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Topic: Horsehoe Pickup mystery? |
Wes Hall
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Oct 2022 5:47 am |
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I found this pickup a few years ago in travels with my wife into junk/vintage stuff stores.
1.Can someone help identify maker/brand of
pickup?
2.Who would you suggest rewind it?
3.Do I have all parts to make functional or mount in a
lap steel?
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 12 Oct 2022 7:17 am
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Nice find ...
The magnets and bobbin look to be standard Rickenbacher mid 30's ... the wiring has an extra ground thrown on though ..
The two leads that are coming out of the hole in the mounting plate are both "Hot" .. The three that are soldered to the screw/mounting plate are "Grounds" ... that third was thrown on, possibly to a bridge ??
One set (hot & ground ) goes straight to the 1/4" jack ... The other set (hot & ground) goes to the volume pot.
This sets up a variable load on the coil ... so as you roll off the volume ... the tone becomes more bassy ...
The mount looks homemade ... Rickys always had lock washers for the magnet mounting screws ... not just plain washers ... that third ground was sloppily soldered,
So it looks like someone took a Ricky 1.5" pickup and built a mount to go on some other steel or Spanish guitar ... that's my guess anyway |
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Wes Hall
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Oct 2022 10:22 am
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| Any suggestions on who can rewind and get the correct parts for mounting? |
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Wes Hall
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 12 Oct 2022 11:02 am
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Perfect Rick! Thanks!
Wes |
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Chris Clem
From:
California, USA
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Posted 13 Oct 2022 4:01 pm
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So Rick,
I'm not all that up on pickups but I am curious as to why the Rick's have 2 hot wires coming off the coil. I believe these are single coil pickups which generally only have 1 hot wire. Do both wires start at the same place? and are there only so they send one to both the jack and the Volume control. Seems to be an odd way to go about it, that is not seen on other guitars. |
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2022 4:15 am
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It's a "one trick pony" designed for volume only frypans and Bakelites. It's a good "trick" though ... horseshoe pickups are very bright ...
Both "hots" are soldered to the end of the magnet wire. When wired in this parallel "Rheostat" fashion ... the volume pot acts like a variable load on the pickup. If you roll off the volume ... it shifts the pickups resonant frequency ... as if it is acting like a "phantom tone" .
They used 100k pots to help with this scheme ...
If you wire a volume only frypan the "modern way" (in series) ... it is so trebly ... it'll "peel the paint" off the walls
That said ... the sweet "spot" is still quite a narrow range ... so a lot of tones get added to frypans ... I recently built a box to house a tone control because I didn't want to drill into my A25 ... works great ðŸ¤
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2022 4:54 am
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Here's a little diagram that may help ...
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Chris Clem
From:
California, USA
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Posted 14 Oct 2022 4:43 pm
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| Thanks for that info Rick, that help clear up some of Rickenbacher mystic. |
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Mike A Holland
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 15 Oct 2022 7:33 am
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| Thanks for that reply Rick. I have read a few comments regarding never to buy an old Frypan or Bakelite that had had its pots replaced. I never did understand why there should be a problem replacing them. I understand a little more what could be a potential problem...... and more importantly the correct solution! |
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Larry Chung
From:
San Francisco, CA, USA
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Posted 17 Oct 2022 7:40 am
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Thanks, Rick, that's such great history and explanation - very important history of Rickenbacher wiring.
Plus, I absolutely LOVE the custom tone box wi/the white octagonal knob.
I recently restored an early 30s Rickenbacher and found the wiring and pot value exactly as you describe. The volume/tone effect is clever and I agree 100 percent about the narrow (but beautiful) setting and also the brightness (and power) of the pickup design.
Cheers,
LC |
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