Deep Dive: Other Rickenbacker Pickups
If you’re new to the Rickenbacker world you could be forgiven for thinking that the story of Rickenbacker pickups starts with the Toaster and ends with the Higain. And it is true that those two pickups are the heart and soul of the Rickenbacker sound and story. But really, that’s just scratching the surface. There’s so much more to the story than just those two pickups. So let’s dive right into it.
The Horseshoe Pickup
Any discussion of Rickenbacker pickups—or really electric guitar pickups in general—has to start with the horseshoe pickup, widely regarded as the first practical electric guitar pickup. And that story (and indeed, Rickenbacker’s story) began in the mid 1920s when guitarist George Beauchamp began trying to figure out how to make his acoustic Hawaiian guitar louder so it could cut through the rest of his band.
Beauchamp first approached violinist and luthier John Dopyera for assistance. After several attempts, Dopyera—with the assistance of Paul Barth—came up with the design for what would become the resonator guitar. Dopyera and Beauchamp would then found the National String Instrument Corp. to build these resonator guitars. And as the company grew, they outsourced the fabrication of the guitars’ metal bodies to a nearby metal fabrication firm run by Adolph Rickenbacher.
The rise and fall and eventual merger of National and Dobro Guitars—which Dopyera founded in 1928 after leaving National in a huff—is a long and complicated story with plenty of intrigue and infighting. For our purposes it’s enough to know that by the early 1930s Beauchamp was out at National, but had never given up on “still more loud”.
Experiments with microphones and phonograph needles had been unsuccessful, but they led him to night classes in electronics where he learned about electromagnetic fields and how movement inside that field changes the electrical current within the very wire that created it. That concept gave him the idea that would become—with Paul Barth’s assistance and a lot of trial and error—the very first electromagnetic guitar pickup: the horseshoe pickup.
Needing a financial backer to bring the product to market, in 1931 he and Barth formed a new company with Adolph Rickenbacher—the Ro-Pat-In company, which would become the precursor of today’s Rickenbacker International Corporation—to produce electrically amplified stringed instruments. And, in 1932, the Rickenbacher Electro Model A22 “frying pan” became the world’s first commercially available electric (albeit Hawaiian/lap steel) guitar.
The anatomy of that first pickup was quite different from modern pickups. It has the same basic components—magnet, polepieces, wire—but they’re assembled quite differently. It was the first draft, after all. So unlike modern pickups where the magnet is inside the pickup, in the horseshoe pickup the pickup assembly itself sits inside the magnet.
Let’s try and make that a little clearer. We’ll use toaster and Higain pickups as examples to explain that difference. A toaster has six magnetic polepieces held in a bobbin which is then wound with wire. That’s the entire pickup. A Higain has six non-magnetic polepieces held in a bobbin which is wound with wire, and a magnet is then placed at the bottom of that assembly, magnetizing the polepieces.
But the horseshoe is different. It starts off the same as the Higain—six non-magnetic polepieces held in a wound bobbin, but then that entire assembly is surrounded by two—wait for it—horseshoe shaped cobalt magnets, magnetizing the polepieces. The strings then pass between the top of the bobbin and the underside of the horseshoe magnets, creating a much wider magnetic field.
Rickenbacker would spend the 1930s creating variants of that basic pickup design to put onto instruments under the “Electro” name that ranged from Hawaiian guitars to violins to upright basses.
They even produced much more traditional “Spanish” style guitars with the horseshoe pickup—adding their electronics to wood guitar bodies bought from Harmony.
But as we all know, while it was a great fit for lap steels the horseshoe just wasn’t when it came to a Spanish guitar application—those big bulky magnets were just in the player’s way. So while everyone in the industry saw the promise of the electric guitar, all the other manufacturers went to work developing their own, less bulky pickups, making Rickenbacker’s Spanish guitars feel increasingly dated compared to the competition.
So Rickenbacker focused on what worked best for them and their pickup: lap steels. Which was fine, until the early 1950s when the demand for electric Spanish guitars exploded.
Beauchamp had sold his share of the business in 1940, and Rickenbacher did the same in 1953 when he sold the entire company to F.C. Hall. Hall had been Leo Fender’s US distributor since 1946, and recognized the potential value of controlling both the manufacturing and distribution of musical instruments and amplifiers. And to really capitalize on that opportunity he needed Spanish guitars.
