Volume Fluctuation

Eric Gearhart · From: Bellingham, Massachusetts, USA

I have a '35 Rickenbacher Model B. I'll be playing it, and it will sound fine but all of a sudden the volume will either surge or decrease without warning and without having touched the volume knob.

Would this be a pickup or electrionics problem? The horseshoe magnet seems very powerful so I doubt that it's a re-gaussing issue. Maybe a pickup rewind?

Thanks, Eric.

Rick Aiello · From: Berryville, VA USA

Sounds like it's the "typical" pole ground problem ... common on the oldest frypan / earliest B6s ('35, '36) ...

If there is only one lead wire (hot)...

One of the pole pieces is the "dedicated ground" ... grounding the coil to the magnet ... and to the mounting plate.

Do this ...

Carefully remove the bobbin ...

Sand the oxidation off the bottoms of the poles (usually the dedicated ground is one of the outer poles) ...

Sand off the gunk accumulated on the magnets ... under the coil.

Then slip in a small piece of aluminum or copper foil ... between the poles and the magnets.

Then tighten the bobbin back down.

If this doesn't fix it ... then your coil has a short ...

Try this before sending it for a rewind, though ... might save you some $$$

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