MJ Duncans with Ceramic Mags stock?

[Mr. Lime]

Hi there,

today I took apart one of my JBJ (Maricela Juarez wound) to swap the A5 mag with an ceramic mag to get some kind of Dokkenbucker / Hunter. The screws on the back plate were covered with wax so I thought it was a stock one. What I found inside was already a ceramic mag, which showed no conductivity on my DMM.

This was not the first time I found a cermaic mag in a MJ pickup. Half a year ago I discovered the same in a TB-10J.

Does anybody else experienced wrong mags in Duncan pickups?

[Masta' C]

Incorrect magnets from the factory are very rare. It's far more likely that the mags were swapped at some point.

It's not uncommon to either re-wax pot the pickup or reheat a pickup to secure the magnet after a swap. Many times, this results in excess wax on the baseplate and around the screws, though most don't bother with this step. Just depends on the modder.

Not saying a factory mismatch couldn't have happened, but if you're encountering multiple instances of this on older pickups, then there's a fairly solid chance they've been modded.

[eclecticsynergy]

I concur with Masta' C. Never heard of a wrong factory magnet in a Duncan.
Of course, the majority of them never get opened up.

Question - did you get that JB and TB-10 from the same seller?

MJ-wound pickups sometimes bring a higher price now that she's famous.
Might've been somebody with a predilection for ceramic mags, who didn't tell you (or simply didn't remember) that they were modded.

[uOpt]

Or a sticker moved to a different pickup to increase its value.

Although that wouldn't explain how a normal height ceramic makes it into a JB. A DD would have a double height magnet.

[Mr. Lime]

Thanks for the replies.

Alright, I just wondered. I got the pickups from different seller years ago. I thought there might was something like a scarcity in magnets in a particular time area. Bill Lawrence seemed to switch from ceramic to AlNiCo because of that, but also changed the windings for compensation.

Guess it's coincidence that both got modded before I got them..