So a design was sourced from an outside firm—and refined by a new hire by the name of Roger Rossmeisl (click to learn more)—and launched in 1954 as the Combo 600 and Combo 800 (click to learn more) with the current version of the tried and true horseshoe pickup.
Well, that’s true for the Combo 600. The Combo 800 had something new hiding under those horseshoe magnets: the “Rickenbacker Multiple-Unit”, the first commercially available humbucking pickup.
While the idea for a humbucker pickup had appeared shortly after the A22 had launched, and the idea had been subsequently refined, it had been for other applications like microphones and pianos. And so it still hadn’t made it to the guitar world or a production guitar by 1954 when the Combo 800 launched.
Not only was it the first commercially available humbucking guitar pickup, it was the first “coil splittable” humbucking pickup as each coil could be individually turned on or off. One could therefore argue that technically it’s two separate pickups, with the polarity reversed on one to provide the humbucking effect when both were selected—but we’re going to call it the first humbucker anyway. No patent was ever filed, but had Rickenbacker pursued one they likely would have beaten both Gibson and Gretsch to the punch.
The horseshoe’s days as a guitar pickup were numbered, though. It was used on the Combo 600 and 800 because it was “what they had”, but a player comfort was still an issue and a replacement was sorely needed. While the two pickup 850 launched in 1957 would continue to utilize the horseshoe in the bridge position, it would be the last new model to feature the pickup. With the introduction of the toaster pickup in the neck position of the Combo 850 in 1957, 1958 would see the last horseshoe-equipped guitars leave the factory as the old Combo 600, 800, and 850 models were discontinued.
But don’t count the horseshoe out just yet, because it got a new lease on life in 1957 with the launch of the 4000 bass (click here to learn more).
The SOUND of the horseshoe had never been the problem. In fact, it is still regarded today as one of—if not the—best sounding lap steel pickups ever made. It was its impact on playability that had doomed it as a guitar pickup. But with the way basses were played in those early days, that was much less of an issue. A slight modification from six polepieces to four meant Rickenbacker had a great sounding pickup ready to go as they entered the electric bass guitar market.
When the Deluxe two pickup 4001 joined the line in 1961, it gained a toaster in the neck position but kept the horseshoe at the bridge. And so it would stay until late 1968 when the new Higain pickup finally ended the horseshoe’s 37 year run. But by that point the “look” of the horseshoe was so integral to the 4001’s design that the Higain retained the horseshoe’s mounting ring and got a function-less cover to mimic the horseshoe’s look. That look lasted on most Rickenbacker basses until early 2025 when the purely decorative cover—which many players remove—was finally eliminated.
The horseshoe has a postscript. When the first semi-accurate reproduction of Paul McCartney’s 1964 4001S, the 4001V63, was introduced in 1984, a Higain-based cosmetic reproduction of the horseshoe that featured non magnetic “horseshoes” was designed for it. Because—as we all know—Rickenbacker never throws anything away, rumor has it that a handful of the very first guitars built were equipped with original horseshoes left over from 1968.
DeArmond Single Coil
The next “other”’pickup in Rickenbacker’s history is actually the second pickup in Rickenbacker history, and the only one not developed in house. When the tulip-shaped, neck-through Combo 400 (click to learn more) was in development they knew they needed a solution other than the horseshoe, but that was the only pickup in their cupboard. And so when the Combo 400 launched in 1956 it came with an off-the-shelf DeArmond pickup produced by Rowe Industries.
A long-time supplier and partner, DeArmond pickups and accessories already had their own category in period Rickenbacker catalogs and price lists. Selecting a DeArmond design for the Combo 400 was therefore a logical choice.
DeArmond made a wide variety of pickups used by guitar manufacturers like Guild, Epiphone, Martin and Gretsch. Many are quite famous and sought after today, like the Model 2000 Dynasonic. The pickup Rickenbacker selected, however, was a relatively simple, no-frills unit whose only other significant fitment was on the Epiphone Harry Volpe Signature model.
Prototype and early production examples from early to mid 1957 of the short scale student models 900, 950, and 1000 (click to learn more), as well as the new two pickup version of the Combo 400, the Combo 450 (click to learn more), featured the DeArmond pickup. By the end of the year, however, all Rickenbacker models featured the new toaster pickup.
The Epiphone Harry Volpe model didn’t last much longer than the Combo 400. As these were the only significant fitments for these pickups and their production runs were so short, finding replacements today can be extremely difficult and expensive.
