P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

[Sirion]

Do any of you know anything about this? I recently acquired one, and measured the DCR today. It came out at a measly 7.39! As far as I can tell, the only humbucker in the SD that low is the Pearly Gates neck pickup. The coils were both about the same (that is, about half), but with one being somewhat higher than the other.

This opens for a lot of questions. Did Jeff just like very weak humbuckers at the time? (That would be very uncharacteristic of the era) Is it an active? Is it a Lace Sensor type of thing, that was supposed to be put very close to the strings? Did he have a signature both for the bridge and neck?

Finding information on these pickups is very hard. I guess Jeff isn't Eddie…

 

[jeremy]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

its passive but thats about all i can tell ya. ive heard people love it as a neck pup. the brad gillis pup was like 12.5k or something like that

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

I was a PJ Marx dealer back in the 80's.... Don't remember any of the specs, but the Jeff Watson didn't sell very well. The Brad Gillis sold much better.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

I recently acquired a PJ Marx 412 and it reads somewhere in the 6.5 range.....Im worried it has a dead coil. Any way to remedy this? Or does this pickup have the same kind of issue when reading the DC resistance similar to the Invader neck pup?

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

PJ's were solid blocks of epoxy - no way to fix.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

You can try some internet searches but theres not much definitive info about them. Alot of the results will most likely revert you back to this forum. You would tend to think that being its a rather low reading that perhaps it is a neck pickup, and since it was available as a set, then the bridge pickup is probably considerably higher dcr. But then again you wont know until you wire it up cause it might just surprise you enough to order a black pickguard and some red paint.
Speaking of, there was a fellow here not all that long ago who had a Brad Gillis sig guitar and actually met Brad himself. Im sure a brief search will pull that thread up. I think it had some good PJ Marx info in that if I remember correctly.

Always wanted to try one of those PJMarx, but never got to it for whatever reason, and everytime it gets brought up I get the lure again.
Post your results if you throw it in and try it.

Edit;
I thought you said Gillis, but nope, it was Watson. My bad.

 

[Sirion]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

I'm tempted to try to get a few more of these and set up a wiki with readings on them. These are the kinds of things that should have been available by now.

Oh, and in case anybody was wondering: I have another of these that I bought a decade ago. At the time I had no idea what I was doing with it, and couldn't get it wired up properly. It is sitting in my parents' house at the moment, but once I have the opportunity I shall compare them to each other.

ICTG, I believe you when you say the Gillis sold better, but even so, they seem to pop up more rarely on the used market. Strange thing…

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

Apparently, there is a guy in Japan who was paying big money for them awhile back. Since I sold a lot of them in Kansas back in the 80's they show up around here from time to time. I buy them cheap, and flip them on eBay for a good profit. I know where a couple more are locally, but the guy is still playing them in the bubinga Steinberger clone I built him way back when....

 

[Sirion]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

Well, I'm not sure if I can beat the price of Japanese collectors, but I would be willing to give the market price a fair shot if one should resurface on eBay…

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

Expect to pay at least $100.

 

[Sirion]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

It is a fair bit, but I have paid more for pickups in the past.

 

[Howlermonkey]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

Yes, necropost but just adding information to possibly the only place on the internet that has a discussion on these pickups.

I have a PJ marx 212 pickup with 3.87 resistence on one coil and 3.94 on the other.

It is a full size humbucker looking much like an EMG pickup.

It's very bright but still has plenty of bottom end and seems very powerful for the 7.8k resistence and I'm wondering if the anyone else has ever heard of the 212. It came with 4 wire harness but green has no continuity so it's basically a 3 wire pickup meaning you don't have the option of parallel wiring. I simply used a 500k pot with pull switch to go single coil when I want.

It's pretty sensitive to height adjustments but, even when down almost flush with the body on short pickup rings, it's more powerful than I would expect.

I haven't plugged into a "real amp" and effects chain but it seems to have a frequency response that could be aimed at early VH sound.

It sure does wake up a plywood Kramer Striker 100ST (double locking floyd 2)

In "coil split mode" it has become my Telecaster imitator what with the 500k pot and lack of tone circuit.

It comes with a card saying "a moderate output humbucker with added highs".

The wiring diagram is on the other card.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

I have one that I believe is the Brad Gillis model. I also sold a set of PAF specs to a member here.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

Yes, necropost but just adding information to possibly the only place on the internet that has a discussion on these pickups.

If memory serves, there's a thread on The Gear Page, too - I posted on it some time ago.

 

[Howlermonkey]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

It would be cool to gather all the specifications and resistance readings on one page.

The model 812 card states "A clean, high output pickup with maximum noise and feedback suppression with added mids and highs recommended for high volume distorted rock"

The model 412 card states it's a "medium output pickup".

The model 212 card states "a moderate output humbucker with added highs". It has 8k resistance in series.

Then you have the "brad gillis" and "jeff watson" pickups that may or may not be very similar to the 412 and the 212 respectively.

Even further are these but no information on specification.

And these........which remind me of the crazy high output "quad rails" found on Musicyo Kramers but likely far better.

Even further are PJ marx active pickups and pickups designed to fit in strats.

Since this is a Seymour Duncan forum and he's being gracious enough to allow discussion of other pickup brands, it would be cool to list the Seymour Duncan model that most closely resembles these in tone since they are so rare.

I think Seymour allows other pickup discussion because he does read the posts concerning pickup comparisons and is smart enough to use this information to determine if there is a market for a pickup with a certain sound.

 

[Chris Pile]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

Dang. I didn't remember the Quad Rails.... I was the Kansas dealer back in the 80's, and sold a bunch of PJ's stuff. My big sellers were the 812 and the Brad Gillis. My rep was friends with Jeff Watson, who remarked that Jeff was always pissed that Brad's pickup sold way better than his own. Chandler Guitars were the American distributor at the time (Paul C's), and I did a lot of business with them.

 

[Sirion]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

This would be a very cool project! I have these on watch on eBay, but they almost never show up, so I've practically given up getting them all. If somebody else could make a resource of them, that would be great.

 

[Howlermonkey]

Re: P.J. Marx - Jeff Watson

I'm pretty sure a japanese guy bought up many of them years ago and has a pretty sweet stash.

If you have a translator, you will likely find them on the japanese equipment sales sites.