Toaster Bobbins.

[David Schwab]

The bobbins for the open cover pickups is made from phenolic PC board material. The rivet pole pieces hold the top and bottom together. They paint it black after that.

Our very own RedHouse (Brad) has a great pictorial on building one of these:

Cloning a Rickenbacker 4001 Neck Pickup

The toasters were different in that they had 6 long alnico rod magnets. The newer toasters had shorter magnets. I don't know what they look like now. The open top pickups had the steel poles and a ceramic magnet on the bottom.

You can get the covers/ring here:

+The Rickenbacker Page Parts

[Sweetfinger]

Thanks Sweetfinger. To be really clear: What I'm looking for is the open cover/ring that I linked to, and only the cover/bottom parts. Toaster pickups would be a bonus, but not my primary concern. Of cause I can buy the GFS pickup for 40$, gut them and do something usefull out of them, but if possible I would preffer to just get the covers/rings.

The supplier is a little squirrelly about requests like "just the cover" or "I don't need the pickup, just the mounting rings". Sometimes you just gotta order the whole thing

[Peter Naglitsch]

The supplier is a little squirrelly about requests like "just the cover" or "I don't need the pickup, just the mounting rings". Sometimes you just gotta order the whole thing

I thought that that might be the case. And if so I can just get the same pickups David linked to from GFand just rip the content out of there and build something good instead of that GFS crap. Thanks anyway Sweetfinger.

BTW what price for the SeiQ pickups and any minimun quantities? Getting a bunch, like ten or so, of the STURN (SeiQ) pickups might be cheeper than getting two from GFS.

Thanks for the link to the seller of the Ric covers David.

[jason lollar]

rickenbacker does have a trademark on the toaster pickup cover- the two horizontal black lines are trademarked- i have seen the paper work - believe me.
You can find them in korea but if you started making and selling them in the US youll get busted fast.
You can make them if they look different though!
I make them but havent them on the web yet- yes i have to make all the parts.
Mine have a large single black field in the center of the pickup cover so they dont violate any trademark.

[jrfrond]

I spoke with people at the Ric booth at Winter NAMM, prompted by an Ebay auction that my friend had going for a Greco Ric 325 copy he was selling, which got pulled by the eBay Police. Apparently, Ric has people who do nothing but watch the web and the industry for ersatz Ric-alikes, and take immediate action. They have ramped this up in the last several years, and John Hall is extremely vehement about it.

My impression too was that Ric will eventually be bought out, but after talking with them, I feel that they might in fact be the noblest of ALL USA guitar manufacturers. They absolutely REFUSE to have ANYTHING made in China or anywhere else but the USA, and swear that they do not need to import guitars to maintain cash flow, with 6-month backorders being the norm. Yes, a Ric will cost you, but you have to admit, love 'em or hate 'em, there's NO other guitar or bass like them, and they make darn sure of that. My hats off to them, seriously. Talk about having self-respect and pride in your work.

[David Schwab]

I spoke with people at the Ric booth at Winter NAMM, prompted by an Ebay auction that my friend had going for a Greco Ric 325 copy he was selling, which got pulled by the eBay Police.

And that's silly, since it was an old guitar and it wasn't posing as a counterfeit Rick.

Apparently, Ric has people who do nothing but watch the web and the industry for ersatz Ric-alikes, and take immediate action.

I think it's John Hall, based on a couple of emails he exchanged with me.

There are at least two companies overseas that make Rick copies.

I feel that they might in fact be the noblest of ALL USA guitar manufacturers. They absolutely REFUSE to have ANYTHING made in China or anywhere else but the USA, and swear that they do not need to import guitars to maintain cash flow, with 6-month backorders being the norm. Yes, a Ric will cost you, but you have to admit, love 'em or hate 'em, there's NO other guitar or bass like them, and they make darn sure of that. My hats off to them, seriously. Talk about having self-respect and pride in your work.

I really admire that it's the very same company it was back when R.C. Hall bought it. They keep making what they always made, the same way they made it.

[Harrysong]

So...what´s the material used for the bobbins. Some kind of plastic?

[David Schwab]

So...what´s the material used for the bobbins. Some kind of plastic?

The toasters have molded plastic bobbins, and the open faced high gain pickups use printed circuit board.

[Harrysong]

Thanks David.
What about the Magnets rods measurements and also were can I buy them?
I´m planning of doing my own.

[David Schwab]

Thanks David.
What about the Magnets rods measurements and also were can I buy them?
I´m planning of doing my own.

I don't have my toasters here with me, so I can't measure them.

I'm sure others here will know. Dan gave some details in post #10.

