Wanted: Dead or Alive

[cryptozoo]

Hi guys,
I'm looking for a dead Seymour Duncan Seth Lover pickup, old pre T Top Pat # pickup or authentic parts (screws, baseplate, butyrate bobbins, etc) for a pickup winding project. I only need to complete a single humbucker and already have the magnet and wire, so if anyone has any of these or some equivalent parts lying around that they'd be willing to sell, please PM me or shoot me an e-mail at plagueusa at juno dot com.
thanks!

[Possum]

.....

Buy a Seth Lover off Ebay. Pre-TTop pickup parts occasionally very rarely will appear on Ebay, be prepared to fork out good cash as these are usually the same as PAF parts. Seth Lover parts aren't accurate PAF spec except for the slugs, though their dimensions may be off, I have one and know what they are made of, they are a loose interpretation of a PAF, not accurate at all....

[cryptozoo]

Right on. For some reason, I thought the Seth Lovers were made from Butyrate. How off are they with the bobbin measurements? Does anyone else make butyrate bobbins to the correct specs? I've got a bunch of PAF / PAT #s, but no dead ones, unfortunately. Or fortunately. Guess it depends on how you look at it.

[Possum]

...

Yeah they are butryate, I haven't taken the winding off to examine the fine details but they sound like the cores are too thick to me. They are a good pickup, they are just are not accurate repro. I was rather shocked by the lab results I got on BB's and the SL pickup. I think maybe that a real PAF repro isn't going to have mass appeal, they are going for profit, not accuracy....

[soundmasterg]

Yeah they are butryate, I haven't taken the winding off to examine the fine details but they sound like the cores are too thick to me. They are a good pickup, they are just are not accurate repro. I was rather shocked by the lab results I got on BB's and the SL pickup. I think maybe that a real PAF repro isn't going to have mass appeal, they are going for profit, not accuracy....

Isn't that the usual approach for a successful business?

[cryptozoo]

Alright, well... what about Antiquities? Butyrate? Same 'bobbin mold,' or slightly different?

[belwar]

Alright, well... what about Antiquities? Butyrate? Same 'bobbin mold,' or slightly different?

I think I have a SL bobbin. I'll measure it tonight against my PAF bobbin and let you know. I believe they use the same bobbin for SL and Ants. It would be way to expensive to make seperate molds for that.

[cryptozoo]

Hi Belwar, that would be excellent if you could measure the SL's against your PAF bobbins. Obviously hard to tell about the thickness of the interior if it's wound, but supposedly Seymour makes those from an exact mold of a PAF bobbin. Could be marketing hype, but if not, that will be a cheaper way for me to score some correct-spec material.

[belwar]

They dont look the same as a PAF bobbin. Paf bobbins have a flat interior like the allparts bobbins, and the SL ones have round cores in the middle around the poles. They are a nice bobbin, but not accurate. Honestly the allparts bobbins are way more authentic other than the Butyrate.

[cryptozoo]

Damn. That's unfortunate, but thank you for the information. In my experience, Butyrate is a unique material that could (and no doubt does) affect the transfer of vibration. I believe M69 pickup mounting rings were made out of this same material, and I didn't realize the difference in this stuff until I got ahold of a vintage set of pickup surrounds. They're much more rubbery and warpable compared to the newer material, and especially stuff like DiMarzio surrounds, which are very hard plastic. It's looking more and more like I'll have to hunt down a dead PAT# to get the parts I want.

[belwar]

It's not likely that the plastic effects the tone through any vibration. If anything there could be a di-electric difference between CAB and ABS bobbins. Im not saying that the SL is not the correct measurements - im just saying the core LOOKS different. You are far better off using those bobbins that waiting and waiting for a dead pat #.

[belwar]

Seth Lover Slug bobbin measurements.

Core Height 0.24"-0.243"
Core Width 0.2425"
Core Length 2.1825"
Bobbin Width 0.6905"
Bobbin Length 2.625

I just measured my PAF bobbin, and i'll tell you that the stew mac bobbin is much closer than the SL.