Rickenbacker Glenn Frey p'ups

[soundmasterg]

A classic approach is to tin the end of the wire sticking out of the epoxy, and to tin the end of a piece of similar gage magnet wire separately, and then solder them together with a small solder drip, the wires being parallel (not twisted together). A pool of solder may weigh too much, and will tend to tug on the fragile wire of the coil. When done, glue the joint and the new wire down with wax or tar.

With the broken wire on the pickup, there is only the tip of the wire to solder to....there is nothing to put in parallel with added wire.
44 gauge wire is pretty dang small, and I would fear the solder joint coming undone even if glued with such a small soldering area....which is why I considered carefully trying to dremel a small channel near the wire to try to get more surface area. I look at it this way though...I can't screw it up anymore than it already is.

Greg

[Joe Gwinn]

With the broken wire on the pickup, there is only the tip of the wire to solder to....there is nothing to put in parallel with added wire. 44 gauge wire is pretty dang small, and I would fear the solder joint coming undone even if glued with such a small soldering area....which is why I considered carefully trying to dremel a small channel near the wire to try to get more surface area. I look at it this way though...I can't screw it up anymore than it already is.

OK, but I would fear the dremel tool. Far too aggressive. A soldering iron tip at 800 F will chew epoxy, but will not hurt copper wire.

[David Schwab]

OK, but I would fear the dremel tool. Far too aggressive. A soldering iron tip at 800 F will chew epoxy, but will not hurt copper wire.

I agree.

As someone who has taken a few epoxy'd pickups apart, I can safely say that any mechanical separation will likely damage the coil wire.

[soundmasterg]

Yah....I was worrying about that too.....the only bits that could remotely even work would be really small ones like those used for inlay work, and it would be hard to control.....yet just soldering I don't think will be enough because there is only the tip of wire to work with......I guess its worth a shot first though. If it doesn't work then I can try the dremel or some other idea.

I need to get a vice to hold the pickup secure though....don't have a vice yet at my place. I could go to my dad's place to try it but he doesn't have good lighting and thats the other thing I need.

Greg

[Joe Gwinn]

I need to get a vice to hold the pickup secure though....don't have a vice yet at my place.

Make a holding fixture from some scrap wood? This can work better than a vice, as it's purpose built, and fits perfectly.

[salvarsan]

So the neck pickup is the one that needs the fix, and it is 14.45k DCR, 19.6k ACR @ 1k, 6.801 henries for inductance, 2.096 Q @ 1k, 44 guage wire, and I have no idea how many winds.

What are the blade measurements?
We may be able to estimate the coil specs.
-drh

[soundmasterg]

I don't have a caliper.....maybe I can have Possum measure it next time I see him if he would agree to touch a Rickenbacker pickup....he's very scared of doing that though.....said it makes his ears bleed...I told him thats only when he plays them with the treble up all the way, but he's skeptical.

If I can find a good way to measure them I could post the results. At this point I want to fix the pickup without having to rewind if at all possible because I don't relish trying to clean up all that epoxy, and I'd need a cover for sure because it would melt....and they are unobtanium.

Greg