Pickup ID?

[ShannonH]

I acquired this PU in trade, and thought i was interesting enough to present here. It looks fairly old, say maybe late 70's, has a solid brass baseplate, Dimarzio style, with adjustable slugs and three ceramic magnets, big one in the middle, two smaller ones where the spacer and leads normally sit. DCR is 15.8 Here's a pic too.
Anybody know what it is?

[Sweetfinger]

Can you show us the baseplate and lead? Looks Dimarzio.

[David Schwab]

I sure looks like a DiMarzio, but I've never seen them use three magnets. I have an old SDHB from the 70's. Maybe it was custom OEM for some company?

What kind of guitar is that?

[Sweetfinger]

I've seen older Dimarzios w/three magnets. The DLX had three for sure because I still have one in a guitar-

[ShannonH]

I'll post a pic later. The baseplate is solid brass, but no stamp. It has a lot of writing on it, which is why I didn't photograph it originally.

I installed it in an Ibanez ARX160. It sounds really good.

I'm trying to get a fix on what the pickups are because I may sell them. I just don't want to misrepresent the pickup.

peace

[ShannonH]

the tabs are square, but otherwise the back looks like a dimarzio. The zig zag on the back is from rubbing it with a screw driver trying to find an imprint.

[SteveJ]

Hard to tell from the pic but the mounting screws look a bit large. Will a Dimarzio or Duncan screw thread into it. If they are too small it's probably a MIJ pickup. Matsumoku maybe?

[ShannonH]

I guess the other question is, what is a fair price for them? I know that is hard to say but they could be really rare and interesting, or not.

I was tiold they were taken from a lawsuit les paul. I like em, but that doesn't mean much. Peace

[David Schwab]

Originally Posted by ShannonH

I was tiold they were taken from a lawsuit les paul. I like em, but that doesn't mean much. Peace

Oh, they might be Greco pickups. The Dry Z pickups fetch a lot of money these days.

[LtKojak]

Originally Posted by ShannonH

the tabs are square, but otherwise the back looks like a dimarzio. The zig zag on the back is from rubbing it with a screw driver trying to find an imprint.

They're definately late 70s-early '80s MIJ p'ups.

They measure between 10.8K and 12.5K, ceramic magnets, short polepieces, probably 43 poly. Yours are a different model, maybe they wanted to do a Di Marzio copy of the Distortion p'up.

I've made a couple of bridge p'ups using the coils and slugs, put'em in a StewMac baseplate with a different keeper bar and polepieces and put an A8 bar magnet. Made a nice pair with an A5 496R and an A4 Burstbucker 1 p'up.

Blues guys did enjoy'em...

[ShannonH]

on Ibanez Vintage world, and found that in 79, 80 and 81, Ibanez made a V2 pu that looks just like this that was installed in the "studio artist", but they said it was designed with very high output.

I think these are wound with 44, as the 15k readings would mean a really full bobbin and attenuated mids in 43. As it is, the clean tones are really great, slightly scooped, and the dirty is spectacular. Thumpy lows, as articulate as a single coil, and no honk like higher mids can create.

thanks for all the feed back. It's been a fun mystery to solve. I'm going to record a sound sample before I sell them, and i'll post a link if I do.

peace