Mystery Tele pups?

[blendpot]

Hello all - I 've recently aquired a set of vintage looking 52 Tele or Nocaster pickups and I'm not sure what model they are. The bridge pickup has flat pole pieces and a hole in the centre - very heavy waxing material covering the wiring and vintage yellowed looking cloth covered connection wires - there is a sticker on the a Duncan logo'd brass plate that reads 1R.

The neck pickup is also flat pole pieced with a sticker that looks like 1-M - oddly the pole pices on the bottom are raised slightly - it also seems to be unwaxed.

Would love to know what issue these are before I wire them to my 52 Reissue.

Many thanks

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Hello all - I 've recently aquired a set of vintage looking 52 Tele or Nocaster pickups and I'm not sure what model they are. The bridge pickup has flat pole pieces and a hole in the centre - very heavy waxing material covering the wiring and vintage yellowed looking cloth covered connection wires - there is a sticker on the a Duncan logo'd brass plate that reads 1R.

The neck pickup is also flat pole pieced with a sticker that looks like 1-M - oddly the pole pices on the bottom are raised slightly - it also seems to be unwaxed.

Would love to know what issue these are before I wire them to my 52 Reissue.

Many thanks

Are you sure that's what the stickers say?

 

[blendpot]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Yep - each on a small white rectangle sticker.

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Ok...got it. That is a Vintage 54 Lead and Rhythm. The only thing that seems odd is that the D and G poles should be slightly raised. But as far as i know that is what you have...those are great pickups.

 

[blendpot]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Im not sure, I have never seen the numbers/letters you say you have.

Let me get tis right...the bridge has flat poles, cloth wire (yellow and black) and says 1R on it, and the neck also has flat poles (I assume there is no cover) and the same wire but the stickers says 1M...is that right?

Thats correct - except the cloth wire on the bridge pickup is white and black and the exposed copper winding is quite dark. The bridge looks very much like an Antuiquity model however I don't believe they have the Duncan Logo on the brass plate.

 

[blendpot]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Ok...got it. That is a Vintage 54 Lead and Rhythm. The only thing that seems odd is that the D and G poles should be slightly raised. But as far as i know that is what you have...those are great pickups.

Looking at the Duncan website pics of vintage models I think you are right although the 54 pole pieces look flat and the Vintage Broadcaster pics look like they have raised D & G poles(?) Either way it's been a pleasure and now on to hooking these babies up - Seymour Duncan saved Rock n Roll!!

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Looking at the Duncan website pics of vintage models I think you are right although the 54 pole pieces look flat and the Vintage Broadcaster pics look like they have raised D & G poles(?) Either way it's been a pleasure and now on to hooking these babies up - Seymour Duncan saved Rock n Roll!!

Killer...let me know how that do for you!

 

[GuitarJonz]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

I do not believe that the pickup you have is a '54, I think it is an APTL-1 Alnico II Pro Lead Pickup for telecaster Guitar. I have one that I got used, in it's box, and it also says 1R on the bottom, with flat poles and black string wrap around the coil. I'm looking at it right now. I asked Duncan tech support about this awhile ago, and was told that the older ones said 1R on the sticker, while the newer later ones say APTL-1 on the sticker. Same thing with the strat APS-1 pickups, I had at least 2 sets in Hamer daytona guitars, both were mid 90s guitars, with the stock Alnico pro staggered pickups, both sets had 1R on the stickers. they have been making these pickups for many years, but for some strange reason, they do not show up on the pre-2002 list that can be seen at http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/support/labels.shtml

According to the Duncan list, the STL-1, or Vintage '54 Lead pickup, would have raised D & G poles, and a label that said "1" on the bottom.

I wish they would fix that, as I had a tough time trying to authenticate those strat APS-1's and now see that the tele pickups is similarly not ID's correctly on their site.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Mystery Tele pups?

Welcome GuitarJonz!!! Over from the TDPRI I see... This is a great place and I hope you hang out often. You have a wealth of experience to offer.