Anyone own a Rickenbacker?

[MuscleDad420]

Just saw some Chinese-made toaster pickup copies that have individual Alnico slugs vs. the bar magnets that they typically have. They’re wound to 5.7k ohms so they’ll definitely jangle. At that price it’s a no-brainer. Especially since Ric toasters seem to be quite hard to find at the moment.

Here

[Fiddy]

Probably not what you have in mind, but I have a 1949/50 Rickenbacker B-6 lap steel.
It's made of Bakelite like old telephones. Sustains forever!
Here's a video of me using it with some distortion in the studio. (That's also me on Tele)

https://youtu.be/7HiPlIbvjlc

Joey that was Ace!

[Singlebladepickup]

I really want a right-handed reverse Rick bass. If you flip it, it kind of looks like a yamaha sg-5a.

[JVG]

I won’t buy a Rick, as they clearly don’t give a shit about lefties (even more than Fender!). They can’t even be bothered making a left handed R tailpiece. Their guitars look and sound nice, but fuck them unless they change their stance on lefties!

Bitter and twisted

[jakeisjake]

Just saw some Chinese-made toaster pickup copies that have individual Alnico slugs vs. the bar magnets that they typically have. They’re wound to 5.7k ohms so they’ll definitely jangle. At that price it’s a no-brainer. Especially since Ric toasters seem to be quite hard to find at the moment.

Here

I have a pair in my faker...and they are INDISTINGUISHABLE from the real toasters I had in my Ric.

edit to say, I'm not positive these are exactly the same as the ones in my faker, but they sure look the same.

[BoringPostcards]

Just saw some Chinese-made toaster pickup copies that have individual Alnico slugs vs. the bar magnets that they typically have. They’re wound to 5.7k ohms so they’ll definitely jangle. At that price it’s a no-brainer. Especially since Ric toasters seem to be quite hard to find at the moment.

Here

You can order pickups direct from Rickenbacker, unless they changed it recently.
Andy Babiuk's Fab Gear usually sells them, but the prices are kind of insane from either source.
I guess 2nd hand might be worse. The resale for Ricks is almost on par with brand new gear, and often much higher in some cases.
330 prices are ridiculous right now up here in Canada.
Its quite the hassle procuring one. I need to put aside money and wait for A.) Rick to slowly make them, B.) stores to actually get them, and C.) for the CAD to get better.
US stuff is sort of sky high in conversion at the moment, and for obvious reasons.
I am fine with their MSRP and usual sale price of 1,999, but right now they're going for well into the 3K range.
I saw a nice Fireglo recently for over 4K. Insanity.
Rickenbacker market will be awesome, when all the Beatle bums kick the bucket.
Phew..

[cestlamort]

The Rickenbacker made toasters periodically sell out and it can be a while before they make another batch (I’ve been meaning to get some for years but always balk at the $160/ea price tag, which is probably $375 after shipping and taxes! Ouch)

They’re sold out now, too. I’ve been thinking about trying the Creamery ones. Funnily, I just bought some Rickenbacker toasters on Reverb yesterday (labeled as scatterwound 7.4k ones) only to have the seller (profusely) apologize that they’re in fact the hot toasters (12k). (Maybe not the best match for a 12, or at least not as drastic a change as I’d hoped).

[BoringPostcards]

Probably not what you have in mind, but I have a 1949/50 Rickenbacker B-6 lap steel.
It's made of Bakelite like old telephones. Sustains forever!
Here's a video of me using it with some distortion in the studio. (That's also me on Tele)

https://youtu.be/7HiPlIbvjlc

Joey that was Ace!

Seconded! Great playing.

[MuscleDad420]

I have a pair in my faker...and they are INDISTINGUISHABLE from the real toasters I had in my Ric.

edit to say, I'm not positive these are exactly the same as the ones in my faker, but they sure look the same.

They use the same case as the bar magnet mini-humbuckers I've seen in Ric fakes for years, decades even -- But the difference is the individual Alnico slugs. My Chinese neck-thru 660 copy had the mini-hums in it when it arrived. The toaster mini-hums are good though, yea. Some use ceramic bar mags and some use Alnico. They're wound low and that's where most of the jangle comes from.

