succeeded by the current "scatter wound" toasters which are in the 7 - 8K range in 1999 or thereabouts.

I went ahead and installed the Q-Filter today. It sounds pretty good, although the effect is pretty subtle on single coil pickups. I haven't done much adjustment of the Toasters heights...It's proved to be a bit problematic on a Fender-based guitar where there's not enough room to top-mount the pickups. I'm curious whether it's worth chasing a solution - How close to the strings are Toasters normally set on a Rickenbacker?

Spellcaster wrote:How close to the strings are Toasters normally set on a Rickenbacker?

I set the strings so that when pressing down at the last fret the strings are just high enough off the tops of the pickups to not hit them when plucking reasonably hard.

THE QUEST FOR TONE
http://www.ggjaguar.com/quest1.htm

http://www.ggjaguar.com/quest2.htm