Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

[Bluegrif]

I just acquired an inexpensive Ibanez semi. A previous owner (not the guy I bought it from) did some minor modding. A graphtech nut was installed, along with push/pull tone pots for coil splitting and some mystery pickups which allow for the splitting. I'm really wondering what the heck they are. It's only curiosity, not a concern. He included the original pickups and if I were to keep the guitar I'd probably put something in that's to my taste. In any case, I have no idea what these are. The coils have no exposed poles, just plain black plastic. I removed one to see if there was any clue to the manufacturer and nada. They're marked for bridge and neck position and that's it. Lace Duallys are sort of similar looking but they have logos on them. I'd say they're some cheap no-names but that doesn't really jibe with the push/pull pots and the clean wiring, etc. They actually sound pretty decent. Balanced and full, if a bit lacking in character. The coil splitting would be more useful if the single coil hum wasn't so strong. They actually hum louder in single coil mode than the P90s I have.

I've photographed one of them both top and bottom. The flash makes them look scratched up but actually they, like the guitar, are very clean looking. Any ideas?

 

[vinnie1971]

Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

They look like Maxon super 80s they are cracking high gain pickups - much better than DiMarzio Super Distortions in my view, they have a lot of fans. Some came with a fancy metal embossed cover and were known as flying fingers. Yours may have had them but were taken off?
But that massive block of wax potting, no exposed poles to stop squeal on a metal cover, the thin strip instead of a base plate, they are super 80s almost certain.
Measure the DCR, should be around 8k plus or minus 10%, inside is a double size ceramic magnet. They are very bright metallic sounding clean but give rich harmonics when driven.
They are very rare, and highly prized - change hands for more than $200 - I have seen just covers for flying fingers fetch $150.

Basically they are in the same tonal ball park as DiMarzio Super 2 - bright lots of upper mids not too much bass. I have some very early super 80s before they started making the flying fingers (from the late 70s) so they look more like the DiMarzio format of brass baseplate and 12 hex keys. I didn't get along with the clean tones - a bit harsh for me so I swapped the ceramic mag for alnico 8 and they sound great. Looks like you got blades with the mag in between which would make mag swapping easy. Maxon did some weird and wonderful stuff.

I could be wrong, but that's what they look like, there aren't many pickups made like that.

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[vinnie1971]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

They could be super 88 - they had the coil split from the factory - I had to ad a wire between the coils on mine.
If that's the case that makes them even more rare.


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[vinnie1971]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

Out of curiosity have you got a picture of the "original" pickups. In the 70s and 80s the pickups ibanez used were awesome.


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[vinnie1971]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

EMG also made pickups that way check this out, even down to the orange wax:

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?43135-EMG-without-Cover-Pics!/page2


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[daenius]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

Why is it orange?

 

[vinnie1971]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

Why is it orange?

Goodness knows. I have seen super 80s with white and orange wax. Also EMGs with orange wax.


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[KNUCKLHEAD]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

they may have ran out of Orange Barrel : )

 

[ICTGoober]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

Those ARE NOT Ibanez or Maxon pickups....

 

[KNUCKLHEAD]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

older asian covered rails that are tough to put a finger on ?

 

[Bluegrif]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

Thanks guys. Sorry it took me awhile to get back here.

The Maxon/Ibanez theory is interesting, but so far I have no idea how to confirm it. I'll measure the output. They seem pretty hot and the neck pickup is a bit wooly sounding to me. The bridge, by itself sounds fine. Oddly, combining the two really does sound kind of metallic, like everything but the mids and high mids drops out. Whether they're Maxon or not the idea they're older Japan made pickups is certainly plausible, given the fact I've found nothing remotely current that looks like them. Especially since they don't appear to be cheaply made at all.

 

[andybizzzle]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

yeah trial and error with testing outputs and comparing to the emg is probably your best bet

 

[Bluegrif]

Re: Mystery pickups. Anyone have a clue?

Those ARE NOT Ibanez or Maxon pickups....

Yeah, looking at every photo I can find, I can confirm they're not like any Maxon/Ibanez pickups I saw. Though I found photos of a 90s pair that had the same hookup wire, otherwise no. I still think it's quite possible they're 80s or 90s MIJ though.

And they are hot! My meter is analog, so I can't be super accurate. As a general point of reference, at the output jack, I measured the Seth Lover (neck), and 70s T-top (bridge) I have in my ES135 and both are in the 7K range. Using the same method, I measured these mystery pickups and the neck is nearly 10K, the bridge a whopping 17K! Not my style to say the least, but I bet a they'd find a good home with someone.