MJ Duncans with Ceramic Mags stock?

Mr. Lime

Mr. Lime

New member
Hi there,

today I took apart one of my JBJ (Maricela Juarez wound) to swap the A5 mag with an ceramic mag to get some kind of Dokkenbucker / Hunter. The screws on the back plate were covered with wax so I thought it was a stock one. What I found inside was already a ceramic mag, which showed no conductivity on my DMM.

This was not the first time I found a cermaic mag in a MJ pickup. Half a year ago I discovered the same in a TB-10J.

Does anybody else experienced wrong mags in Duncan pickups?
 
Incorrect magnets from the factory are very rare. It's far more likely that the mags were swapped at some point.

It's not uncommon to either re-wax pot the pickup or reheat a pickup to secure the magnet after a swap. Many times, this results in excess wax on the baseplate and around the screws, though most don't bother with this step. Just depends on the modder.

Not saying a factory mismatch couldn't have happened, but if you're encountering multiple instances of this on older pickups, then there's a fairly solid chance they've been modded.
 
I concur with Masta' C. Never heard of a wrong factory magnet in a Duncan.
Of course, the majority of them never get opened up.

Question - did you get that JB and TB-10 from the same seller?

MJ-wound pickups sometimes bring a higher price now that she's famous.
Might've been somebody with a predilection for ceramic mags, who didn't tell you (or simply didn't remember) that they were modded.
 
Or a sticker moved to a different pickup to increase its value.

Although that wouldn't explain how a normal height ceramic makes it into a JB. A DD would have a double height magnet.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Alright, I just wondered. I got the pickups from different seller years ago. I thought there might was something like a scarcity in magnets in a particular time area. Bill Lawrence seemed to switch from ceramic to AlNiCo because of that, but also changed the windings for compensation.

Guess it's coincidence that both got modded before I got them..
 
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