Gretsch Super Axe Pickups

[bill raymond]

Have done a little more research into this: Chet says in his book Me and My Guitars "We used humbucking DiMarzio pickups to get a more contemporary sound on the Super Axe." One of the members on the Gretschpages forum inquired of DiMarzio what pickups they supplied for the Super Axe and DiMarzio responded

"We supplied Gretsch with Super Distortions for several of their guitars in that period, but I am not certain they went in the 7680. It's possible they were, but it also appears Gretsch used other pickups in this model as well during its production history."

I would guess from this, then, that perhaps the Super Axe originally had DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups, but sometime in the production Gretsch changed over to these Maxon pickups, maybe as a cost-saving move?

[David Schwab]

I have never seen a photo of a Super Axe with DiMarzio pickups. If you Google "Gretsch Super Axe" just about every photo shows them with covered pickups with a single row of slot head pole screws. Super Distortions have two rows of hex screws and have never come with covers.

Also, here's a catalog page from 1978. It shows covered pickups with a single row of pole screws, like the Maxon pickups. It also just says "humbucking pickups". If they were using DiMarzios, they would advertise that fact, just like everyone else did at the time.

I doubt Chet would have liked the SDHBs anyway!

http://gretschpages.com/media/img/me...ch_page31.jpeg

And here's an ad for the guitar, also not SDHBs.



This site states:

http://home.provide.net/~cfh/gretsch.html

1976-1980: DiMarzio or generic Japanese Humbucking pickup were used on some models, screw poles, metal cover.

So if any came with DiMarzios, they were either not SDHBs or they were some custom made version based on the DiMarzio PAF parts.