Norlin era Superbuckers?

[ICTGoober]

One of my clients just purchased a working Les Paul Artist with the Moog electronics. He said it plays good, and sounds very good. When he restrung the guitar he pulled out the pickups and found they were epoxy potted, and asked me what they are. I thought maybe they were Super Humbuckers. He did a search and didn't find anything definitive. We've surely discussed these before? Anyone have some solid links or info about them I could pass on to him?

 

[Mincer]

I dig the Artist series. People slam the Moog electronics, but there are actually great sounds in there (the first ASIA album as an ES-Artist). I bet if those electronics were modernized, they would be 1/8th the size and do what they do a lot better.

 

[beaubrummels]

I thought the Gibson epoxy pickups of the 70s were the famous Tarbacks? So these might be a humbucker-sized version? I'm reading mixed information on the Artist pickups. I saw pics of one that seemed to be stock original and the baseplates seem to have the Pat. No. stamp like T-Tops of the era, but with an extra row of holes and no date stamp like Shaw electronics of the time. The screw poles don't stick through the plate as far as typical humbuckers. Need to measure the resistance. I read the RD versions were really low, like 3.6k (which makes me wonder if they were either wired internally in parallel or they might be Les Pauls' old low impedance design and they depend on the active/pre-amp and compression/expansion circuit to get back to 'normal'?

 

[freefrog]

Epoxied super-humbuckers = what one calls Tarbacks, in my mind... Bill Lawrence design. Strip baseplate, made of brass. No keeper bar around the screw poles but a plain bar of steel under the slugs. Indox7 magnet.

Now, pickups of this era are well known for being pretty inconsistent. DCR of tarbacks may vary, for instance, depending on the wire gauge used.

I might be able to test an Artisan this week. If it happens, I'll share my findings...

 

[beaubrummels]

Example of pickups in the Les Paul Artist series

 

[freefrog]

Yeah, as I said, Gibson was pretty inconsistent at the end of the 70's : Artisan's received what was at disposal. Below is another example, with one Tarback only, in bridge position:

https://www.creamcitymusic.com/vintage-gibson-les-paul-artisan-walnut-1979/

A bunch of other Artisan's for sale are described or photographied as having 3 Tarbacks. I've not enough time to search right now and don't want to pollute this topic but it' relatively easy to find anyway. More later about the Artisan that I hope to test in a few days.

 

[ICTGoober]

It's an ARTIST, not an Artisan.

 

[freefrog]

It's an ARTIST, not an Artisan.

Wow, sorry, I'm really tired. :-/ Now I'll stand on the idea that epoxied Gibson HB's = what one calls Tarback's, whatever is the variability of what is under this nickname. ;-)