Pickup ID help please ?

[Blacque Jacque]

Any pickup experts out there who can help me ID this pickup please ?

Fibre flatwork, standard Strat size & shape.
2 wire, with push back cloth wire.
Space on the flatwork for a 3rd eyelet eg for tap ?.
1/4" dia magnets, straight ground on the ends, not circular polished.
Curved profile, not staggered but it does have a visible curve to match a fingerboard radius. Edit: this is because the flatwork is warped.
Evidence of a small sticker on the bottom approx 9.5mm x 17mm (3/8" x 5/8").
Small hole in top & bottom flatwork in the centre ~2mm (5/64") dia.
South pole up.
DCR 7k.
Wax potted & cloth tape wrapped.


Everything says it an SSL7, except the DCR & the magnet stagger. There is no evidence whatsoever of it having been tampered with or rewound, it all looks intact.

I haven't played it yet, so I have no clue what it sounds like.

Anyone know of another manufacturer making 1/4 pounder clones or could it be an early version ?

Pics are clickable links to the hi-res original, if you need any more info just ask.

Any input appreciated.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

Welcome to the forum.

Your pickup looks to me like a Schecter F500 from the early Eighties. Mark Knopfler used a tapped version in his Schecter Guitars around about the time of the album, Making Movies.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

A few manufacturers have used 1/4 in magnets including Schecter, Duncan and Schaller.

 

[DreX]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

They look a lot like the Schecter F400 or F500 except that all the pics of those show poles that are flush with the fiberboard.

I'd like to try some large pole, low output single coils, because I had received one from free when I was a teenager, and I loved the tone until I accidentally destroyed the coil somehow. I bought SSL-4's hoping they would be similar, but they seem hotter than what I remember.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

I'm guessing a Rio Grande - Muy Grande.

Schecter F500:
http://goopeegoopee.up.n.seesaa.net/goopeegoopee/image/schecter-f500-back.JPG?d=a2
http://goopeegoopee.up.n.seesaa.net/goopeegoopee/image/schecter-f500-top.JPG?d=a0

Schaller S6:
http://guitar-parts.biz/download/CY417454a4X127ba1e578aXY5d80/86___224.jpg
http://guitar-parts.biz/hp135332/Single-Coil-S6.htm?ITServ=C5be39e5dX145486df41bX7bcb

Rio Grande Muy Grande:
http://www.riograndepickups.com/Catalog/MGSBC.jpg
http://www.riograndepickups.com/specs.asp

 

[Blacque Jacque]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

Thanks guys for the suggestions, I'm still inclined to think it's an SSL, however after having a closer look tonight I discovered a couple of things:

The magnets aren't staggered, the flatwork is warped. I measured the pole pieces with calipers & they are all 0.700" +/- 0.010.
Whilst the bottom of the magnets are straight ground, there is evidence that the tops once had a turned finish on them like the SSL.

So apart from the DCR, they still appear to be SD 1/4pound, but SSL4, not 7s.

I don't think they are Schecter, the eyelet positions look wrong & Schecter use what appears to be ordinary pvc coated wire.

They look closer to the Schaller S6, the flatwork is very similar & from what I can find on image searches, they used black fibre tape wraps, but again the DCR is way off of the ~13k quoted on Schaller's site, then there's that pvc wire again.

Schaller do a vintage variant which is allegedly 6.3k, which is a possibility, but I know my Fluke isn't that far out.

The Rio Grande Muy Grande has a dcr in the right range, but still has pvc wire & unless this one has been deliberately (and very well) reliced it looks fairly old.

I shot a couple more pics, and I found the thread below as a result of an image search for the Schecter F500:
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?268229-Help-me-identify-this-single-coil

Apart from the wire & warped flatwork, mine looks identical to those^.

 

[DreX]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

The Quarter Pounds, flat or staggered, doesn't have the triangular base with the eyelets in the center, it has a round base with eyelets on the ends.

 

[Blacque Jacque]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

Yeah good point DreX. Sorry, just got home after a hot & sweaty rehearsal, not thinking straight.

The cloth covered wire is what's bugging me, but then SD don't use that on their SSL either.

Maybe I shouldn't be getting so hung up on what it is, just get it in a guitar & see how it sounds ?

 

[DreX]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

Where did you get it

 

[Blacque Jacque]

Re: Pickup ID help please ?

Fleabay second hand.
It was listed as an SSL, but without another other detail.
Unfortunately the listing's gone now as it was a while ago, so I can't link it, sorry.