unknown Strat pickup

[Freesailor]

Hi everyone, and thank you very much for accepting me in this interesting forum.
I wonder if some among you pickup experts could help me discovering make of this pickup I have found in my second hand strat...
Pickup has staggered poles and no brand or type names/digits.
It seems it used to have some kind of paper label sticker that had been removed by previous owner/s.
I enclose a picture, and thank you for reading my post.
Any help would be much appreciated.
My best.
Marco

 

[Chistopher]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Do you have the resistance readings (DCR)? Those will help greatly with the identification. Also, what brand is the Strat?

 

[Freesailor]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Hi Christopher. I haven't tested the resistence as I do not have a multimeter, the guitar is 1980 Fender The Strat.
Marco

 

[Freesailor]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

...but I know for certain that the other two ones have been changed. They are Di Marzio SH3.

 

[Adieu]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Could be the stock fender, wires look about right and I've heard CBS Fenders used black base materials

 

[Chistopher]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

It's not stock. This is what the bottom of the pickups on The Strats looked like:

 

[Jacew]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Pics from other angles might help.

 

[Adieu]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

It's not stock. This is what the bottom of the pickups on The Strats looked like:

View attachment 93672

You mean that 6 digit number is a date and that's a CBS American pickup?


Huh.... i thought only MIM pups looked like that

 

[Freesailor]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

 

[Freesailor]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Hi Jacew. It's the middle one the other one is a Di Marzio, but on the outside they look very similar.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Could be the stock fender, wires look about right and I've heard CBS Fenders used black base materials

Fender did use black fiberboard like material in the late '60's/early '70's. I don't think there was a specific time period, just mixed in with the grey bottoms.

I can't say when Fender went to the plastic bobbins

 

[Adieu]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

View attachment 93637

Hi everyone, and thank you very much for accepting me in this interesting forum.
I wonder if some among you pickup experts could help me discovering make of this pickup I have found in my second hand strat...
Pickup has staggered poles and no brand or type names/digits.
It seems it used to have some kind of paper label sticker that had been removed by previous owner/s.
I enclose a picture, and thank you for reading my post.
Any help would be much appreciated.
My best.
Marco

Sticker dimensions wire sizes and colors about right or not? Can't really see on small mobile device

Not saying it necessarily is Fender CS, or that specific set, just something to check against.... if sticker and wire match, though, Fender CS likely... if sticker doesnt match fiber and wire do, then 60s fender... if wire is a mismatch, CBS fender? Offbrand?

 

[Ayrton]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Later Fender CS pups used a different fiber board and vintage wire. Pickups in the ‘70’s were using PVC wire.

That pickup could be almost anything though. Who’s to say it is even Fender?

 

[Freesailor]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Sticker dimensions wire sizes and colors about right or not? Can't really see on small mobile device

N9t saying it necessarily is Fender CS, or that specific set, just something to check against.... if sticker and wire match, though, Fender CS likely... if sticker doesnt match fiber and wire do, then 60s fender... if wire is a mismatch, CBS fender? Offbrand?

Hi! Definitely not 60s nor pre CBS by any means. I'm sure on that.
Highly probably it is a replacement, neck and bridge being "hot" low noise Di Marzios, and external looks and colour matching with middle one.
CBS? I would exclude that too. Being poles staggered, that would older than mid 74, and those guitars are not so common in this country, almost like pre-CBS ones. Plus they were not plastc bottomed like this, and they had year stamped on bottoms.

 

[Ayrton]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

More pictures would help. We could see the wire used and the magnets

 

[Chistopher]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

^^A picture of the side without the cover on might help a lot.

 

[Adieu]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

^^A picture of the side without the cover on might help a lot.

Come to think of it, the existing picture is already telling

It ain't a Fender by the looks of it, the G string polepiece appears to sit quite low. The Fender high-G is an oft-cited historical tradition said to be an unbalanced match for modern unwound Gstring sets.

If that base material is fiberboard (kinda hard to tell), it would suggest an enlightened effort to make an improved but vintage-ish pickup by a boutique winder.... if black plastic, well, it's a single coil built sometime since the mid-70s. And without some additional markings or wildly unusual traits (extreme high or low DCR or wound with neon green wire or something), we'll likely never know.

 

[jeremy]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

i noticed the same thing, the pole piece heights are wonky. a pick of the pup without the cover on might help a little

 

[Freesailor]

Re: unknown Strat pickup

Thank you folks. I will try to make some pictures. Anyway the base is definitely plastic, with no markings, except for what it looks like a 0 or a O on one side.