Help identifying Strat pickup, please

[minime]

I 'inheirited' a Strat pickup over the weekend and could use some help figuring out what I have. The coil is dead so no resistance reading available. The magnets are staggered, south pole up, and read between 800 and 1200 on my gauss meter. The wire is a dark purplish brown. The bottom plate is grey Forbon about .10" thick and is ink stamped 161474. Any opinions are gratefully accepted.

[copperheadroads]

1974 Fender strat pickup made in the 14 week of 1974 & wound by the person #16 who ever that was

[Possum]

Alnico 5, too. Machine wound. Before you chop it up, reheat the solder joints. Alot of solder joints go bad over the years and this should always be the first thing to check on any dead pickup. See if you get continuity from ground lead to any of the magnets, there is often rust and the coil shorts to the poles sometimes which sometimes kills and sometimes doesn't....

[minime]

Thanks, Copperhead for the dating information. I had presumed it to be a part number. Unfortunately, the pickup had been installed without a cover or even tape protection and has several surface breaks visable. I found no shorts to the magnets, but will try peeling back a layer or two to try to see continuity/resistance. Thanks, guys!

[David King]

Good luck with the peel. I've never had any luck with that but I think Possum put up a description of his process for tracking down the one true end. It might be worth digging up via the search function.

[big_teee]

Good luck with the peel. I've never had any luck with that but I think Possum put up a description of his process for tracking down the one true end. It might be worth digging up via the search function.

Just about all of them I've repaired have always been corroded and broke near the magnets.
I would try peeling some off, but if that is no luck, it will probably be broke near the start like D K says.
If you protect the date code, and rewind with PE wire, they are still semi valuable to vintage guitar collectors, and vintage shops.
Good Luck,
T