Anyone seen "SRV's #1" pickups?

[mkat]

I've seen the Feb '90 GP Supernova Strats article and it's definitely not that one.

Not that I've seen that many, but pics I've seen of the early strat and bass pickups don't have markings either.

[LtKojak]

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.

It's my understanding that Abigail Ybarra wound those p'ups for him, maybe that's why the date was written in pencil. Wait, it might've been Seymour that did the rewind... I don't remember very well.

But again, that's NOT something I know for a fact.

[Possum]

...

See thats the problem, alot of wild theories, which is pretty much useless. I never heard that one about Abagail Y. winding anything for Stevie. She supposedly did wind some for Hendrix back in those days, I think you're mixing Hendrix-clone, with real Hendrix there :-) The bottom line is we know factually the pickups were copper shielded, and that the neck was the hottest, and Fender says they were '59's which fits the profile of many real Fender vintage sets. The rest is just rumors....

[David Schwab]

I have a '59 Jazzmaster, and those pickups have the date written in pencil, as far as I remember. But those are gray bobbins. It also has the date on the end of the neck is written in pencil.

I don't have the guitar here, but I did a search and found some pictures of pickups.

The 1958-1964 black fiber pickup doesn't seem to have writing, but the 1964-1981 Gray fiber pickup does. Oddly my pickups have gray flatwork.



I found a photo of the bottom of a '59 Strat pickup... no writing.

[Possum]

....

Dave you must be blind, it plainly says "this pickup was wound by Abagail Ybarra, then rewound by Van Zandt, and played by Stevie Ray Vaughan and was made in 1959!"

[David Schwab]

Dave you must be blind, it plainly says "this pickup was wound by Abagail Ybarra, then rewound by Van Zandt, and played by Stevie Ray Vaughan and was made in 1959!"

Oh, how did I miss that!

[ken]

I have a couple of Strat pickups from early 1965 here with handwritten dates and initials on the gray base. I had a 1964 Jaguar once with yellow handstamp on both the pickups' black bases. I wonder if somebody got a 'deal' on gray Forbon in 1965 so they had to use it?

Come to think about it, I have been fixing Fender amps since the early 1980's, and I have never seen a light gray amp circuit board. Why would Fender buy the gray material and just use it for pickups? After all, amps use a lot more Forbon than a pickup does.

ken

[Dezzy]

I have a '59 Jazzmaster, and those pickups have the date written in pencil, as far as I remember. But those are gray bobbins. It also has the date on the end of the neck is written in pencil.

I don't have the guitar here, but I did a search and found some pictures of pickups.

The 1958-1964 black fiber pickup doesn't seem to have writing, but the 1964-1981 Gray fiber pickup does. Oddly my pickups have gray flatwork.



I found a photo of the bottom of a '59 Strat pickup... no writing.

You know something, that looks like a lot of other pickups, a bobbin with some pole pices through it, wrapped with copper, not a lot to it really, some have more wined's than others, people who buy vintage pickups for ££££, are pretty much insane, you can buy the same spec pups, that will sound the same wether you like to hear that or not, for a lot less money

[Dezzy]

I have a '59 Jazzmaster, and those pickups have the date written in pencil, as far as I remember. But those are gray bobbins. It also has the date on the end of the neck is written in pencil.

I don't have the guitar here, but I did a search and found some pictures of pickups.

The 1958-1964 black fiber pickup doesn't seem to have writing, but the 1964-1981 Gray fiber pickup does. Oddly my pickups have gray flatwork.



I found a photo of the bottom of a '59 Strat pickup... no writing.

You know something, that looks like a lot of other pickups, a bobbin with some pole pieces through it, wrapped with copper, not a lot to it really, some have more wined's than others, people who buy vintage pickups for ££££, are pretty much insane, you can buy the same spec pups, that will sound the same weather you like to hear that or not, for a lot less money

[Jim Shine]

Hey, those are my Jazzmaster pickups!

Anyway, the earliest dates I have seen is 1964. The first dates were done with yellow ink stamps. Prior to that the factory was smaller. It was up to the person that wired the guitars up to catch the defective pickups and return them to the winder identified on the bin they were taken from. By 1964 the factory was much larger with multiple shifts cranking out hundreds of guitars a day. So they started having employees mark the pickups. That mark was supposed to denote the employee wound and tested the pickup and it was a functioning part ready for the next stage on XX date. If it surfaced as a dud during production, it was sent back to them and they had to fix it on their own time.

[ken]

I do have a couple of Tele rhythm pickups with pencilled dates on their black bobbins. I think one was dated sometime in 1964.

It's a real pain trying to see the date on these, especially after a nice shiny coat of lacquer covers up the writing. I didn't even know it was dated
until I was inspecting it while trying to fix a bad solder joint on it.

I also have two grey bottom Strat pickups dated and initialed in pen on 4/19/64 on their bottoms too.

ken

[Jim Shine]

Pencil is used often in the yellow stamp era. It is really common to find one penciled and one yellow inked pickup factory in the same guitar. I have seen a few variations during that year. One of my favorites was really common on Musicmaster family and some Strat pickups is on some of the earliest gray bobbins, there will be a yellow ink stamp on the black top and a penciled handwritten date on the base.

Pencil dates on black occur again quite often in that late 66-67 era when black bases make a brief return in some guitars.

[freefrog]

You know something, that looks like a lot of other pickups, a bobbin with some pole pices through it, wrapped with copper, not a lot to it really, some have more wined's than others, people who buy vintage pickups for ££££, are pretty much insane, you can buy the same spec pups, that will sound the same wether you like to hear that or not, for a lot less money

A clone of vintage PU doesn't sound the same than a real vintage PU because the materials used in the past are no more available (pole pieces wrapped in copper, ok, but it's not the same copper nor the same pole pieces and only seasoned winders are able to compensate this difference).

Pencil is used often in the yellow stamp era. It is really common to find one penciled and one yellow inked pickup factory in the same guitar. I have seen a few variations during that year. One of my favorites was really common on Musicmaster family and some Strat pickups is on some of the earliest gray bobbins, there will be a yellow ink stamp on the black top and a penciled handwritten date on the base.

Pencil dates on black occur again quite often in that late 66-67 era when black bases make a brief return in some guitars.

My knowledge about such things is more than limited but I've refreshed a 1962 Strat and there was no writing on the back of its PU's.

[kayakerca]

Hey, René Martinez is still around doing his thing. Send him a note and settle the bet. :-)

[David Schwab]

You know something, that looks like a lot of other pickups, a bobbin with some pole pieces through it, wrapped with copper, not a lot to it really, some have more wined's than others, people who buy vintage pickups for ££££, are pretty much insane, you can buy the same spec pups, that will sound the same weather you like to hear that or not, for a lot less money

While I think the vintage pickup thing is a little crazy, and I mostly agree with you, I'll tell you something. I have a friend that has a '64 Strat. He got it new. It sounds WAY different than his new Strat. The pickups have a smoother tone. They might not have sounded that way new though, but now they sound very different from the new pickups. This has been discussed here in the past, and there's no clear consensus as to why that might happen. The magnets didn't seem weaker, but I did not have a gauss meter at the time to take a measurement of them.