Any good pickup related stories?

[Possum]

When that guy sold it was worth about $40,000. The bottom seems to have dropped out of the vintage guitar market, stuff isn't selling on Ebay and prices have fallen dramatically. Its buyer's paradise there right now....

[captcoolaid]

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words

[jmaf]

looks like
[puts on sunglasses]
the pickup has a bug

(If you don't recognize the reference, it's from the Pickup Scene Investigation series, Special Unit PAF)

[copperheadroads]

I experimented with an ideal like that ,But there was too much hum ..........lol
Thats a nice pic

[big_teee]

I experimented with an ideal like that ,But there was too much hum ..........lol
Thats a nice pic

Was it the bug or the P/U Humming?
T

[copperheadroads]

That's about the size of our Mosquitoes

[captcoolaid]

Yeah I watched it fly in and was like no way. I had only had the Gorman for about 6 hours at that point and was testing a wind. The coil was coming out well and was gonna be one of the first sets produced.

[the great waldo]

Was it a 56 or a 59 mossie plain enamel wings with a 1016 body and a very low inductance sting !!!

Cheers

Andrew

Yeah I watched it fly in and was like no way. I had only had the Gorman for about 6 hours at that point and was testing a wind. The coil was coming out well and was gonna be one of the first sets produced.

[foonting]

This goes back to the late seventies when I worked in a little local music shop. The leather trousered guitar 'teacher' ... who did Saturday mornings in the back room with awe struck young 'punk' students who'd probably never heard a pentatonic blasted through in anger ... had a lovely 1963 Strat. I coveted it it had a fantastic neck and a real thick chime.
'I want three humbuckers' he grinned ... 'super distortion both ends ... oh and just stick two of the singles together to look like a humbucker in the middle ... doesn't matter if they work or not. So I think I invented the swimming pool rout, and in doing so probably ruined a wonderful instrument. Forgive me Father for I have sinned ... but the customer is always right.

[David Schwab]

So I think I invented the swimming pool rout, and in doing so probably ruined a wonderful instrument.

That's not what you want to do to old guitars, but that big swimming pool worked well for SRV in one of his guitars!

I have a nice old Charvel strat with a swimming pool that sounds great.

[soundguruman]

I was working in a music store, and found a box of old humbucking pickups, that were basically abandoned.
The owner said he would sell me a pair for $20 each.
I took the metal covers off two of them, and they were salt and pepper patent applied for Gibsons.
Which just shows to go ya, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

[David Schwab]

I took the metal covers off two of them, and they were salt and pepper patent applied for Gibsons.
Which just shows to go ya, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

You had to take the covers off to see they were PAFs?

I've had lots of old Gibson humbuckers over the years that were the result of the owners putting new pickups in their guitars. A lot of the time the pickups were nothing special, and many ended up being used for parts.

They are worth something now, but they weren't 35 years ago.

[soundguruman]

I took the covers off because I wanted to see the bobbins. The surprise was one black and one white bobbin.
Yes, you have to take the cover off to see the salt and pepper.
The PAF sticker, sometimes on the underside of the pickup, there are lots of fakes. Open the PU to find out if there are factory bobbins, to see if it's real.
That's the good part, they were real, nice surprise.

[Jim Shine]

I've had lots of old Gibson humbuckers over the years that were the result of the owners putting new pickups in their guitars. A lot of the time the pickups were nothing special, and many ended up being used for parts.

They are worth something now, but they weren't 35 years ago.

Most were not worth much even 15 years ago. I used to have a pile of patent number Gibson humbuckers that were almost worthless. Then in the mid-late 90's people started wanting the earliest ones, then when eBay really caught on the T Tops went up. Now even the early 80's stuff has its fans. I really suspect the culture of internet forums has driven the demand for these things. The demand simply wasn't there at all before the internet was around to influence the market. But I am not complaining as I earned a living for almost a year just on old junk pickups I was selling when I started on eBay.

[David Schwab]

Most were not worth much even 15 years ago. I used to have a pile of patent number Gibson humbuckers that were almost worthless. Then in the mid-late 90's people started wanting the earliest ones, then when eBay really caught on the T Tops went up. Now even the early 80's stuff has its fans. I really suspect the culture of internet forums has driven the demand for these things. The demand simply wasn't there at all before the internet was around to influence the market. But I am not complaining as I earned a living for almost a year just on old junk pickups I was selling when I started on eBay.

I sold a Tim Shaw from '81 for about $90 a few years ago. It wasn't anything special either.