Is anyone able to narrow down these 1978-1980 potential Seymour Duncan Strat pickups?

[laundryman]

My dad got this Strat second-hand in ~1979, +/- one year. The serial number on the guitar dates it to late 1978, 1979, 1980, or early 1981 and made in Fullerton, USA.

When he got it he says the guy had just recently bought it and swapped the stock Fender pickups out for Seymour Duncans.






Unfortunately, I don't have photos of the cavity and actual pickups themselves at the moment. But I have seen them before and they look nearly identical to this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/193661227807. Same black and white cloth wire, same solder points. But there aren't any stamps, markings, labels or anything on mine.

These pickups are also pretty hot. They sound really good and clear, but even after copper shielding and grounding everything the noise, hum, and single coil noise makes it nearly unusable with anything beyond light overdrive in a loud amp.

I'm not entirely sure if the middle is RWRP, but the 2 and 4 positions do not cancel any hum so it might not be.

The resistances measure:

Neck: 6.58K
Middle: 6.60K
Bridge: 12.50K

There's also the chance that they just aren't SD's at all, but I'm really interested to know what model they could be if so.

Thanks!

 

[beaubrummels]

Likely SSL-1, but the label code in the example posted doesn't match what Duncan has documented: https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/faqs/labels-built-before-2002. You really need to flip those over and look at the backs of them. 12.5k would not be an SSL-1.

 

[laundryman]

Likely SSL-1, but the label code in the example posted doesn't match what Duncan has documented: https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/faqs/labels-built-before-2002. You really need to flip those over and look at the backs of them. 12.5k would not be an SSL-1.

I looked at the bottom of them about a year ago and there aren't any markings on them anywhere. The eBay link is just to show what the cloth wire looks like on them as mine look very similar to the cloth wires in that eBay listing.

 

[beaubrummels]

Lots of pickups have cloth wire. Without markings, could be anything. The DCR being the only clue, the only things of that era matching the DCR in single coil staggered Strat would be SSL-5 bridge, SSL-1 neck and middle.

 

[laundryman]

Lots of pickups have cloth wire. Without markings, could be anything. The DCR being the only clue, the only things of that era matching the DCR in single coil staggered Strat would be SSL-5 bridge, SSL-1 neck and middle.

Ah, gotcha. That would pretty cool if so, I've been considering the SSL series, particularly an SSL-5 in the bridge, in my other strat for David Gilmour-ish tones. I need to try one of the noise cancelling backplates.