Vintage SD Pickup Identification

E

EddyCurr

New member
A thread seeking assistance to identify the vintage (L-80/e-90) 4-wire pickups that are part of a back-in-the-day Super Strat modification to what started life as an '87 Fender American Standard Plus Strat.

Labels on the bottoms of the pickups read as follows:
Bridge: "NC"
Middle: "2B-J"
Neck: . "1N-F"​​

I have already come across product information suggesting that the middle pu is likely a "Hot Stack w/ Solid White Cover".

The bridge appears to be an early version of the "Hot Rails" humbucker.

Comments and questions are welcome, as are any referrals to archives of product literature/price lists.

I am also interested in finding out the model names & product codes for current models of the vintage pickups in my instrument.
 

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im going to guess the neck is a classic stack stk-s1, the middle is a hot stack stk-s2. not sure about the bridge, can you put a meter on it?
 
NC = Hot Rails Neck wound by Catalina Padilla
2B-J = don't know, looks like old style hot stack
1N-F = don't know, could be a classic stack type

Stacks aren't listed in the old pre-2002 label code document, so harder to ID without DCR and more information about the pickup.
 
jeremy said:
not sure about the bridge, can you put a meter on it?
Click to expand...

Not in a way I think produces meaningful results.

I have a VOM and have a general familiarity with its use. However, the Bridge PU cannot currently be tested in isolation because its R/W/G/B + bare PU leads are soldered into the circuit at the terminals of the mini SPDT switch nearest to the Tone pot.

I am inexperienced with guitar circuits in general and this Super Strat configuration in particular. That said, with the Vol/Tone pots set high, the Bridge mini SPDT ON and the Middle and Neck mini SPDT OFF, each position of the 5-way switch produces a different reading when the VOM probes are applied to the center tap and case of the Vol pot where the leads to the Output Jack's tip and sleeve terminals were soldered. The highest value being 17.6 kΩ and the lowest 2.5 kΩ.

As you would imagine, other combinations of mini SPDT's being ON/OFF produces different sets of readings as I cycle through the positions of the 5-way switch.

Is any of the above useful? Short of desoldering the leads for each PU, is it possible to get ohm readings? While my skills are rusty, I can solder - I just want to be certain that I have accurately mapped the entire circuit before taking it apart.
 
beaubrummels, my remark "The bridge appears to be an early version of the "Hot Rails" " was premised on having seen a rail-type PU on Reverb featuring a "1NC" label and thinking that it was a subsequent release that followed my "NC". If the "NC" is actually intended for the neck position, was the "1NC" a slightly higher resistance model intended for the bridge position?

Also. Under its cosmetic cover, the 1N-F has two discrete winding sections stacked on top of one another.
 
if that is a hot rails neck, i actually use one in the bridge of a guitar and like it a lot. doesnt have the power of the bridge model, but its brighter and more balanced.
 
Thank you , all.

After my previous posts I unearthed some threads from the '00's discussing Hot Rails & Cool Rails. The exerpts from the following thread seem the most pertinent to my present inquiry.
https://forum.seymourduncan.com/forum/the-pickup-lounge/21388-hot-rails-neck-id
Hot Rails neck ID
11-15-2004
Fusion1: "On the sticker it reads NC. Triangular base"
Imp: "if it's 16.9k, you've got yourself a bridge hotrail. if it comes up 10.8k, though, its a neck."
Fusion1: "I measured it and it appears to be a Hot Rails neck 10.90k after all despite the strange sticker."​

Following are specs from Seymour Duncan's online product listings for today's Hot Rail & Cool Rail pickups
Hot Rails Strat
DCR:
. Neck/Middle 10.9k
. Bridge 16.6k

Cool Rails Strat
DCR:
. Neck/Middle 9.8k
. Bridge 10.6k​

Once the existing circuit layout has been documented accurately, I will be ready to desolder components and then better able to ascertain what I have.​
 
looks like series/parallel or series/split/parallel switches. wiring is the same, just depends on if its a on/on or on/on/on dpdt switch.

kinda odd for stacks, but useful for the hot rails.
 
The 5-Way pickup combinations appear conventional:
.
P1: Neck
P2: Neck & Middle
P3: Middle
P4: Middle & Bridge
P5: Bridge​
.
.​
All three of the DPDT mini switches are ON-ON. (The switches are rated 5A,120VAC)

For discussion purposes, let's describe terminal positions and activation sequences as follows:
.
T1 -- T4 Outputs (Toggle BCK)
T2 -- T5 Inputs
T3 -- T6 Outputs (Toggle FWD)

SWn FWD:.. T2 w/ T3 ..and.. T5 w/ T6
SWn BCK:.. T2 w/ T1 ..and.. T5 w/ T4​
.
.
All three pickups are wired to their switches in effectively the same manner (SW2 has White soldered to T4 instead of T2, but T4 & T2 are jumpered together)
.
I am new to puzzling out guitar circuit layouts. What I think the mini switches are doing is as follows:
.
For SW1, SW2 & SW3
Toggle FWD: Black-​&-Red-to Coils;..White​-&-Green-to-Grd [BOTH Coils operating IN PARALLEL ?]
Toggle ​BCK: Red-&-White-to-​Coils;..White-&-Green-to-Grd [ONE (secondary) Coil operating ALONE ?]​​
.
.
If this evaluation of the current layout is correct, is it customary or contradictory to:
  • wire the coils of Humbuckers and Stacks in parallel, instead of in series?
  • coil-split Humbuckers and Stacks by selecting the secondaries and cutting out the primary coils ?
 
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