WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

[guitarfeak]

Hi I am looking for some Ibanez super 70 pickups. I have been looking on ebay but they are really hard to find. If anybody has some that they would sell or trade to me that would be great. Thanks

[Northwinds]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

I just bought a 1983 DT-155 Phil Collen model Destroyer yesterday. It comes w/ 3 Super 70s. I plan to pull them and install an X2N in the bridge and some misc Dimarzio and Duncan's in the other two positions

I myself am looking for a original cream V2 for one w/ full lead wire

Here's an image of the DT-155, all original

[jerryjg]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

I just bought a 1983 DT-155 Phil Collen model Destroyer yesterday. It comes w/ 3 Super 70s. I plan to pull them and install an X2N in the bridge and some misc Dimarzio and Duncan's in the other two positions

I myself am looking for a original cream V2 for one w/ full lead wire

Here's an image of the DT-155, all original

Danfg don't mess with those Super70's in that guitar Northwinds! They are classics! What a great score! Thats VH-1 right there also.

[Ayrton]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

Oooo, gonna have to agree. Leave that one stock baby!

[Mononoaware]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

+2 on that. I'm not into pointies, but something about that guitar encapsulates the early-80's mojo. It's be a shame to break the enchantment!

[guitarfeak]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

Bump

[51501984]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

PM sent

[guitarfeak]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

Bump

[uOpt]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

I have a bunch of 1980 Ibanez humbuckers.

Any chance you can post more detailed photos of these suckers so that I can compare?

[guitarfeak]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

Bump

[Adieu]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

Pics? Got one better, the Ibanez pamphlet advertising all of them... little-known secret: far more brands than just Ibanez, or even Ibanez and other Hoshino stuff, had 'em. Cuz the pup was really, as with the Tube Screamers and all other cool Ibby electronics, rebadged, and you guessed it, from the usual suspects: Nishin (Maxon).

Maxon Super 70s can come in a variety of appearances, most distinctively in a strange zebra or double "open" coil setup where they are actually mounted into a BRASS COVER (painted! black!! and always half-chipped-off and showing brass if vintage stock & used), which itself had CUTOUTS exposing the coils. It's a cool but highly unusual look that's actually one of the best ways of spotting a Super 70. And you will find them in A LOT of stuff, especially LP Custom copies it seems: Matsumoku Grecos from the mid70s, what appears to be a rebadged Greco called Westminster (largely unknown, what a steal sometimes), and an identical (-ish?) Ibanez-branded LP Custom that may be yet another rebadged Matsumoku Greco, or might just be an exact-same build from bodies and necks supplied by the same third party, but assembled at FujiGen instead. Or it might even be crazier and more complicated, since both Matsumoku (RIP) and FujiGen Gakki (alive and fairly well, sometimes called "old/former Fender Japan, of Made in (not crafted) fame", "Ibanez Japan", or "Ibanez Prestige Factory" by people that don't quite understand the relationship between a brand owner and a contract builder) were neighbours in the same city, with gazillion other small suppliers OEMs and other guitar-related industries clustured around them.

PHOTOGRAPHS: 2 ibanez super 70s pamphlets, examples of 3 brands' seemingly identical mid 1970s bolton maple LP Custom copies w/ them. Confirmed Super 70s in Westminster personally (own. a keeper for sure, hugely due to Super 70s. just went comparison shopping looking for an LP for a friend, ran it against Gibsons in the $850-1800 range, etc., nothing short of a $2k PRS kept up. mine's bone stock except full bypass of all pots since they dried up and the PCB mount they came on intimidated me. wired straight to switch then to output jack for now), confirmed Super 70s and identical pancake construction and seemingly the same neck on bolton Greco LP Custom by an internet friend, and Super 70s in the Ibby version as according to catalogue. May be far more brands mid-70s brands out there that I don't know of with them, definitely NOT ibby exclusive, lawyerspeak translates as "only IBANEZ can call it an IBANEZ SUPER 70, but our supplier sells a gazillion of them on the side as Maxon Super 70 or other names & even we at Ibanez occasionally instead call it the "Hi-Power" humbucker set in our catalogues".... as such (and judging by the performance stars like EVH, modern vintage nuts and mag swappers, as well as little humble old me got out of it), the Super 70 might also be in part responsible for the wild popularity and crazy prices on stuff like Ibby Destroyer, or even the entire Greco brand's collectibility, perhaps, since it arrived as an important premium pup right around their takeoff as a brand, and right in time to make for a solid Japanese answer to newly available pickup option and the exploding aftermarket pup craze (DiMarzio Super Distortion, etc.) in the USA.