While the horseshoe pickup was clearly an important and lasting milestone in the company’s history, the DeArmond pickup was a ultimately a transitional solution—a stopgap measure that bought Rickenbacker the time they needed to develop what would become their own signature pickup design.
4-Polepiece Toaster?
I’m only going to briefly mention the next “other” pickup as a) it’s really just a variation of the toaster pickup, and b) its existence has been surprisingly difficult to verify photographically. According to Martin Kelly’s excellent book, Rickenbacker Guitars: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fireglo “Rossmeisl built the first 4001 in November 1961 adding a newly designed toaster pickup with 4 pole pieces near the neck.”
But by the time the 4001 reached “production status” in 1963, however, it had a standard 6-polepiece toaster at the neck—as have all subsequent toaster-equipped basses. But Kelly’s book was so meticulously researched, there’s little reason to doubt the claim even if photographic evidence appears elusive.
And yes, there have been multiple changes to the toaster—and the Higain!—over the years, but we’re not going to discuss those here. Those pickups are important enough to get their own overviews, and we’ll cover them there. For now, though, the mysterious 4-polepiece toaster deserves at least an honorable mention.
You can read all about the Higain’s evolution here. The toaster story will follow soon!
481 Super Humbucker
The toaster reigned supreme for a long time as the only Rickenbacker pickup on the block. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! But the market’s tastes changed over time, and eventually the toaster was forced to hand its crown to the Higain. But when even that didn’t seem to meet the market’s demand, it was time for the first new pickup in several years: Rickenbacker’s first “true” humbucker.
The pickup actually appeared well before the guitar it officially debuted on. To put that into context, Rickenbacker guitar sales had cratered in the late 1960s/early 1970s. The look, the sound…they simply didn’t match the harder direction popular music was taking. Bass demand was about to explode—which ultimately saved Rickenbacker in the 1970s—but it hadn’t happened yet. So the company was trying to figure out how to remain relevant.
They gave the market “hotter” pickups—thus the “Higain” name. They increased the number of frets from 21 to 24. They made guitars with slanted frets (click to learn more). Heck, they even made a guitar with Christmas lights inside that changed colors based on what you were playing! None of it worked.
Around this time, a few years after the 1965 sale to CBS, longtime Fender factory manager Forrest White left the company after disagreements with the new ownership. He eventually landed at Rickenbacker, and brought some new guitar designs with him. One in particular was a double cutaway Telecaster-inspired guitar with a bolt-on neck that would eventually appear twice over the years: first as the 430 (click to learn more) in 1975, and then again as the 200 Series (click to learn more) guitars launched in 1985.
But before either of those production guitars appeared, several prototypes based on that body had already come and gone: first in 1971 as the original (and substantially different) 430 and 470 (click to learn more), and then again in 1973 as the 490 (click to learn more).
While the 1971 430 and 470 were basically Telecaster clones, the proposed 490 had an interesting party trick: interchangeable electronics modules. The surviving documentation mentions a “Tele-ish” module, an active electronics module, and—as seen above on the prototype—a double humbucker module. Remember those pickups.
Now, in order to capitalize on the 4001’s sudden popularity Rickenbacker had introduced the 4001-shaped 480 (click to learn more) guitar in 1972. And it actually sold fairly well. But given that it was built out of off-the-shelf Rickenbacker parts, it still didn’t have that “heavier” sound the market was demanding. Maybe it would do better if it could?
So: we have a popular body shape that’s selling reasonably well despite not quite fitting the market, and a brand new humbucking pickup design that doesn’t have a home. Why not put them together? Enter the 481 in 1974.
For their first year they got the black textured plastic covers seen above, with only one set of polepieces visible. Here’s a clearer shot:
In 1975, they received a chrome plated plastic cover with both sets of adjustable polepieces exposed.
And starting in late 1976 those covers gained a debossed “Rickenbacker” logo in the center.
If those pickups look big to you, that’s because they are. Replace them with standard Gibson-type humbuckers and there’s a pretty substantial gap left where the originals once sat.
And no, there’s nothing wrong with this picture apart from the replaced pickups. Remember the slanted frets mentioned earlier? While they never really caught on, for some reason Rickenbacker chose to fit them as standard on the 481—although conventional frets remained optional.
