Hit the Mother Deal!!

[NightWinder]

I just have too.........
A customer bought a set of pickups of mine from a store I stock.....Liked the pickups soo much, he wants to work out a Deal? What sort of deal me thinks..........Turns out he has 47 PRS guitars, and around 20 LesPauls. After meeting with him, we go back to his house for a jam. Shows me his huge collection in the basement (which is climate controled for humidity and temp. Real nice setup) and I just could not believe it. Truth be told........
After some super fat Porterhouse steaks, a bottle of vodka w/stuffed bluecheese olives (quite the drink), he tells me he has no luck with pickups and has bought nearly everyones (he said the worst are from England) handwounds, tells me he wants 10 pickups, in exchange for a nice 76' LesPaul Custom. No cash deal. In my mind, Im thinking fuck yeah.....but not wearing it on my sleeve. I hesitated, so he said here, Take this too. A 100 wt Sovtec. I said OK, I'll do it.
Needless to say, as happy as I was, The Wife Punched me in the side of the head( she's a Blcakbelt too) for making her come get my ass at 3am. WTF!! The bitch can't share my joyous Deal? Thats the Mother Deal!!!
Question is : Are these pickups in the guitar Tim Shaw Pafs? The whole guitar is all original. What is this guitar really worth? $1500.00 maybe.
Thanks for reading, and if you know about the pickups that came in them that year...........

[Spence]

Those pickups will be T Tops. Nothing to write home about but doing fairly well on ebay. The guitar will be climbing in value but it wasn't a good era for Gibsons. I had a 74 custom for some years. Missed it when it was gone but my 95 LP Standard blows it away.
I'd like to know what this guy's experience of 'English' handwound pickups is, seriously. I'll bet it's Wizard and nothing else.

[NightWinder]

Those pickups will be T Tops. Nothing to write home about but doing fairly well on ebay. The guitar will be climbing in value but it wasn't a good era for Gibsons. I had a 74 custom for some years. Missed it when it was gone but my 95 LP Standard blows it away.
I'd like to know what this guy's experience of 'English' handwound pickups is, seriously. I'll bet it's Wizard and nothing else.

The english burgerking product. I tryed his paf set,and 3 others and they all sounded like shit. Seriously. If they sounded good, I'd say. If you have anymore info on the 76 custom and why that era was funky, let me know. These are ttops hun? Did Shaw wind these? Both are at 7.30k, and 7.35k resistance.....TEll me moo!!

[Zhangliqun]

Congrats -- I'm schmoozing a couple of luthiers who dig my stuff. One of them I had the misfortune of being in such a hurry to get his order done that I didn't have time to test them, and it turns out they had dud magnets in them. Learned a lesson there, needless to say!

Thank God the barndoor on that one isn't closed, I've just got to make him some good replacements -- all of which WILL be test-driven in my guitars before they go out the door...

[Possum]

Shaws not....

Shaw pickups started in the early 80s and had date codes rubber stamped on the bottom of the baseplate, I see alot of guys selling "Shaw" pickups on ebay and they are too early, buyer beware.....

[NightWinder]

Shaw pickups started in the early 80s and had date codes rubber stamped on the bottom of the baseplate, I see alot of guys selling "Shaw" pickups on ebay and they are too early, buyer beware.....

Funny, one pickup has a stamped date on it, and the other does'nt. They also have a patent # punched in the baseplate. They are not badly constructed, and I played them for a moment. I changed the pots first though, as they were 250k on all 4 potz. changed the volumes and disconnected the tone pots. They sounded ok at best. Seems they used Solderon as the wire is dark red. Symetrically would too. Very bland and sterile. The slugs looked cheap too, like a grey color, and are recessed on the g string on both for some reason. IF they are catching some cash on e-bay.....damn. Thats where they will be. If anyone would like to buy them beforhand send me a pm. I'll give them to you cheap. Maybe trade for some parts.......whatever

[Joe Gwinn]

Funny, one pickup has a stamped date on it, and the other does'nt. They also have a patent # punched in the baseplate.

