Identify these pickups....

[Possum]

I scored these off Ebay, they are really old and amazing. I believe one of the coils if not both are tapped. No magnets with them and can only conjecture what they were hooked up to. 42 gauge but the real old stuff, very fat diameter. Anyone ever seen these before?

[Jim Darr]

No idea-never seen those before! Looks cool & well made.

Interesting with the 3 connector tab. Instead of a tap, could one be the ground, while the other two are for coil start and coil finish - for phasing?

[Possum]

Yeah I don't know, haven't had time to really look them over. If they are coil tapped that must have been pretty innovated, the wire diameter points to early 50's if not earlier than that.

[Jim Darr]

Polepiece thread should tell you if it is US or Metric. That might help pin down the maker. Anyway, let us know what you find out.

[David King]

Not some obscure Ovation or Guild pickup from the early 1970s? Another possibility could be Vox/Eko. The Italians loved to make injection molds for just about anything they could think of. I don't see any magnets, are they alnico HB style bars or ceramics?

[bajaman]

I agree with David King - possibly Italian Eko - are the pole pieces metric thread ?

[Possum]

Definitely not Italian. The wire is PE, but its the same kind of PE I find on 40's and early 50's wire spools, overly size tolerance. I owned a Vox Bulldog back in the day, they were cheesy low power, probably poly wire. I'll check the thread size, just from looking they look American and early P90 area type manufacture. The plastic looks like the plastic on an early 40's DeArmond pickup I have. Its a mystery still.

[Possum]

I showed them to Mario Milan who wrote that pickup book about 9 years ago, he's never seen anything like it either...

[JGravelin]

Really cool and well-made! I've not seen one like it before either - had to comment anyway. Have you wired it up and gave it a spin yet? How does it sound?

[David King]

My buddy Wolf in Boston thought that they looked familiar but couldn't say what they were.

[David Schwab]

Those are very odd! I'd guess the magnets were against the keepers?