The other unusual thing you probably noticed is the polepieces. Have you ever see Philips head polepieces before? Yes, others exist, but it’s every bit as uncommon as you think it is. And the others generally aren’t that large. Between the size and the polepieces…well, you won’t mistake them for anything else. The 481 ended production in 1982, and with it went this unusual humbucking pickup design.
But there was another new Forrest White-designed instrument with a a new pickup in 1974. Two guitars, in fact: the 3000 and 3001 basses click to learn more).
Ultra High-Gain Single Coil
The 3000 and 3001 were designed to compete directly with Fender at a price about two thirds the cost of the 4001. To achieve that, the 3000 and 3001 featured standard appointments, bolt on neck construction, and a new single coil “ultra high gain, noise cancelling” pickup.
The pickup’s output was about 8.5k ohm, and it was encased in epoxy to—in theory—reduce electronic interference. Thus the “noise cancelling”.
The black plastic case featured two mounting “ears” that allowed the pickup to be directly attached to the pickguard.
At some point in any discussion of the 3000 and 3001 somebody will say it sounds like “a P-bass on steroids”, and that’s about as good a description as any.
But these basses arrived at almost the same moment demand for the 4001 exploded. The financial necessity for a lower-cost model disappeared, and production capacity was increasingly directed towards the more profitable 4001. A lack of promotion—and of a compelling story—led to production ending in 1979 for the 3001 and 1980 for the 3000. But the pickups—and the 3001’s shape—would find a second life later.
430 Higain
Here’s an “other” Rickenbacker pickup that isn’t really an “other” Rickenbacker pickup at all: the pickups found on the 430 produced in 1975 and 1976.
If this looks to you like a Higain with a black plastic case, that’s because…it is. A Standard Higain with a black plastic case.
4002 Super High-Gain Humbuckers
Let us now turn to one of the most complex and interesting “other” Rickenbacker pickups: the Super High Gain Humbucker found on the 4002 bass. Although, to be technically accurate, the neck and the bridge pickup are significantly different from one another, so there are actually two distinct Super High Gain Humbuckers. But first let’s learn a bit about the 4002 (click to learn more).
Launched in 1977, the 4002 was the Cadillac of the 4000 series of basses. It featured birdseye or flamed maple body wings, checkered front binding, a bound headstock, and a black bound ebony fingerboard.
It was not a “custom” or “special order” instrument. It was on the price list and anyone could order one. But at an MSRP of $1,275 (about $6,700 in today’s dollars) when a 4001 was $588 (about $3,100), not many people did. That’s why they are so rare today.
While the appointments listed above were certainly nice, the real selling point of the 4002 was its electronics—as the XLR output jack above hints at.
So while our focus here is obviously pickups, I want you to note the wiring harness. A “standard” 4001 harness has 3 capacitors in the circuit. I count 6 here. There’s quite a lot going on in that circuit.
You’ll also notice the completely sealed pickups. So let’s talk about what’s happening inside them.
When I say “humbucker”, you probably picture something like a Gibson PAF: effectively two coils sitting side-by-side right next to each other. Or maybe—if you think outside the box—you picture something like a Gibson P-100 or a Fender “Noiseless” pickup where the two coils are stacked vertically within the footprint of a traditional single coil.
That’s not what’s happening here.
Instead, stuffed inside of a normal Higain housing, are two separate side-by-side coils—one responsible for the E and A strings, and the other for the D and G strings. Which might sound unusual until you realize that we just described a Precision Bass layout—except on the P-bass the coils are offset slightly from each other. The coils in the 4002 pickup are hidden beneath a layer of what appears to be a grained Tolex-like material.
But the bridge pickup has another trick up its sleeve. Let’s zoom in slightly on the wiring picture shown above:
Notice how both pickups have a red output wire, but the bridge pickup also has a green output wire. That’s because it has two completely separate sets of windings—in technical terms a “bifilar coil” design. Effectively, there are two independent pickup circuits living inside the same housing.
And no, this is not the same as what is commonly referred to as a “coil-tap”. In a coil-tapped pickup, part of a single winding can be engaged or bypassed to alter the pickup’s output. That’s not what is happening here. The red wire carries the output from one set of windings, while the green wire carries the output for a completely separate set.
The red wire feeds the complex wiring harness we see above, and the green output bypasses the onboard controls completely and directly feeds the XLR jack—a low impedance output intended to be plugged directly into a mixing board for recording.
