custom pickup

prowla

I'm looking for someone to make me a Rickenbacker style bass pickup on a standard humbucker base plate.

Something like this (using a bobbin & base plate I have).

The pickup would sit off-centre (ie. the edge along the black sharpie line there).

FYI, it's for a build project I'm doing and the instrument has stock humbucker-sized pickup cutouts already.

Any recommendations in Berkshire?

Funkfingers

Alegree is probably your nearest port of call. (Guildford.)

I dare say that, furnished with accurate plan drawings, Ash at Oil City Pickups could program his cutting machine to make a flat lower bobbin plate that would have all of the necessary screw holes in the right places AND conform to regular humbucker baseplate dimensions. 

@Bridgehouse is probably the best person to consult about the joys of the OCP "Overkill" pickup.

Roland

@Alegree @OilCityPickups ;

prowla

Alegree did a couple of jobs for me before - I wasn't sure if he was selling up and they weren't at the Kempton show this year.

I would want it to be off centre on the base plate, as the Ric pickup surround doesn't sit directly over the pickup well.

Funkfingers

THINKS: Does the polepiece spacing of a typical RIC bridge position single coil pickup conform to the string spacing of the ‘Berger?

prowla

Funkfingers said:

THINKS: Does the polepiece spacing of a typical RIC bridge position single coil pickup conform to the string spacing of the ‘Berger?

Yep - exactly.

(The rough edges on the control bay cover are just the protective film covering the plastic.)

Funkfingers

Are we writing at cross purposes?

I am unclear whether you require a mounting adapter for the pickup illustrated in your opening post, a rewind/rebuild of that pickup so that it will fit into the existing humbucker-sized orifice in the Spirit bass guitar or the creation from scratch of a bespoke R-inspired pickup?

The bobbin dimensions of the "bridge" position pickup of my 4001 are 70 x 38mm. (Conveniently, 70mm is also the gap across a Gibson humbucker mounting surround.) Since the 4001 coil must measure less than 70 x 38mm, it follows that its essential parts could be persuaded inside a regular humbucker cover - or a pair of fibreboard plates cut to Gibson humbucker dimensions. The latter would look almost like a small uncovered Jazzmaster pickup.

If you are going to have the R-style metal pickup surround, you might as well have the bass body routed to accommodate the pickup as it stands. There is even an argument for trying to fit the R-style pickup and surround between the stock bass 'buckers.

Ultimately, the opinions expressed in this post are just me, running ideas up a flagpole to see whether anyone salutes. They count for nothing - especially if they do not fit in with your plans.

Alegree

prowla said:

Alegree did a couple of jobs for me before - I wasn't sure if he was selling up and they weren't at the Kempton show this year.

I would want it to be off centre on the base plate, as the Ric pickup surround doesn't sit directly over the pickup well.

No, I didn't attend this years show because
a - I was disappointed with last year's
b - I didn't have any chance to prepare
c - no reason to spend time/effort marketing when working at saturation already

I have already made one of these pickups for a vox bass before.

Funkfingers

Alegree said:

I have already made one of these pickups for a vox bass before.

Mosrite was the other brand that sprang to mind. 

prowla

Funkfingers said:

Are we writing at cross purposes?

I am unclear whether you require a mounting adapter for the pickup illustrated in your opening post, a rewind/rebuild of that pickup so that it will fit into the existing humbucker-sized orifice in the Spirit bass guitar or the creation from scratch of a bespoke R-inspired pickup?

The bobbin dimensions of the "bridge" position pickup of my 4001 are 70 x 38mm. (Conveniently, 70mm is also the gap across a Gibson humbucker mounting surround.) Since the 4001 coil must measure less than 70 x 38mm, it follows that its essential parts could be persuaded inside a regular humbucker cover - or a pair of fibreboard plates cut to Gibson humbucker dimensions. The latter would look almost like a small uncovered Jazzmaster pickup.

If you are going to have the R-style metal pickup surround, you might as well have the bass body routed to accommodate the pickup as it stands. There is even an argument for trying to fit the R-style pickup and surround between the stock bass 'buckers.

Ultimately, the opinions expressed in this post are just me, running ideas up a flagpole to see whether anyone salutes. They count for nothing - especially if they do not fit in with your plans.

I've got a bobbin and a humbucker base and I want a full working pickup. :-)

Unfortunately, I think that routing out a full Ric-size pickup well would take too much out of the Spirit, so I want it to fit into the existing humbucker-sized well.

The treble surround would just sit on top, for show.

prowla

Alegree said:

prowla said:

Alegree did a couple of jobs for me before - I wasn't sure if he was selling up and they weren't at the Kempton show this year.

I would want it to be off centre on the base plate, as the Ric pickup surround doesn't sit directly over the pickup well.

No, I didn't attend this years show because
a - I was disappointed with last year's
b - I didn't have any chance to prepare
c - no reason to spend time/effort marketing when working at saturation already

I have already made one of these pickups for a vox bass before.

Cool - thanks for the info!