Rickenbacker "Toaster" Pickups

For all you Rick fans out there. Here's some interesting stuff I've gathered from the Internet on the older style "Toaster" pickups vs. the newer Hi-Gains . Although many are aware of the obvious tonal differences between the two, I for one didn't realize there were so many different versions of the toasters as well.

Vintage reissue models, and some signature models, come with Toaster Top pickups, which resemble a classic two-slotted chrome toaster. Despite their slightly lower output, "Toasters" produce a brighter, cleaner sound, and are generally seen as key to obtaining the true British Invasion guitar tone, as they were original equipment of the era.

Within the Toasters, there are four subgroups based on impedance and time of release. The original pickups were used from approximately 1956 to 1968 (although 4001 models continued to use the Toaster for a neck pickup until around July 1973). Later came the Vintage Reissue pickups of the mid-1980s and 90s; with approximately 12 kilo-ohms of resistance, they had a similar impedance and sound to the high-gains, and are seen by many to be strictly for aesthetic purposes. In the late 1990s, more accurate, scatter-wound pickups were made, with about 7.5 kilo-ohms of resistance, closer to the originals. The final group are found only on 325C58 models, and are designed to replicate the toasters of the 1950s, with about 5 kilo-ohms of resistance.

Scatter-wound toasters, which are spot-on re-pros of the originals, have been available since 2000. Compared to Hi-Gains, they are brighter and more jangly, and have fairly low output. Hi-Gains, by comparison, are louder and distort faster, but are darker and somewhat more midrangey. Pre-2000 toaster reissues are wound hotter than the scatter-wounds (and true vintage toasters), and are closer in tone to Hi-Gains. These are the pickups that many have unwound to be closer to vintage spec. You can easily distinguish the older reissues by the Phillips head screws holding the pickup cover to the base. The newer toasters have vintage-correct flat head screws.