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Fuuuuuuuuuuudge!


isaac42

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Only I didn't say fudge.

 

I was doing a mod on my Mapleglo Ric 4001. The idea is to reverse the magnet on the bridge pickup, then reverse the leads on the coil. The result is that the output remains the same, but the reversed coil means that the two pickups, neck and bridge, would then work as a humbucking pair, like a Fender Jazz.

 

I disassembled the pickup, but the magnet adhered tightly to the coil. I grabbed a knife and carefully slipped it between the coil and magnet, working it down between them, separating them. About halfway down, I thought, "Now, where are the leads? I need to be careful and not cut them." But it was too late. I had already neatly sliced both leads off, flush with the coil surface. Fuuuck!

 

As it happens, I had another Ric bridge pickup, so I was able to complete the mod. Sounds fine. But damn! How do I fix the one I cut?

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Spending any money on it is pretty much out. After all, I had a spare laying around, so it's not as if I need another. It's more that I could have sold it for a hundred or two, so spending that much to fix it makes no sense. OTOH, it's ruined now, so anything I try can't make it any worse, right? I'm thinking about rewinding it.

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Reversing the leads and the magnets may have produced the hum bucking effect but there's an important reason why pickups are actually reverse wound, clockwise vs. counter clockwise. The hot lead goes to the inner winds and ground goes to the outer wraps to minimize hum when the pickup is run independently. Rics do have metal covers and grounding the covers may help in your case. You do have to switch the wire polarity at the pickup however, not at the pots or switch. The shielded wire has to be grounded.

 

I personally wouldn't have attempted what you did. I've done several 4 wire adaptations on Gibson mini humbuckers before and even those where very risky. Peeling back the tape to get to the solder joints without damaging the winds was very tricky. Haven't tried messing with rick pickups though. I don't think they have any kind of eyelets like Fenders do.

 

If you're going to rewind it at this point I would do the reverse wind and not just use a reverse polarity.

 

 

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Soldering the leads was easy. No eyelets, but one of the screws holding the pickup together has a lug attached. To that are soldered one lead of the pickup (originally the outer lead, now the inner), a wire to ground the metal surround, and the shield of the coax going to the control cavity.

 

Definitely planning on reverse winding the pickup, to maximize the shielding effect of the windings. So far, no noise issues, even with the reverse polarity pickup soloed, but our rehearsal studio is electrically very quiet, so I didn't expect any.

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  • 3 months later...
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I'm guessing the potting wax was your problem. It was probably holding the bar magnet in place after you had loosened the bobbin. You could have carefully melted the wax with a soldering iron by warming the magnet up.

 

 

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