Ibanez AH-1 and AH-2 pickups (mid 1990s)

[Peter Krasov]

Hi,

Does anyone have any info on or experience with Ibanez AH-1 and AH-2 humbuckers? There is little to no useful data about these on the web including Ibanez Wiki.

These pickups are said to have been pulled out of mid 1990s Korean Ibanez RX guitar. The resistance is PAF-alike - 8.7 for the bridge, and 7.9 for the neck.

According to Ibanez Wiki, AH stands for Axis Humbucker. You can see nickel silver baseplates here in contrary to brass ones that are typical for modern Ibanez stock pickups.

Which famous pickups do these AHs sound like? Any ideas?​

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

AH probably stands for Allan Holdsworth. Twin screw coil PAF is very Holdsworth. During the late 80s Ibanez made the AH signature guitars, which were based on the Charvel guitars designed for Holdsworth during the mid 80s. He usually used Duncans 59s or Dimarzio PAFs custom wound by Steve Blucher in those guitars.

In that case I suspect they were originally from an 80s Ibanez AH sig guitar.

There's a Duncan AH Holdsworth pickup too. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it is basically a twin screw coil JB.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Oh I see they are not twin screw coil after looking the photo enlarged. My bad.

 

[Masta' C]

Which famous pickups do these AHs sound like? Any ideas?​

AH = Axis Humbucker

They were budget-oriented pickups that fell between the lower end "Powersound" pickups and the more premium "V" series pickups (V1, V2, V7, V8, etc) at the time.

They are perfectly serviceable and can sound quite good, but in my experience, usually aren't as dynamic as your typical Duncan pickup

There are no "famous" pickups that they are meant to sound like.

https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/Axis_pickups