Are these SD pickups?

L

loverocker

New member
Hi All - 1st time poster :) with a Q on what I think are SD pickups.

These are a pair of pickups that I bought from a guy who had taken him off his Johan Gustafsson guitar. He said they were Seth Lovers, but they have no SD markings (unlike my SD JB pickup which has a logo/etc engraved underneath). Here they are:

pickups2.jpg


pickups1.jpg


The DC resistance figures are almost spot on for the Seth Lover figures on the SD Website, and all of the dimensions on the SD Seth Lover drawing page are absolutely spot on.

But I couldn't match the wire colours to SD info? Any thoughts?

I have Seth Lovers on a Tokai Love Rock LS-320 and I know they're great PAFalikes.
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

welcome to the forum!!

i wont say that they definitely arent seths but they look a little fishy. my seths have always had the braided shield and a single black cloth covered wire with a signature on the bottom of the pup.
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

Jeremy - thanks for taking the time to answer. I'm reasonably confident there's nothing fishy about the seller - he has high-end stuff and was a regular trading quality bits on The Gear Page. But of course, it's possible he was mistaken, or JG was using different pickups at the time his guitar was originally built.

The other dimensions (e.g. bobbin mounting screws and their spacing) appear to be the same as my genuine and marked SD Jeff Beck. So I'm wondering if SD does unmarked pickups for OEMs like JG? And it was JG that specified the extra wire (i.e. the blue and white ones in addition to the cloth covered black wire in the photo) - for coil tapping?
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

The "neck" and "bridge" stickers are the same as on my Antiquities.

Overall these look very much like them except newish cover, lousy cover solder point and no signed sticker of course.
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

About a year ago i needed a new baseplate, cause one leg broke off. I recieved two base plates from Maricela Juarez since forgot to state long or short leg. I got one short legged with the logo and a longlegged without any markings. Then recently i shot a very old 59B with the exact the same baseplate including the markings on the underside of the foot.
So i can say they really look good for an OEM made product of SD, if you see markings on the foot beside both sides of the mounting hole.
I assume that the blue wire is only a prolongation of the cloth cover wire!
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

Well, the Seths should, like the Antiquities, carry stickers with signatures. Even though I think the "neck/bridge stickers" are Seymour Duncan I can't think of a reason why those would be left on when somebody removed the signature stickers.

I could imagine that the non-embroiled baseplate is standard with those. I'll check when I get home unless this gets resolved before.
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

Thanks guys - the mention of Antiquity matches a review in the Harmony Central database for JG guitars. That reviewer's guitar also came with a coil tap - maybe the pickups were supplied uncovered for JG to do the tap wiring himself? That might explain the new cover (JG's guitars aren't aged) and the different cover-to-base soldering?

On the mounting feet, there are some very light 'witness' marks - hard to make out or describe (they're not as distinctive as the marks on genuine PAFs, for example).

I haven't tried unravelling the blue wire to see how/where it connects or extends the existing wire.
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

That not the pickup wire. The blue segment is an extension of the shield.
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

loverocker said:
Jeremy - thanks for taking the time to answer. I'm reasonably confident there's nothing fishy about the seller - he has high-end stuff and was a regular trading quality bits on The Gear Page. But of course, it's possible he was mistaken, or JG was using different pickups at the time his guitar was originally built.

The other dimensions (e.g. bobbin mounting screws and their spacing) appear to be the same as my genuine and marked SD Jeff Beck. So I'm wondering if SD does unmarked pickups for OEMs like JG? And it was JG that specified the extra wire (i.e. the blue and white ones in addition to the cloth covered black wire in the photo) - for coil tapping?
Click to expand...

:offtopic: Seymour Duncan JB does not equal Jeff Beck. Seymour Duncan JB=Jazz Blues
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

Bah, I've heard JB being refered to as Jeff Beck so many times I've REALLY gotten tired of correcting people...

*Sigh*...
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

NevermindUs said:
:offtopic: Seymour Duncan JB does not equal Jeff Beck. Seymour Duncan JB=Jazz Blues
Click to expand...

JB originally stood for "Jeff Beck" and the pickup was specifically wound for him, but there was a problem using his name on those pickups back then, so Duncan decided to call it Jazzy Blues to rid of any law suits. Kinda like the EVH pickup, which again Duncan had to change what it stood for to "Evenly Voiced Harmonics".
 
Last edited:
Re: Are these SD pickups?

To be more accurate the JB and the Jazz were both wound by Seymour to put them in the Tele-Gib, a guitar he built himself to give to Jeff Beck as a present.

So, although both the JB and the Jazz were wound for Jeff Beck it's not as if they were wound to be his signature pickup(s)...
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

NevermindUs said:
:offtopic: Seymour Duncan JB does not equal Jeff Beck. Seymour Duncan JB=Jazz Blues
Click to expand...


Oops! :) In my defence, your honour, it is a VERY hot pickup for Jazz! ;) Incidentally - that one has a same-sized sticker with "JBL" on it.

Thanks all for input :) It seems 90% likely they are SD pickups. I'll email SD support to see if they can confirm (I came here first because that's what the Support page suggested).
 
Re: Are these SD pickups?

Just thought I'd post an update with the definitive answer: Maricela emailed me back to say that these are custom-made SD Antiquities.

Got to say top marks go to SD for support - Maricela emailed me back within 2 hours. :thanks:

Contrast that with A N Other pickup maker who took $200 off me for a custom pickup and just stopped answering Qs. He failed to ship for over 12 months and it was a real pain to chase up a refund.

Thanks all for the advice. :)
 
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