Washburn Pickups

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
I have a 1979 Washburn Wing Series (Falcon). It is set up for two pickups.
At one point someone decided to change out the lead pickup with a S.D. neck pickup, it
really was a bad choice due to string spacing.
Does anyone here have any information on the original pickups, or know a
reasonable replacement? I can find no information on the the original manufacturer.
Thank you in advance for any information

[big_teee]

Hello,
I have a 1979 Washburn Wing Series (Falcon). It is set up for two pickups.
At one point someone decided to change out the lead pickup with a S.D. neck pickup, it
really was a bad choice due to string spacing.
Does anyone here have any information on the original pickups, or know a
reasonable replacement? I can find no information on the the original manufacturer.
Thank you in advance for any information

Is the pickup spacing too narrow, and if so by how much?
The SD will be a 49.2mm pickup.
You probably want either a 50mm or 53mm spaced pickup in that slot.
I would suspect a 50mm.
Terry

[David Schwab]

Most humbuckers have the same spacing for neck and bridge, but there are the F spaced ones for Fender and Floyd Rose type vibratos. And these days several other spacings. But it wouldn't have been that way back in '79. Does that guitar have a trem?

[SpareRibs]

Thanks David, No trem maybe just F spacing. I got it in the condition it is in from original owner. At some point it was put into the shop for lack of volume. The result was pickup
replacement. I was trying to see if anyone knew what
the original ones were (or copys of). Ill just keep looking.
Also it has push pull volume pots apparently to split each humbucker. That causes a problem as to what to replace them with
Thanks again!

[Peter Naglitsch]

I have a hard time believing that the wrong pole spacing should be the problem here. Traditional 49.2mm PAFs have been used to great succes with "F-spaced" guitars (EVH original red striped guitar anyone?). There has to be something else. A quick google gave me the name of the original pickups; "Washburn Power Sustain" (wow, how 70's aren't that, just power and sustain, nuthin bout ultimate vintage PAF tone...), and the info that they are probably Gotoh or DiMarzio made. I sugest that you have a look into the wiring of the guitar, check polarity of the two coils (try swaping leads around), the condition of the split switch, volume switch and pickup selector.

[big_teee]

It Seems that He's just wanting to get the guitar back to a more stock configuration.
Do you have any pictures of the guitar that you can post?
I would measure the string spacing in MM, Nearest the Neck, and Nearest the Bridge, and get pickups accordingly, if your goal is to change things.
Also if you have 2 Pots With DPDT Switches, you have a lot of Options on wiring.
Also type of Bridge will play into string Spacing.
Stop Tails are usually narrower than Fender type fixed Bridges.
Good Luck,
Terry

[copperheadroads]

I have an original Floyd rose on my old Lado guitar ,It has F-spaced or 53mm spacing & a 50 mm pickup don't line so good in the bridge position

[big_teee]

I have an original Floyd rose on my old Lado guitar ,It has F-spaced or 53mm spacing & a 50 mm pickup don't line so good in the bridge position

+1

[David Schwab]

Thanks David, No trem maybe just F spacing. I got it in the condition it is in from original owner. At some point it was put into the shop for lack of volume. The result was pickup
replacement. I was trying to see if anyone knew what
the original ones were (or copys of). Ill just keep looking.
Also it has push pull volume pots apparently to split each humbucker. That causes a problem as to what to replace them with
Thanks again!

I just remembered I did a setup on one of those not too long ago. It did have a Fender type of bridge on it, and they were F spaced pickups. They looked like DiMarzio clones, and were very hot pickups.

You can also see that the stock pickup is almost too narrow for the bridge:



This is not the guitar I worked on, but is the same. Found the photo on the internet.

[SpareRibs]

Hello,
David, Yes that is exactly the problem. If you look at the photo you posted it looks as if the pickup rout may be offset towards the bottom, causing the pickups to not be exactly under the strings. If they are DiMarzio clones what could they be replaced with? Could I wind two strat bobbins and wind a warmer sounding pickup?

[David Schwab]

Hello,
David, Yes that is exactly the problem. If you look at the photo you posted it looks as if the pickup rout may be offset towards the bottom, causing the pickups to not be exactly under the strings. If they are DiMarzio clones what could they be replaced with? Could I wind two strat bobbins and wind a warmer sounding pickup?

I wouldn't worry too much about the strings not exactly lining up with the poles. One alternative would be to get some kind of blade pickup. Those Washburn pickups are very hot, so something like a DiMarzio X2N would fit right in, and you wouldn't have to worry about the pole alignment.

Strat bobbins would be too wide to fit.