That said, I replaced the mini-hum toaster-style pickups on the 660 copy with the Hi-Gains from my legit mid 90's 360 that eventually got a set of authentic Ric toasters. It was just convenient. I'm still tempted to try the toasters I linked however. Might have to reach out to clients with Rics that have hi-gain pickups and sell them on the idea.

Edit: Picture of my neck-thru Ric 660 copy

The Rickenbacker made toasters periodically sell out and it can be a while before they make another batch (I’ve been meaning to get some for years but always balk at the $160/ea price tag, which is probably $375 after shipping and taxes! Ouch)

They’re sold out now, too. I’ve been thinking about trying the Creamery ones. Funnily, I just bought some Rickenbacker toasters on Reverb yesterday (labeled as scatterwound 7.4k ones) only to have the seller (profusely) apologize that they’re in fact the hot toasters (12k). (Maybe not the best match for a 12, or at least not as drastic a change as I’d hoped).

Depending on the price those hot toasters may have been a deal. As you might know they have a real dedicated cult following of Ric owners that like the appearance of toasters but prefer more output to suit their style.

[pad]

As you might know they have a real dedicated cult following of Ric owners that like the appearance of toasters but prefer more output to suit their style.

Rickenbacker made in the 80s/90s toaster pickups with ca. 12-13k high wound. Ive put one in my DIY 1-pickup Vox Phantom style guitar. This particular pickup sounds stellar, like a beefed up rickenbacker should. I really love the overall voicing of rickenbacker pickups. In opposite to my 86 360 with regular high gains, the high wound one just feels so much powerful.

[MuscleDad420]

Rickenbacker made in the 80s/90s toaster pickups with ca. 12-13k high wound. Ive put one in my DIY 1-pickup Vox Phantom style guitar. This particular pickup sounds stellar, like a beefed up rickenbacker should. I really love the overall voicing of rickenbacker pickups. In opposite to my 86 360 with regular high gains, the high wound one just feels so much powerful.

Yea, I think the overwound toasters first appeared on the Roger McGuinn signature model. I wonder if that was a conscious request made by Roger or a decision made by John Hall. I think Roger had already moved onto using Jazz Chorus amps by that time so the extra output wouldn’t really yield much of an impact in terms of distortion. Nevertheless once Ric revived the toaster pickup format for a new era, the overwound spec remained until the John Lennon 325 reissues started appearing and those were wound more conservatively. This is from my recollection, of course.

[danbind]

I won’t buy a Rick, as they clearly don’t give a shit about lefties (even more than Fender!). They can’t even be bothered making a left handed R tailpiece. Their guitars look and sound nice, but fuck them unless they change their stance on lefties!

Bitter and twisted

I once traded messages about their lack of lefthanders with company owner John Hall, on the Rick forum. He said, hey, it is just business. While he can be a curmudgeon, he has steadfastly kept his single factory in Santa Ana, and not tried to cash in on Rickenbacker's considerable mojo, or make the million compromises that come with trying to significantly scale up production. At the time of our correspondence (this was probably ~2005 or so), the factory was waaay behind on orders, and they had decided to stop making lefties completely--the production line changeover time was a significant. I believe they eventually started up again, a few years later, once the backlog was lower. While it pissed me off, I respect the vision. Not many things are "the way they used to be" any more.

I ended up finding a used lefty 360V64 (the nicest Fireglo you will ever see) from a dealer on-line, and while it took some time to bond with it and dial it in to my liking (a Vox AC15 helps), it is definitely my #1. So, quit shaking your fist at the whirlwind, ph34r--you are missing out. Mine has a trapeze tailpiece--looks fine.

I believe Hall is now basically retired--I'm curious about the direction of the company in the future. For instance, they don't have much of a web site, and it seems like their attitude is "we have all the business that we can handle, thanks".

..and on that R tailpiece: I'm not sure it would look "right" the other way, the way the tail of the 'R' swoops out...

[Larry Mal]

I didn't think too highly of the "R" tailpiece at all, right handed notwithstanding. I replaced it with a trapeze tailpiece very quickly which offered better performance and sound.

[MuscleDad420]

...and it seems like their attitude is "we have all the business that we can handle, thanks".

It would be fantastic if more companies took this logic on.