Sonically, the “red” output is generally described as having a much wider range than a standard Higain, although the complex harness certainly undoubtedly contributes significantly to that. The “green” output, however, is often described as somewhat comparatively thin sounding on its own.
Given the price not many 4002s were produced, and the model was discontinued in 1984 after John Hall bought the company from his father. As recently as a few months ago, however, there have been verified sightings of “leftover” body wings in the factory, and and there have been one-off 4002-inspired guitars built over the years—although without the original’s pickups.
5-Polepiece Higain
So here’s another “not really a new pickup”.
When the first version of 5 string 4003S/5 appeared around 1982, it featured an otherwise standard Higain bass bridge pickup modified to use five polepieces instead of four.
And…that’s basically the whole story. Same pickup, same construction, same design philosophy—just with an extra polepiece added for the extra string.
Ultra High-Gain Single Coil, Version Two
In 1984 the Forrest White designed 430 guitar and 3001 bass shapes got a second act as the 200 and 2000 guitars and basses. And the 3000/3001’s pickup came along for the ride. Well…mostly.
What’s missing here? Mounting screws. Where are the mounting screws, and the mounting “ears” found on the 3000/3001’s housing? How exactly do you mount this pickup to the guitar?
Well…from the rear.
I tried—OH how I tried—to find a photo of the back of this guitar’s pickup to show you how it was installed. And here it is: quite possible the only picture on the internet showing rear of the 200/2000 series pickup.
Now…this is a later version of the pickup that shares the same footprint, so focus on the mounting “legs”. We’ll talk about updated internal design in a moment. But the internal of the first version? Same as the 3000/3001’s pickup. Just in a slightly different wrapper.
That internal design would change in 1988. But not before good old “waste not, want not” Rickenbacker had wrung a few more years of use out of the “P-bass on steroids” pickup first introduced back in 1974. And now we move on to the modern era’s “other” pickups.
HB1 Humbucker
The new HB1 humbucking pickup first appeared on the 350SH Susanna Hoffs and 381JK John Kay Signature Limited Edition (click to learn more) guitars in 1989. Despite fitting neatly inside a Higain housing just like the 4002’s humbucker, it was a very different animal internally.
The HB1 used two narrow, conventional side-by-side bobbins, each fitted with a single steel blade rather than individual polepieces. This blade design allowed the same pickup to work equally well on both basses and guitars. A bar magnet sat between the two blades on the underside of the pickup, and the entire housing was then filled with epoxy. An exposed PCB on the underside provided access to all the guitars’s outputs—allowing for a surprisingly wide range of wiring possibilities.
For example, on the 381JK the pickups could have their coils split, be wired in either series or parallel, be used with or without active onboard electronics, and be switched in or out of phase. A very versatile pickup indeed.
The HB1 would later appear on the 650 series of guitars, the 380L Laguna (click to learn more), and the 4004 basses (click to learn more)—including the 4004LK Lemmy Kilmister Signature Limited Edition.
Although it hasn’t appeared on a production model since the 4004 was discontinued in 2017, the HB1 still surfaces from time to time on one-off Rickenbacker Boutique guitars and you can still buy a new one directly from Rickenbacker.
The HB2 Humbucker
So if there’s an HB1 is there an HB2?
There is indeed. And despite its name, the HB2 humbucking pickup actually hit the shelves one year before the HB1, appearing on the 200 Series guitars and basses in 1988. So if it came first, why isn’t it called the HB1?
Here’s the key thing to understand: the HB1 and HB2 are fundamentally the same pickup design, but housed in different cases.
The pickup itself had originally been designed for the 350SH and 381JK, where it would live inside a Higain-style housing. But bringing those guitars to market still required additional development work. Meanwhile, the 200 Series pickups needed an update immediately, and the new pickup design could be dropped directly into the existing plastic pickup housing with minimal modification.
There was just one problem: the HB1 name had already been assigned to the Higain-housed version. So the design entered production as the HB2 instead.
For its first few years of the HB2’s life, you literally cannot tell by looking at the pickup cover whether you’re seeing the original single coil design or the new humbucker.
Around late 1991 or early 1992 the plastic cover gained a molded “RIC” logo in the bottom right hand corner, along with decorative molded lines leading into and out of it. Some owners also report that around the same time the pickups were wound a little hotter—from around 12k ohms to 14k ohms. Others insist they were always 14k (as are the HB1s). I can’t find definitive proof either way, so any additional documentation would be appreciated.
