Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Has anyone put a toaster in their bridge pup assembly and if so did it fit and how did it sound?

Paging Jeff Scott!

Uh, er, at your soivice!

I put one in my old '04 4003FL. It was easy to install, looked great and sounded fabulous.
Bridge toaster solo'd in this recording.

Sounds great. Looks great. Toaster it is!
I am replacing a Higain in my bridge assembly.
Cannot find just the pup part. So if I gotta pay 150$ for the whole assembly, I may as well get the Toaster instead. Looks better. Probly sounds better, too. Just drop it in my assembly to replace the HB1 I have had in there.
I am assuming it get just as bright as a HiGain?

lumgimfong wrote:Sounds great. Looks great. Toaster it is!
I am replacing a Higain in my bridge assembly.
Cannot find just the pup part. So if I gotta pay 150$ for the whole assembly, I may as well get the Toaster instead. Looks better. Probly sounds better, too. Just drop it in my assembly to replace the HB1 I have had in there.
I am assuming it get just as bright as a HiGain?

What do you mean by the "whole assembly"? And, by just the "pup part"? And, the "just drop it in my assembly..."?

Toasters are brighter and clearer sounding than modern higain pickups IME., But keep in mind that on that recording I was using D'Addario Chromes (which are brighter than most flats, and I was playing finger-style, so you are not hearing the true brightness available from the toaster.

I have the bridge chrome surround and lift thingy. Just no HiGain in it.
I will install toaster. It drops in no mods necessary.
The modern bridge pup HiGain base has factory holes for toaster and hb1 installation so they can get swapped in/out no mods needed.

Do modern toasters still have the long, sticky-out pole pieces at the bottom? Just curious, cos if they do, I imagine that they might be a hindrance to fixing the toaster onto the bridge pup assembly's "cradle".

espidog wrote:Do modern toasters still have the long, sticky-out pole pieces at the bottom? Just curious, cos if they do, I imagine that they might be a hindrance to fixing the toaster onto the bridge pup assembly's "cradle".

They do, and no, they do not get in the way. Just use appropriately sized hardware (screws, lock washers, nuts) and the pickup mount quite easily. I suggest stainless steel hardware for this job. One other thing, don't crank down on the screws, just snug the pickup down to the base.

So that is a "Bass Toaster Neck" pup you put in there? Because they don;t make a bridge one for bass, correct?

lumgimfong wrote:Sounds great. Looks great. Toaster it is!
I am replacing a Higain in my bridge assembly.
Cannot find just the pup part. So if I gotta pay 150$ for the whole assembly, I may as well get the Toaster instead. Looks better. Probly sounds better, too. Just drop it in my assembly to replace the HB1 I have had in there.
I am assuming it get just as bright as a HiGain?

I would say more sounds different than better. The toaster is lower output and slightly brighter, but the high gain has more midrange grunt.

I have the toaster at neck and high gain at bridge and really like that set up. Switching between pickups is like switching between two totally different basses.

lumgimfong wrote:So that is a "Bass Toaster Neck" pup you put in there? Because they don;t make a bridge one for bass, correct?

They don't make one for bridge, but it doesn't really matter. The only difference between the bass toaster and guitar one is that the bass one is threaded for machine screws so as to be raised and lowered from the pickguard, whereas the guitar one is made to be mounted to the guitar body. The bass toaster even has six wide pole pieces rather than four.

OK. Thanks.

Korladis wrote:

lumgimfong wrote:So that is a "Bass Toaster Neck" pup you put in there? Because they don;t make a bridge one for bass, correct?

They don't make one for bridge, but it doesn't really matter. The only difference between the bass toaster and guitar one is that the bass one is threaded for machine screws so as to be raised and lowered from the pickguard, whereas the guitar one is made to be mounted to the guitar body. The bass toaster even has six wide pole pieces rather than four.

Yep, that's the only difference. For the bridge location application the "guitar" toaster is what is needed so that the mounting hardware is free to slide through the mounting holes on the baseplate of the pickup.

I’m confused. So only the guitar version will mount into the 4003 bridge position?
So I should buy the bass neck version for the 4003 neck position and the guitar version for the 4003 bridge position?

lumgimfong wrote:I’m confused. So only the guitar version will mount into the 4003 bridge position?
So I should buy the bass neck version for the 4003 neck position and the guitar version for the 4003 bridge position?

That would be ideal for what you want to do. You could use the neck position (bass) toaster but then you have to deal with a specifically threaded screw, potentially complicating the installation of the pickup. Finding hardware to use with the guitar toaster is a lot easier.