[jrfrond]

And that's silly, since it was an old guitar and it wasn't posing as a counterfeit Rick.



I think it's John Hall, based on a couple of emails he exchanged with me.

There are at least two companies overseas that make Rick copies.




I really admire that it's the very same company it was back when R.C. Hall bought it. They keep making what they always made, the same way they made it.

I agree it was silly that they pulled the auction, but he got around it by reposting with careful ad copy and NOT showing a picture of the headstock. In addition, the included Ric tailpiece and truss rod cover/nameplate were not mentioned. BTW- the toasters on the Greco copy were awful, microphonic pieces of garbage.

The most famous Ric copies were made by Matsumoku in Japan. They made the Greco guitars and Univox 4001 bass copies. Ibanez also made a 4001 bass copy, but it had a bolt-on neck. I don't know of TWO companies overseas, but know of one personally. When I worked for the American distributor, we had to pull a Rick-ish copy from the line after getting legal hassles from Rickenbacker. Yes, they ARE very serious about it, and you have to respect the fact that there aren't a zillion also-rans of their instruments, or components thereof. Fender and Gibson have trademarked their headstocks, but the body shapes are up for grabs, which is why Gibson lost to PRS in the single-cut lawsuit last year. The level at which Rickenbacker takes this to lends a whole new meaning to the term "lawsuit guitar"!

[David Schwab]

I don't know of TWO companies overseas, but know of one personally.

Here's one of them:



Here's the other:

[salvarsan]

I really admire that it's the very same company it was back when R.C. Hall bought it. They keep making what they always made, the same way they made it.

I am reminded of Melvyn Hiscock, author of Make Your Own Electric Guitar,
who related his encounter with John Hall to me at the 2001 Philadelphia
Great American Guitar Show. Melvyn sought some factual confirmation
about Rickenbacker truss rod design and was generously told,
"Why should I talk to someone who is trying to put me out of business?"

Other anecdotes confirm that most Rickenbacker luthery employees are kept
in one area of expertise for the duration -- very few people know how to
build a Rick guitar in its entirety, and those who do know are under severe
non-competition legal agreements for when they leave the firm.

In addition, Rickenbacker's product line is neither stable nor expanding,
but contracting. The neck-through solid bodies (660 & similar) were the
only ones that would hold tuning for most of a session, but I suppose most
customers prefer Ricks with a major design weakness intact and so deserve
to be exploited. So much for innovation or evolution within the idiom.

Compare this to the abundance of Gibson or Fender Custom Shop alumni
who run their own luthery.

Things like this reflect a person's generosity and breadth of vision.
John Hall seeks a monopoly on antique technology as is his right, chooses
to kill off innovation within his product line (as is his prerogative), so is
subject to market forces that will only innovate him into insignificance.

If I was desperate for a Toaster pickup, I'd drill out a P90 for A5 poles,
slap a steel bar across the top, and wind with #44 until I was happy.
It wouldn't be a Toaster, but it could likely be better.

-drh

[Artur pickupmaker]

[QUOTE=jrfrond;125193]
They absolutely REFUSE to have ANYTHING made in China or anywhere else but the USA [...]



This is a disagreement point. Why to buy everything from the USA? I think the north americans are rich and devloped enough, as a brazilian I think you should buy brazilian products to give more employ and devlopment to my country. Distribute devlopment is better than concentrate it in a latter analysis.

I know the americans will hate this I said but I had to say it.

[David Schwab]

Things are partially over priced in this country because of the cost of living. If things weren't so expensive, then stuff could be made cheaper, etc., etc.

People get greedy here... rents in my town are going up, especialy in the downtown area where the shops are. So shops that were there for 30 years and more, had to move out. So now we have all these empty store fronts!

I see no problem with doing trade with other parts of the world. That keeps the economy healthy.

As a good example, at my son's high school, they had someone come in to talk about recycling. In this town, they take the stuff put out for recycling, and it's sold to a recycling plant. So now the town made some money. The recycling plant takes that stuff and makes plastic from it that is sold to an Asian country who then makes DVD players out of it. Those products are then sold in the US.

Demand for DVD players makes demand for recycled goods, which makes demand for recycling centers, and all these places hire people.

When the economy tanked here, people stopped buying stuff like DVD players, and the need for recycled goods went down, and some US plants had to close or lay people off!

So that shows how buying an Asian made product helps workers in the US.

If you only buy from over priced US sources, some of which are getting their materials from over seas, then you have to increase the price of your product, and that starts the whole cycle over again.

I buy stuff from the US and other places too. Oh, and Rickenbacker uses woods like bubinga from Asia.