Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I heard the sound samples from the 'great pickup shootout' (thanks for posting those!) and I'm intrigued by the sound of Rick humbuckers. Anybody try them in a 330 or 360? With 250k or 500k pots?

Could be interesting... And they don't look much different than the hi-gains. If I got a set o' humbuckers, I'd have every kind of pickup that Rickenbacker makes! I'm just not sure about having to change out the pots. What a pain.

Ethan: John Williams has tried the humbuckers in a 360 and as far as I know was happy with the result. JWilli?

I've used them in a 350, and it sounded great...

Don, Did you change the pots or anything, or did you just drop them in your 350?

Ethan: While we are waiting for Don. I had a humbucking pickup in my Model 350 for a time and it worked very well. I just dropped it in. I eventually switched it back to a toaster in favour of a more vintage sound. The RIC humbucker was whisper quiet.

This is good to know. I'm planning on equipping a 620 with humbuckers.

I also swapped out the hi-gains in my 360 for HBs (kept the same pots). I really like it and have been using it so much that my 1997 with toasters is probably feeling very neglected.

Ethan;
Actually, I did a PU swap on my buddies 355JL ltd Ed.long scale guitar.We kept the original pots[presumably 250Ks] and I did this mod where you make the small 5th knob a volume for the center PU.Personal choice here, but both my buddy and I prefer a Rick to have totally matched sets of PUs on them, i.e.,If you're going for HBs, use All HBs.The transition from charachteristically noisy single coils[toasters and Hi-Gains] to HBs on 1 guitar bugs me. If there's going to be noise, I want it all the time. If not, 2 or 3 HBs are just incredibly quiet.BTW, before my friend had the 355JL, he had a '67 625 we stuck HBs in as well.
FWIW, at the time, he was running a JMI AC 50 head and a closed back AC 30 cab w/ original Celestions in it.God, what a tone.....

Does anyone know if the 650 series has 250K pots or 500k pots?

I would have thought that HBs would sound muddy with 250k pots, but Rickenbacker doesn't make 'typical' guitars - or pickups! If I wouldn't have to change pots to get a good sound... that might tip the scale for me!