Manufacture date on APH1 set?

[Kiwiguitar]

Hi everyone - I've had a look around and gotten some great info here, but still have a specific question that I haven't been able to find.

I'm trying to put a date on a set of APH1NJ and APH1BJ pickups. They have the square hole with the circle around them and have black shielding on the wires, not braid.

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

They were wound by Maricilia Juarez, but there's no way to put a year on them.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

I think it is over a decade between that base plate and the initial stickers.

At least we know they are older than 2002

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

My guess, based on the stickers and baseplate, is sometime in the mid to late 90's. I can't remember exactly when they changed baseplates and then went to the smaller printed labels in use today. There is no way to put an exact date on them though. Sorry.

***Edit.....I just saw Ayrton's post. He is very knowledgeable on this topic. Jeremy or Mincer might be able to narrow it down further.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

I don't know about that!

Gotta be a '90's set I would think. I just don't remember when that base plate started.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

They were made this way from 1988 up to 2002.

 

[Kiwiguitar]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

Thanks for the great information and sorry for the slow response. Nothing worse than a drive-by poster!

They came out of a Yamaha SG2000 from the 80's and I think they've been in there for quite a while. They sound great, just as you'd expect. Neck is 7.4K and Bridge is 8.1K.

I'm not sure whether to put them back in that guitar (I'm selling it) or swap them out and keep them for a more resonant guitar (or sell them). What do you reckon?

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

If you like them, I would save them for a future project. Most, and I don't mean all, but a lot of guitars come with mediocre pickups at best. If you save these, you will have them to put into your next project. You never get the full value of pickups that you sell in a guitar, in my opinion of course.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Manufacture date on APH1 set?

Also, I just saw someone on Reverb selling one double cream APH from the same era as yours for $200....yikes. I'll admit that MJ winds and has wound some great pickups, and some pickups only get better with age. However, I think that the pickups MJ winds today are likely the best she has ever wound, given her 30+ years of experience now.

Just my opinion of course.