Hi I just swapped my hi gains for toasters on my 360 and I noticed that the bridge pick up volume was a bit low. Should I add a second pad or is it normally much lower than the neck pick up?

Aren't toasters meant to have lower output than High Gains?

I'm assuming you mean the new bridge toaster pickup is low compared to the new neck toaster pickup, and not to the Hi-gain bridge pickup.

I have Hi-gains, but I can generally say that regarding height, and not gain, my bridge p'up is almost touching the strings. I have only one pad. My neck pickup is lower, but can still get louder than the bridge, nonetheless, esp. via the fifth knob.

You assumed correctly...thanks.

Most neck pickups are louder than the bridge pickup on any guitar, because neck pickup magnets are usually stronger. Many players have to lower their neck pickup, especially on Strats, because the magnetism pulls their strings out of tune. Richard Thompson's original Strat has the neck pickup almost screwed all the way into the body cavity, because it caused tremendous tuning problems.

That being said, as I posted above, the treble pickup will have lower volume than the high gain, but I can't imagine why it would worry you if it was lower than the neck pickup. The fifth knob allows you to adjust as you please, and I have read posts from toaster fans which indicate that they prefer playing in the lead position anyway.

Thanks and thanks...the other reason that I did this was that my guitar tech/luthier used 2 pads on the bridge pickup and once I looked at it I thought..."That doesn't look right" and he said the level was too low...so then I dug out my little screwdriver set and tore the second pad off....I know that toasters have a lower output and there are no neck or bridge toasters. They are the same pick up for guitars. I was just wondering about the the lower volume for the bridge pick up and the distance between the strings and the pick up for both. THANKS FOR ALL OF THE HELP.

Well, I just learned something today. I thought that there were neck and bridge toasters. It's more convenient to have the same pickup for both; Rickenbacker never fail to surprise me.

I do have a question for you, though: Would you prefer for the bridge pickup to have more output? In other words, do you regret taking off the second foam piece?

I think that you must want more power, otherwise you wouldn't be concerned about the differences between the neck and bridge volume difference (Because, it's quite clear that the neck pickup is closer to the strings simply by looking at the guitar, right?). I might be wrong, though.

The same is true for the HB1 humbucker.

NO! All other things equal: same pickup windings, same distance from string to top of pickup, etc., the neck pickup is louder because there is more string excursion over the pickup, inducing a larger signal.

+1