Help identifying a very old pickup

[nickd]

Hi,

I think I posted this on the wrong sub-forum, so I'm reposting it here.


I'm trying to find information on a vintage pickup that was purchased in the UK in the mid to late 1940s (at a best guess) and was on my dad's Gibson Cromwell.

It has two pole pieces, is 3.8k ohms resistance, and the dimensions are roughly 82mm x 46mm x 10mm (very roughly 3 1/4 x 2 7/16 x 13/32).

If you tilt it to the light you can clearly see the outlines of the two coils, and the construction seems to be two oval pole pieces screwed to a flat ferrous base, coils around the pole pieces, with a case fitting over everything. The top really is moulded to the coils and I wonder if the case is a hollow rectangle making the sides into which the coils were inserted and potted, and then the textured finish was applied. It's hard to tell what the case is made of under the textured finish, but as the terminals are screwed to the case, either the textured finish originally provided insulation for the terminals or the case is in bakelite or something similar (I suspect the latter). I'll see if I can get a careful "poke" at some exposed material in the screw holes. The base shows clear traces of attempts to connect an earth/ground.

There are no markings, text or numbers of any description.

Given the difficulty getting a clean resistance I suspect that either the terminals are no longer insulated from the case or that insulation on the windings has broken down.






Can anyone help identify it or point me in the right direction?

Thanks in advance for any help

nick

[jonson]

Looks like nobody coming in on this Nick and it's got me a wee bit baffled as well. A Gibson and bought in the UK with a rare pickup and the only thing I remember as a single coil of about this size was on an old Vega Duotron out of Boston US but they also had either a tort or bakelite cover on them untill thay changed to Dearmond pick-ups. I recall no pickups like this out of Czech or Poland or even Ideal in Berlin Germany but not saying it isn't. The other thing is the UK has had a cottage industry of solo guys in Garages and sheds having a go at making guitars and repairs right through the 40s to 60s and then onwards and in the early days myself included even having a pop at pickups, mainly one offs with not a clue what the f***** they were doing and some strange things were given birth and still exist to mystify us to this day.

[David King]

Where is sam lee guy? -Not that he would know any more about it than jonson...

[David Schwab]

That's very unusual! Thanks for posting it.

[LtKojak]

Where is sam lee guy? -Not that he would know any more about it than jonson...

It was my idea to post it here.

I thought of Jason Lollar chiming in, as I think he's the one that's seen and/or repaired the most bizarre artifacts used as guitar p'ups, or maybe Spence, as this p'up seems to be made in his neck of woods... but seems that they don't check this Forum so often.

Oh, well... it was worth a shot.