It's certainly stageworthy all the way up to stadiums, recordable even for platinum records, and has a unique tone (essentially like a digital, non-signal-polluting boost of +7db or so over a PAF with somewhat unusual mid flavour) that takes you from seemingly familiar PAF territory and opens up new ground through a tube amp, since it clips compresses and crunches up in new places and different ways. Also, as such, it's a PAF-ish sound that can nonethteless kick up signal about on par with the 14-17kOhm crowd like Super Distortions or JBs, and give you gain you couldn't otherwise get this controllable, quietly (noise wise) and with this voicing, at least out of passives/without preamps. And while noisier than actives, they howl much more, and can conjure up a similar wall of sound watt for watt of amp.

...not sure I'd recommend paying some ebay crook 300 a piece for them like I saw on offer last time I searched, but if you can get your hands on them, easily pay Seymour Duncan or even EMG active/Blackouts prices, or maybe even the premiums that go for various vintage PAFs. As a high-power PAF (vintage 7.8-8kohm PAF wind, but +70% power boost from AlNiCo 8 magnets over something or other..AlNiCo 5 or maybe Ceramic magneted PAFs of identical wind, I guess?), this thing can at the very least sound "worthy" all the way up to the edge of the sub $2k new price guitar class, maybe even higher with boosts/modular preamps + TBX tones, and in good wood. Somewhere between good USA pickup class and legendary USA pup class, not at all to be frowned upon as some "import".

NOTE: they are a ROYAL pain to adjust properly, since they have insane string pull (that's that extra 70% power of the A8 magnet) and thus need to be mounted at counterintuitive heights (lower in the ring) to get maximum signal and sustain without boomy bass or the pull killing sustain. Also, since both pups provide pull, not just the one you're listening to and adjusting, unlike the usual approach, you need to START LOW - WORK UP. 3-spring rings with angle adjustment (aka the 2 screws/springs) on bass side are a massive help.



PS aww shucks I'm necroposting ain't I? dang, didn't notice. oh well, bout time one of the early google results for super 70 stuff FINALLY gets a decent explanation of what the heck the pup is and why it works the way it does, as well as what all the varieties actually look like, and what brands truly have them, contrary to Ibby's marketing pitch of exclusivity.... and it'd be a waste to just "Select all - backspace/del" this whole wall of text I just wrote up compiling various info from all sorts of sources, and even (!) without resorting spamming a certain Edward 2/3tongue's name every 3 words or so, right? So maybe let it slide, eh mods?

[Adieu]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

And, now that I've somehow ended up necroposting and livening up this formerly simple WTB thread... guess I'll ask here, since it seems like I made it into "The Super 70s secret" thread somehow....

SUPER 70 + MODERN ACCESSORIES QUESTION: Anybody try Super 70s (or at least even other A8 pups, be they mag swap or boutique or SD Alternative 8) with such modern toys as the BMP (SD Blackout Modular Preamp aka the 2in1 boost'n'volume knob) or the Fender TBX tone control (two-pot stack, turns one potentiometer with one cap cutting highs like usual in one direction, and turns the other pot with a wholly different value cap cutting bass in the other direction, with its 0 aka "Full tone/tone 10" mode set dead in the middle)? Or other preamps, boosters, afterburners, complex tone circuits? If yeah, how was it? Worked as expected/generated new useful tones, or not quite??

Since all my pots are dead and it sounds way too good for junk pots & I don't feel like blowing 40-60 bucks on basic good pots, I was wondering if it was a better call to get me an SD BMP (45 or 50, last I checked) and a Fender TBX tone circuit ($25) for slightly more, and get a master volume and master tone that can actually give, and not just sap signal strength and bleed in noise for the most part?

[Dr. Vegetable]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

Great info... Thanks for doing the research. I'm a big fan of Ibanez models from that time period, and those Maxon pickups are amazing.

One correction, though. The Destroyer is in high demand because it TOTALLY KICKS A--. The stock pickups are just the cherry on the sundae.

