I recently picked up a very unique pickup and would love to figure out what it is and/or what it came from!
It's a Gibson pickup and it looks like your typical "Tarback" from the bottom. However, it has no exposed poles, very similar to the early '70s "Super Humbucker" designed by Bill Lawrence. But, this is where it gets interesting...
1) Black metal cover from the factory, though I did find a similar example in chrome. Both are shown below.
2) It has a factory "PAF" sticker (so does the chrome one if you look closely)
3) It has gray shielding on the lead wires, similar to the late-model Gibson pickups and the '80s Bill Lawrence designed models, such as "The Original" series. The '70s-era pickups of this style all had braided leads.
4) It measures a stout 15.9K (the chrome one was reported to be 17.5K by its owner). The original '70s "Super Humbucker" which these resemble most in appearance and construction, was only 7.8K or so with some neck models falling in the 6K range. The later Bill Lawrence stuff rarely broke 12-13K.
I'm guessing an oddity from the mid-'80s, maybe a prototype or limited run of some sort? Any thoughts on what it could be?
Black:
Chrome:
It's a Gibson pickup and it looks like your typical "Tarback" from the bottom. However, it has no exposed poles, very similar to the early '70s "Super Humbucker" designed by Bill Lawrence. But, this is where it gets interesting...
1) Black metal cover from the factory, though I did find a similar example in chrome. Both are shown below.
2) It has a factory "PAF" sticker (so does the chrome one if you look closely)
3) It has gray shielding on the lead wires, similar to the late-model Gibson pickups and the '80s Bill Lawrence designed models, such as "The Original" series. The '70s-era pickups of this style all had braided leads.
4) It measures a stout 15.9K (the chrome one was reported to be 17.5K by its owner). The original '70s "Super Humbucker" which these resemble most in appearance and construction, was only 7.8K or so with some neck models falling in the 6K range. The later Bill Lawrence stuff rarely broke 12-13K.
I'm guessing an oddity from the mid-'80s, maybe a prototype or limited run of some sort? Any thoughts on what it could be?
Black:
Chrome:
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