What was the patent number? Did it lead to anything interesting?

[David Schwab]

What was the patent number? Did it lead to anything interesting?

If it's the Shaw pickup, it's the same patent number Gibson has been putting on their pickups since they started putting a number on them.... 2,737,842. I'll give you a hint.. it's NOT Lover's humbucker patent. It's Les Paul's (L.W. Polfuss) tailpiece/bridge! The question is did Gibson make a mistake, or did they not want the competition to see the patent?

[NightWinder]

Thats exact patent #. The leads are white and black. It does have the best cast magnet. Very rough top and bottom. The ends are rough as well. N,&s are only ground. They have 2 black lines on one end. 2 braid on the hookup as well. The guitar had the same stampon the neck cavity on the bottome of the neck. Also, there are 1T on each of the bobbins, along with some wierd chinese whatever writting with the # 2 on one and # 3 on the other.

[David Schwab]

Thats exact patent #. The leads are white and black. It does have the best cast magnet. Very rough top and bottom. The ends are rough as well. N,&s are only ground. They have 2 black lines on one end. 2 braid on the hookup as well. The guitar had the same stampon the neck cavity on the bottome of the neck. Also, there are 1T on each of the bobbins, along with some wierd chinese whatever writting with the # 2 on one and # 3 on the other.

That base plate is from an '81 Tim Shaw I'm rewinding for a friend of mine. The magnet does have that rough cast look, on the ends too. The bobbins don't have any markings at all on the top, and the bottoms have some odd molding marks. It sounds like you have some kind of hybrid T-top and Shaw.

I might get to this pickup this weekend, and I'm going to try and document as much as possible.

Here's some pictures I just took:

[kevinT]

Curious about the push-back wire on the tim shaw

david,

Does your tim shaw paf have the vintage correct pushback wire (2 thread per braid) or the stewmac-type wire with the 3 thread per braid?

[Joe Gwinn]

If it's the Shaw pickup, it's the same patent number Gibson has been putting on their pickups since they started putting a number on them.... 2,737,842. I'll give you a hint.. it's NOT Lover's humbucker patent. It's Les Paul's (L.W. Polfuss) tailpiece/bridge! The question is did Gibson make a mistake, or did they not want the competition to see the patent?

Yes, I've seen both patents. Nor do I believe that it was an accident. Putting the wrong number on things was very common in the days before the Internet, when it was a big bother to check a patent out.

[David Schwab]

david,

Does your tim shaw paf have the vintage correct pushback wire (2 thread per braid) or the stewmac-type wire with the 3 thread per braid?

That required me to use a loupe! It has two threads per braid.

[Possum]

no date stamp

ALL the Shaw pickups had inked date stamps on them, so one of them is probably too early. I have a history of the bursts book and it tells the years Shaw pickups were made, if I remember '80 was too early. Shaws weren't wound very hot, like 7.3K or thereabouts, I might be interested in trading something for the pair if you're interested, I only have the one here which is neck spacing and would like to examine yours if possible. I got magnets :-)

[NightWinder]

ALL the Shaw pickups had inked date stamps on them, so one of them is probably too early. I have a history of the bursts book and it tells the years Shaw pickups were made, if I remember '80 was too early. Shaws weren't wound very hot, like 7.3K or thereabouts, I might be interested in trading something for the pair if you're interested, I only have the one here which is neck spacing and would like to examine yours if possible. I got magnets :-)

Dave, let me take some pictures for you tomarrow in natural lighting, I just tryed.......and it seems that the flash is too much, and the lighting is'nt enough. I just got the camera/mpeg and am learning chinese....j/k. The patent # is 2,737,842. The INK stamped is barely readable and I can make out Feb 4th, They read out at 7.30k, and 7.35k.
I just got 1,000 magnets............ , But I am looking for some other things.