When the 200/2000 series received a cosmetic refresh in late 1992, so too did the HB2s with the imprinted “RIC” stamp and lines now being filled with white paint.
1993 marked the last year of production for the 200 Series guitars and basses, although the 230GF/2030GF Signature Limited Edition model continued to tickle out sporadically until 2000.
And with that, the HB2 quietly disappeared as well. Because they were only produced for a relatively short period—and were visually almost indistinguishable from the earlier single coils—replacement HB2s are extremely difficult to find today.
4003S/5 TriPower
We wrap up our discussion of “other” Rickenbacker pickups with the newest—and arguably strangest—of them all: the 4003S/5 TriPower.
I’d be willing to bet you’ve never heard that name before. Honestly, neither had I. The only place you’ll find it referenced is on the Rickenbacker.com product page for the now-discontinued second version of the 4003S/5.
What you will find it called in many places is the “Dorito” pickup—for the obvious reason.
Despite being the newest “other” pickup out there, there’s surprisingly very little information available about it. I suspect that comes down to two things. First, it launched in 2018 during Rickenbacker’s post-press release/social media era, so very little formal technical information accompanied its introduction. Secondly, the model itself never really appealed to the more traditional wing of the Rickenbacker fan base, so it hasn’t been discussed and dissected ad nauseum in the usual places.
Here’s what we do know. At its heart are two bar magnets that angle outwards towards the low B string, giving the pickup its distinctive triangular shape. Given the two magnets you might think it’s a humbucker, but it’s actually a single coil. Here’s what it looks like with the cover off:
The theory behind the design was that the wider magnetic field around the B-string would provide improved low-end response.
5-string players generally found the instrument much more comfortable than the original 1980s 4003S/5, and most seemed to like the sound. But there was one recurring observation: it didn’t really sound like a Rickenbacker. And that may ultimately have doomed the model, as it was quietly discontinued in 2022.
And so so completes our tour through Rickenbacker’s “other” pickups. More than you thought, I bet.
Because while the toaster and Higain understandably dominate the conversation, Rickenbacker’s pickup history is actually full of strange detours, transitional experiments, dead ends, and genuinely innovative ideas that never quite found a lasting audience.
Including the toaster and the Higain, here is Rickenbacker’s complete pickup history:
Horseshoe: 1932-1968
DeArmond single coil: 1956-1957
Toaster: 1957-1974, 1982-present
Higain: 1968-present
481 Humbucker: 1974-1982
3000/3001, 200/2000 Series single coil: 1974-1980, 1984-1987
Super High Gain Humbucker: 1977-1984
HB2: 1988-1993
HB1: 1989-2017
TriPower: 2018-2022
If you enjoyed this deep dive into pickups, you might also enjoy this one on truss rods:
Hi Andy,
Where does the 'modern' toaster used on the Tom Petty 660/12 fit in? I loved it's combination of clarity and cut-through with that iconic jangle/chime. My JetGlo 91 Tom Petty is long gone, and I recently , finally, found a 660/12 JG to replace it. And as much as I love everything about it, I still miss those higher output toasters.
Regarding the 200 series HB2 humbuckers starting out around 12k and later going to around 14k, I think maybe 12k might be a little lower than I've seen. I can only go off my 1989 230 which has a neck pickup at 14.69k and a bridge pickup at 14.45k, and I also have a later one with the embossed RIC cover that is 15.57k. The later one is microphonic and the epoxy fills the bobbin fully whereas the earlier ones from 1989 have a slight gap between the epoxy and where the wires go through the connectors on the PCB board, which can allow a wire to get nicked, which happened to my bridge pickup when I refinished my 230 in Blue Boy. I was able to repair it with the help of a super good microscope, some 44 gauge wire, and some more epoxy. I had to melt the epoxy back to the bobbin, and found where the tip of the wire went through the bobbin, and VERY carefully soldered the wire to that tip of 44 gauge wire, then epoxied it all back in place. The difference by going up around 1k of more wire makes the pickup more muddy and doesn't sound as good to my ears so I happen to like the earlier HB2's. I can provide pictures of the pickup that I repaired, though they aren't the greatest pictures. I can provide pics of the Blue Boy 230 also, though a lot of people probably won't care about those models, but that color does look good on that shape, and its the only one in the world unless someone else has refinished theirs.