Shin-ei Companion Pickups

[clear and blue]

Hi there, been directed here as hopefully some of you may recognise these pickups. I don't know a hell of a lot about pickups but had this set about 10 years and haven't a clue what they are - nothing came up in searches.

They are made by a company called "Shin-ei Companion" in Japan. I guess they are made in the 70's but may be wrong. I'll show you some pictures before I go on . . .







Ring any bells? The size and shape suggest to me that they were intended to go in a rockabilly guitar. They have a very fat, plummy sound that is kind of "low end of a piano" like. has strong detailed bass and low mids but not much in the high frequencies. can feel a bit squashy, almost like tube rectifier sag or something.

Here are some blurry pictures of one of them with it's cover off.







The DC resistance of the pair is 6.49k and 6.66k. Despite the seemingly low output, they seem very loud.

To help explain the blurry pictures, there is a single wide coil. The wire used is green.

-- through the centre of the coil is a kind a blade pole piece thing.

-- on one side there are some adjustable pole pieces although aspersions have been cast by an educated source as to how adustable they are or whether they are just for show. They don't seem to be touching anything mechanical aside from maybe the magnet next to them or the base.

-- the magnets themselves are two long, slim bar magnets.

having never built my own pickups or even understand how they are made, i have very little knowledge on pickups. only other experience of non stock pickups was one made by a certain large scale manufacturer which cost a ridiculous amount for the shoddy quality and could never hold a candle to these 2 tacky looking jobs.

however, having had them for 10 years and being so different to anything else ive tried (both tonally and in looks), i am really curious as to what they are, what they are for, what made them sound like that etc.

if you can help at all i would appreciate it.

cheers

[jonson]

Shin-ei were the big Japan boys in the 60/s and 70/2 in producing effects pedals, but also did pickups etc, and they were normally sold under other brand names such as Shaftesbury and Hohner etc. heres another pair of Shin-ei pickups on a Shaftesbury Rick copy. Not much as you say are known about these today.

[clear and blue]

pretty cool looking pickups there. quite refreshing to see after looking at so many PAFalikes. how do you like the sound of yours? dave stephens suspected my set were likely to be rubbish like so many of the odd looking pickups that came out of Japan at the time. they are in a completely different league to my seymour duncan in terms of natural, rich tone and they also have a much better feel in terms of dynamic response. to be fair, i got the seymour duncans about 10 years ago too so maybe they have improved a lot since then.

i found a post somewhere about a man who had come across a Shin-ei amplifier but never seen any pickups. i guess the fact that they were mainly produced as parts for bigger brand's guitars explains that.

i'll look into the links with Shaftesbury and Hohner, thanks for the pointer.

[LtKojak]

Originally Posted by jonson

Shin-ei were the big Japan boys in the 60/s and 70/2 in producing effects pedals, but also did pickups etc, and they were normally sold under other brand names such as Shaftesbury and Hohner etc. heres another pair of Shin-ei pickups on a Shaftesbury Rick copy. Not much as you say are known about these today.

Wow! This is a very nice looking Rick copy. I usually hate Ricks with a passion, but this one looks very cool indeed. I can almost feel the neck being a pleasure to play.

[clear and blue]

makes me want to build a Rickenbacker type guitar just to have a use for these pickups. shouldn't be too hard now should it . . .