Replacement pickups for a Rickenfaker?

[chriswareham]

Hi folks!

I've just acquired a Rockinbetter bass, having failed to find a Japanese lawsuit era Rickenfaker. I'm a massive fan of Joy Division, and always liked the look of the Hondo that Peter Hook used for much of their existence. I have considered a real Rick on a couple of occasions, but both times I played new ones the necks were very awkward to play and they felt remarkably cheap considering the price tag. The Rockinbetter has a neck more like the Stingray I normally play, without the horrible laquered fretboard of the Ricks I've tried.

[attachment=140009:rb.jpg]

Anyway, I was wondering if any other owners on here have replaced the stock pickups. I'm considering the ones available from Classic Amplification, but I'm unsure how easily they will fit to a non-RIC bass.

Cheers,

Chris

[Musky]

I've never tried replacing the pickups on my Ricks, but if I remember correctly from discussion we've had on these boards the Rockinbetters don't have the almost parallel necks that the genuine artical does. It'll be worth your while checking the spacing of the pole pieces of anything you buy just to see if they match the string spacing.

Edit: IIRC Hooky6stringbass had a Rockinbetter he fettled with, so maybe drop him a PM to see how he got on.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Musky

[Beer of the Bass]

Kent Armstrong do a good toaster style pickup, I have one on my four string and like it but can't vouch for how close it sounds to the originals. WD music stock them (they're under guitar pickups).

[martthebass]

TBH I think it depends on how authentic you want it to sound compared to a Rick. IIRC from my JD tribute band days I loaded it with so much effect I could have been playing a violin bass. I can't get any of my other basses to sound like my 4003 - If I could I wouldn't have bought it! But having said that I would've thought for the JD stuff you should get pretty close with your Ray - I did. If the problem is that it doesn't look like a Rick....sorry can't help yer there.

[chriswareham]

[quote name='martthebass' timestamp='1375098643' post='2156601']
TBH I think it depends on how authentic you want it to sound compared to a Rick. IIRC from my JD tribute band days I loaded it with so much effect I could have been playing a violin bass. I can't get any of my other basses to sound like my 4003 - If I could I wouldn't have bought it! But having said that I would've thought for the JD stuff you should get pretty close with your Ray - I did. If the problem is that it doesn't look like a Rick....sorry can't help yer there.
[/quote]I'm not bothered about an authentic Rick sound, since most of Hooky's sound seems to be down to the Clone Theory chorus and a valve amp cranked up to overdrive. I can get those from my Small Clone and Darkglass pedals. I suspect Hooky's Hondo didn't sound all that Rick like anyway, as they seem to have been the bargain end of the Ricky clones. Towards the end of JD the Yamaha BB1200 put in an appearance as well. I just like the look of the replacement pickups, and the justification for buying the Rockinbetter was the fact my Stingray is tuned down to drop Bb with suitable neck adjustment for my main band. The RB gives me something in a conventional tuning.

[brensabre79]

Check out [url="http://www.geminipickups.co.uk/"]Gemini Pickups[/url]. Contact Mike and tell him what you're doing, he was very helpful, and also has a RockinBetter.

You will have to mod the plate that the bridge pickup sits on with any Rick replacement PU, or if your RB has one in you can re-use it. The pickups were the first thing I changed on my RB because the stock ones are awful, and mine were microphonic.

The Kent Armstong toaster one is pretty good, its a humbucker too, but they do not do a bridge PU.

[Dave Vader]

I took the electrics out of a hondo (like Hookys) and stuck them in my Rockinbetter. Luckily i had one lying around (cost me 25 quid back in the 90s, and was horrible) I now have one decent faker, rather than 2 sh*te ones.

This was after having the seymour duncan drop in replacements for a bit, and a kent armstrong soapbar for a bit. All of it needed routing, but your looks like the newer rockinbetter with more ric-a-like pickups to start with.

[iiipopes]

Good replacement pickups will cost more than the bass is now worth. Please save your money for a real Rickenbacker.

[Dave Vader]

respectfully, that is not true, you can get a set of Seymour duncans for about 150 quid for the pair, and a rockinbetter will fetch a good 300 or more if you can find anywhere to sell it these days.

Real Rickenbackers are well over a grand. And not much better than some (note I said some, not all) fakers.

[martthebass]

Dave, the SD drop ins should give you a decent sonic improvement, you'll not get that value back should you choose to sell but that's not the point. I'm sure it'd do justice to some old JD choons, as you say Hooky didn't use a Rick so what the hay. The only reason I have a Rick is for the sound for the 80s band I'm in......if I didn't need THAT sound I wouldnt own one, the design has too many quirks for my liking.

[Woodinblack]

So what is wrong with the current pickups that you need to change? I have a white rockinbetter, and the pickups aren't great, but honestly I don't think the real rick ones are either, and just changing for rick pickups which is quite a lot of money won't really give you the same sound.

I would think the SDs were the best options if you want to replace them and at least you can actually see the sizes.

[Woodinblack]

For reference, the full string spacing is 33mm a the nut and 55mm at the bridge. that gives you an individual string spacing of 17mm at the neck pickup position and 19mm at the bridge pickup position.

and also means that an ordinary guitar pickup would fit in the bridge position. I think I might put a SD guitar humbucker I have in the neck and see how that sounds!

[chriswareham]

[quote name='iiipopes' timestamp='1375108654' post='2156763']
Good replacement pickups will cost more than the bass is now worth. Please save your money for a real Rickenbacker.
[/quote]

As I mentioned in my post, I didn't really like the neck on the real Ricks I tried. Even if I put the most expensive replacement pickups I've seen onto my Rockinbetter, the combined cost of bass and pickups would still be less than half the cost of a real Rick. For example, the Gemini pickups are £150 for a set, while the rather nice looking Classic Amplification ones are £175. The only other modification I'm going to make is to get a replacement truss rod cover that has nothing written on it (in the meantime I've taken a fibreglass pencil to the Rockinbetter one, which now says f***inbetter).

[Bill-R]

What Rockinbetter do you have, the 20 fret one or the newer 22 fret one, with the 22 fret one you have high gain pickups and are really very good and they well balanced and not that different from the Ric ones, the older 20 fret Rockinbetters did not very powerful pickups and maybe a good idea changing them. you would be better fitting the "vintage/modern tone switch kit" as that makes much more difference than changing the pick-ups. I did change the bridge pick-up to a Ric but changed it back as I liked the sound better with the Rockinbetter stock pick-up and it works well with the tone switch too. another thing to do is change how it wired, with the Rockinbetter it goes pick-up to tone and volumes and then to switch, and I changed it to the Ric setting of pick-ups to switch to tone and volumes.

Edited August 3, 2013 by Bill-R

[waldflote8]

I have a Shine faker and only recently got the chance to side by side it with the real thing. I doesn't sound bad at all with the Seymour Duncan pups. I guess I was comforted (after parting with a load of cash ) that it didn't sound closer to the 4003 than I thought it would - the Shine is all maple, straight through neck etc. If I was building a faker, (am I allowed to say that ??) .. ahem, kicks parts back out of sight under bed,.. I'd happily use the SD neck pup and have a look around at other bridge pups before deciding.