Anyone seen "SRV's #1" pickups?

[Possum]

.....

Something wrong there, black bottom pre-CBS didn't have dates written on them that I've ever seen. How you write on the bottom of black forbon????? Only way I know is with a gold or silver pen. I wish someone had that Guitar Player Magazine and pix from it. I also read that it had a '62 neck but a '59 body. Don't trust everything you read. Where's them photos????

[mkat]

Yeah, that's a good point and wax potted forbon at that. Anyway, it's a point of reference, the various sources I've read do have contradictions. If there was a date on those pickups, then anyone could have written it there with whatever stuck if Fender didn't.

Apparently, there's an article in the Feb 1990 Guitar Player magazine by Dan titled "Supernova Strats", but I don't know whether this is just the info in Dan's book or whether it contains a more detailed view including the pickups.

[Possum]

.....

I think the autopsy reports were pretty accurate, the clincher for me was that "the neck pickup was hottest and the other two relatively weak." I only read that in the UK magazine but it was direct quotes from the Fender guys. I keep tabs on vintage strat sets sold on Ebay and 2 '59 sets I wrote down specs for and a customer who has a '59 strat, all of them had hotter neck pickups than the other two. So I think that report was accurate. Most of the pre-CBS strat sets though there is zero consistency in any year, Duncan has a chart I printed out but it doesn't jibe with any real sets I've seen.

[David Schwab]

...and the "interesting" choices in new models like the Les Paul BFG.

I call that thing the NFG! (or the NFW!)

I bet someone got a big raise though... think about it.. sell an unfinished guitar with rusty parts. And then charge normal money for it. You just saved all that time and labor! Sanding? Pffft. We don't need no stinkin' sanding! Don't even let the CNC finish carving the top. Lacquer? Pfft! Wipe some stain on it with an old rag!

Kind of like them taking the old gold top bodies routed for P-90's and sticking the mini humbuckers in them. Recycle left over parts as a new model!

I decided I didn't like Gibson's management too much when they started buying up companies and either killing off all their good products or just letting them wither, like Op Code, Tobias, Steinberger, Trace Elliott....

[belwar]

You mispeld "corquesniffeur."

Now that was a great post. :>

[Possum]

...

Gibson exemplifies the worst of corporate culture. A guy who loves guitars has big bucks and buys a company to "save" it. Umm with no experience in running a big guitar company. Buys other companies, fires the ones who know what they are doing there, has big plans to expand those companies, but never gets around to it, meanwhile the companies wither away and product and staff lose interest in what they're doing. Make yourself into "the BIG guy" and become unapproachable to everyone below your pay grade. Instill fear in employees, they better get out of your way and not rock the boat. Expand the company into mega-debt, meanwhile buy lots of nice cars and all your corporate execs spend most of their time drinking at expense paid lunches at fancy restaurants; fly around the country alot for "meetings" that accomplish nothing. When things start to fall apart as they will, try a bunch of ridiculous things to make fast profits and we don't need no stinkin' quality.... Having worked for alot of startups and giant corporations, you see this over and over and know the signs that all point to eventual company failure or vast decline. Our whole country has pretty much gone down that road with the last administrations..... The guys at the top never get hurt though.

[Ward]

Sounds like everything else in life to me, esp governments and then everything else from them down. Profit is the only consideration, now it's all made in China and they're whining about China's energy use, C02 emisions and what not. Humans never stop with the greed. Sorry, I had to jump in with my gloom here but really, Gibson schmibson, have a look around. You talk about the guys at the top never get burnt, sounds like Governments again, and the huge pensions they give emselves, and we can do nothing. I don't mean for this to get political but again, Gibson Schmibson. If it was only a few Corps I wouldn't f###ing mind so much.

[Possum]

....

There are some exceptions out there, Google is a corporation that does everything "green" and seems to give a shit about their employees. Employees can bring their pets to work, they have charging stations for electric vehicles etc. etc. etc. Hopefully this is a glimpse of the future. Old systems are breaking down and Gibson is a good example of the old ways. Our current president, whether he turns out either way, was elected by people who are tired of the status quo we had to put up with the previous administrations. There are glimmers of light that things might be changing, but will it be too late? Once the oceans are dead which is already happening, we're done.

[mkat]

Copper foil tape won't kill any highs or shield unless its grounded and loop closed, if you ever find what year Guitar Player did that article would love to see it....

It's not in the Feb 1990 issue of Guitar Player. A friend of mine has it in his collection. The article by Dan in that is called "Supernova Strats" and does have some pics, but not of the back of the pickups apparently. I'll take a look at it on the weekend.

[Sweetfinger]

Something wrong there, black bottom pre-CBS didn't have dates written on them that I've ever seen. How you write on the bottom of black forbon????? Only way I know is with a gold or silver pen.

Pencil

[Ward]

Pencil

Exactly.

[Possum]

......

Pencil on black forbon? Never seen one. How could you even read it :-)

[Ward]

Poss, the pencil comes out grey

[mkat]

Yeah, but I think the point Possom was initially making is that it looks like Fender didn't write anything on those early Strat pickups to begin with. All we have is Martinez's claim that the date was written on the back of the pickups. He also claims that writing the year on the back of pickups was common practice, but by whom and it may have been the opposite. Going in circles lol.

[Possum]

....

I've been collecting photos off Ebay for years of vintage strat pickups, I have several resource books on vintage strats, nowhere have I ever seen a black bottom strat pickup with writing on it. Show me a photo to prove me wrong and where the photo came from and I'll believe you. If there was something written on those pickups it doesn't make any sense at all. Even the grey bottom ones were stamped, not penciled on, though I seem to recall having seen somewhere one with pencil writing on one of those. The only thing I can think of whoever owned that guitar before him bought some pickups from someone who had written the year on them, but try writing with a pencil on a lacquered/waxed strat bobbin sometime, the most it would do would emboss the writing, now that is conceivable why, if there is writing on them, how it could have happened.