Rickenbacker Bass Pickup

[Electricdaveyboy]

Hello Winders,
got one for repair.I was toldit is a 4001 bridge single coil.
Can you tell wich wire,Dc resistance and turns are used on those-.

[belwar]

Hey thats pretty cool. Thanks for sharing these

[David Schwab]

I can beat that one! Here's one from a '74 4001. You can see that it used slotted screws and had an aluminum bracket.

I don't know how many turns, but they used 44AWG. This one had gone dead at some point, so I removed the wire a few years ago with the intent on rewinding it, and haven't gotten around to it. I do know it was 8.2K from the notes I took back in 1978. I'd wind it a bit hotter. I think the newer ones were.

Here's some photos so you can see what's on the inside. The start connection is made to a screw which exits out the bottom of the pickup. That's also the ground connection.

I was surprised to see the screws insulated with foam rubber. That one might not have that, from what I've heard.

[David King]

I have one coming in soon too so let's put our heads together and figure this out. How long is the bobbin? 8.2K of 44 isn't very much wire, maybe 5000 turns? I'd say 10K would be better but I don't know that. I might try 43awg if there's room for it on the bobbin.

[David Schwab]

I have one coming in soon too so let's put our heads together and figure this out. How long is the bobbin? 8.2K of 44 isn't very much wire, maybe 5000 turns? I'd say 10K would be better but I don't know that. I might try 43awg if there's room for it on the bobbin.

Synchronicity is at work here. Just last night I took measurements of this pickup for Brad! That's also why I had the photos handy.

The bobbin is made from two pieces of what looks like FR-4, that is painted black when it's finished. The top flatwork is .06" thick, and the bottom is .1". The bobbin is 3.018" long, and 1.09" wide. The ends are roughly rounded by hand, so I'm sure the sizes vary from pickup to pickup. The winding space between the flatwork is .362".

It uses screws or rivets for poles, depending on when it was made. Mine has slot headed machine screws, but later pickups used some kind of spiral fluted rivets. I heard they had issues with people trying to turn the screws, and breaking the pickup!

The magnet is a rubberized ceramic magnet. It appears to have a single pole on each side, unlike the kind used for refrigerator magnets.

The magnet is 3.254" x .962" x .338" thick. It read 339G south up.

This pickup was 8.2K. The neck toaster was 8.5K. I believe the later hi-gain pickups were a bit hotter.

I have some notes somewhere I got from the Rickenbacker forum. I'll have to see if I can find them.

[12Bass]

Cool! Looks a lot like the bridge pickup in my 1982 4001. The tone is quite snarly once the bass-cut capacitor is removed from the circuit (even louder than the neck).

One thing I've never understood is why Rickenbacker doesn't make the two pickups RWRP so that they cancel hum like a Jazz bass? I don't think it would significantly change the tone (other than lower noise). Even though my 4001 is fully copper foil shielded with a star ground, it still picks up normal single coil hum.

[David King]

Maybe because Rickenbacher have had their heads in the sand since about 1950. They just aren't very intelligent but somehow they keep bumbling along with a huge base of blind and deaf fans who have apparently never played a Fender.

[David Schwab]

Maybe because Rickenbacher have had their heads in the sand since about 1950.

Yeah, and when they do change things, it's not the right thing.

They just aren't very intelligent but somehow they keep bumbling along with a huge base of blind and deaf fans who have apparently never played a Fender.

Hey, I resemble that remark! (except I had played a Fender)



Oh yeah, and this guy.

[automan]

I just fixed a pickup out of a '70 Ric today. The top and bottom looked to be a thick PCB material. It was painted black after the wire was on. The poles have a super high angled threads going through the middle. Kinda like the blades on an old style push mower. Once I got the old wire off, there was a screw that the start wire is soldered to that is exposed under the magnet flush with the bottom. You have to solder the wire to that, then wrap the poles with tape or the threads on the poles would definitely break the wire. Once you finish winding it, there is supposed to be another screw to solder to in one of the corners, but it was long gone, so I made a brass eyelet for it. I soldered the hot to that. At this point, I taped the outside of the coil. The coil I cut off wasnt potted, so I didn't pot this repair.The magnet has a groove running the short way across the middle that the wire runs to the screw for the start wire. I soldered the shielding to that and ran it through the channel in the magnet. There is also a grounding strap from one of the corners to the ground wire, which you can see in the pictures.

I am returning this pickup tomorrow and didnt think to take measurements or pics. I just took these with my camera phone so hopefully they will be of use to someone here.

[mkat]

Not sure if 4003 pickups will, but I have a neck hi-gain and bridge pickup here (not from the same bass).

neck: 10.88K
bridge: 12.71K

I used to own a '74 Ric 4001 too, but never liked the sound of it and found I tried to make it sound like a pbass LOL. It was my #2 for a while, the Fender '67 pb in the pic was my #1 which was a great sounding bass.

[RedHouse]

Dimensions of Backing Plate

Not to Hijack this thread but hey David and Electricdaveyboy,

Could you guys give me the dimensions of the backing plate? David's looks like the aluminum one and Electricdaveyboy's looks like the black plastic (bakelite?) one.

I need the dimensions and screw/thread sizes of the pickup and coil mounting screws.
(see attached pic)

[RedHouse]

...I am returning this pickup tomorrow and didnt think to take measurements or pics....

So how did you rewind it without taking any measurements? just throw some wire on and call it good?

No seriously, was it just a lead wire repair or did you rewind it?

[RedHouse]

...I have some notes somewhere I got from the Rickenbacker forum....

Link?

[EDIT] never mind I found it.

[David Schwab]

Not sure if 4003 pickups will, but I have a neck hi-gain and bridge pickup here (not from the same bass).

neck: 10.88K
bridge: 12.71K

Wow, those are would a lot hotter.

I used to own a '74 Ric 4001 too, but never liked the sound of it and found I tried to make it sound like a pbass LOL. It was my #2 for a while, the Fender '67 pb in the pic was my #1 which was a great sounding bass.

Back when I started playing I wanted a P bass. P basses were where it was at. We had one in our high school.. it was a nice bass... sunburst with the tortoise pickguard and rosewood fingerboard. Probably a '72. I thought it was the most beautiful thing! Then I saw a Rick and it was all over!

Now tone wise, they are great for what they do. Bands like Yes just wouldn't have sounded the same without one. Also since everyone and their mother had a P bass, I kind of liked not having one.

But I love the tone of P basses, so eventually I started changing things on the bass. I never got mine to sound like either Paul or Chris with the stock pickups. So I replaced the bridge pickup with a Hi-A minibeastie, and then the neck with a Carvin APH-4N humbucker which I bought new in '76. Then I added a DiMarzio P between the two.

At that point I was able to get a wide range of tones.

Here it is in '77 with the toaster back in. I left the large opening from the Carvin, and then made aluminum brackets so I could rase the toaster closer to the strings. The bass also had a Hi-A TC preamp.



(If anyone from the NYC metro area remembers the Uncle Floyd Show, that's Charlie Stoddard on the far left.)

Currently the two basses looks like this. The purple one is from March '74, and the maple one is from August. The maple bass was my first one from the photos above. The pickup is from the March bass. I'm going to restore that and paint it Jetglo.

[David King]

So how did you rewind it without taking any measurements? just throw some wire on and call it good?

No seriously, was it just a lead wire repair or did you rewind it?

Picky picky. Sometimes good enough is good enough. We are talking about a Rick bass not some 50's era Les Paul here. Chances are your gut instinct would get you a far better sounding pickup from what I've been hearing.