To add to the information about the wildly incestuous behavior of the guitar builders of that time, I have a Magnum Pro that could be an Ibanez Concert model (CN) except for the headstock logo. Built at FujiGen, and equipped with V-2's.

[Adieu]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

You sound like a fan of the things, ever try any preamps/afterburner circuits on any of the Maxons, or know of anyone who has? And how well that worked out?

Cool guitar. Ibanez, though? Don't those double-creme pups in creme rings on dark natural finish tops just exemplify Matsumoku Gakki builds, especially Aria & Vantage stuff? Even down to the colours on the potentiometer knobs, it's just the spitting image of a Mats. At least to my eye.

That "incest" you speak of is a double-edged sword: you can buy 'em for pennies occasionally when people don't know what they've got, especially when it's a second generation owner hand-me-down... when the original owners tell em it's a serious item not some Squier China, a lot of them seem to treat it like their dad/uncle/whoever just gave them the classic BS-along-with-the-gift-myth like "This guitar might look like a POS, but *actually*... y'know, it belonged to Van Halen/Kurt/Hetfield/Bon Jovi/ whoever...". Or some people just tire of selling a guitar nobody recognizes by name when listing on Craigslist/ebay/in the paper. MAKES FOR GOOD DEALS... until you try to sell or trade it. And, suddenly, "dude it's the same damn thing, all the way down to every letter of the catalogue description, made by the same people in the same place" gets you the raised eyebrow silent treatment.

Then again, all that means is we're stuck keeping them. Which ain't a bad thing either, especially if you didn't have to pay premium prices to score them.


PS on the Destroyer = demand because it's kick-a*s thing - well, yeah, but having EVH practically endorse the thing for free didn't hurt. Plenty of other explorer clones, from pretyt good to downright hawt, never got much love and attention like that. And as to Eddie and his reasons for liking the Destroyer, he did say at some point in some documentary or interview or something, that after buggering his Destroyer's tone up by sawing a chunk out, he TRIED to get an identical one, but the similarly-named product in the stores by that time ws totally spec'd out differently and just didn't rub him right... So, seems like the biggest name to be a fan of the guitars specifically liked the super 70 spec'd version (the familiar sound supports the theory too). Don't quote me on this, but didn't the 1980s destroyer get Super 80s first, and then some junk like V7s or INFs or something? Apparently, the one he saw in-store just had different pickups.... Although after that, he does go off on some random tangent about not liking the new finishes and how maybe the wood under them was all wrong or something, but chances are that's just old Ed screwin with people cause he knows way too many fanboys hang on to every word he says, and it cracks him up.

[Adieu]

Re: WANTED: Ibanez Super 70 Pickups

MORE INFO, forgot earlier: Oh, and some custom pickup builder named Smits (sp?) sells his own USA built brand-new Super 70s clones, the "ULTRA 7T" for like a hundred bucks (just google it), probably the best way to go if you need em and can't find them at a steal. Do note I've never actually tried them, though. Some people seem to complain about his wait until delivery, not delays just upfront order now - get them N weeks later, but the sound seems to get no complaints. And he does say something about limited availability due to having only so many A8 magnets on hand or something.

Kinda telling though that a USA custom winder of some recognition chooses to clone this particular pup (he has a few different models, but hardly dozens on offer). Might just be the ebay craze and cashing in on the used prices, but imho, just like with a lot of other guitar stuff, "long lost and seemingly forgotten vintage secrets = the future". Wonder what else we'll see built on A8 next.... Me and a friend of mine are planning to cook up an SD A8 Screaming Demon + A8 Pearly Gates (or PGP) guitar experiment soon, though I guess it could take a while until we sell off some junk to afford something good to put em in... That and I keep pushing for it to be a 2hum maple necked/maple fretboard instrument, which kinda limits our options. 72 tele thinline, maybe? But who knows what hollowbody + A8 will give is... Plus, we kinda wanted to boost the thing with a BMP (unless I get one into my LP Custom earlier and it flops with A8 pups, that is). Not so good idea for a semi-hollow, maybe?

Anyone know a good but affordable (hiend MiM, lowend Japan perhaps?) and fairly easy to find used HH tele with a maple option, just solidbody? Or a doublefat strat, hardtail or decent trem, with maple? Oh and no IndoChina, maybe I'm just getting old an snobby in my late twenties, but I can't seem to force myself to expect anything good or even tolerable from thereabouts (in the guitar context).