Old 60's and 70s Japanese pickups are endlessly fascinating: they come in a vast range of different shapes and sizes, and although most were super cheaply built, they can offer tones that we simply don't hear any more. I don't know the make of instrument this came from, but I've seen similar pickups on guitars branded Zenta, Top Twenty and Teisco (as well as many others.
They are a lowish wind that uses an unusual grade of wire (a tad thicker than standard 42awg used for example by Fender on Strats, and Gibson on pretty much everything). I keep over specced wire if it comes in (sometimes wire manufactures make mistakes)... so I end up with a lot of half gauges. I was lucky to have some wire that perfectly suited this pair.
Contrary to popular belief the covers on these are not riveted on as it might appear, but a 'click fit' with dimples on the cover lining up with holes in the baseplate lip. Not the most wonderful solution, as these covers are free to vibrate about a bit and cause some microphonic issues. Still we are doing a restoration job here, and I'm not setting out to correct design 'flaws' here, just get the pickups back to factory spec.
Stripping down is pretty easy ... note the card shims that the factory corrected the height difference with between the bobbin and the 'keeper bar' (which is an inverted u section of pressed steel).
The bobbins are rather wobbly when you strip off the old, buggered wire. The thin plastic was never meant to survive potting ... so we won't risk a melt down!
So wobbly were the bobbins that I made a 'plug' to stop the pressure of the winding wire collapsing the bobbin core while winding.
Core in position ...
And it provides a handy point for 'Tweedledee's tailstock and centre to engage with (we have two CNC/manual winding machines: Tweedledee and Tweedledum).
All wound, and with correct masking tape style coil wrappings.
Reassembly is straightforward
And all done. Output on these is low from factory, with a typical DCR of sub 5k ... but the sound is quite up front due to the large ceramic magnets.
Watch out for a rewind on a Burns Rez-O-Matik pickup shortly ... the dreaded 'air coil' with no bobbin!!! Deep joy!
Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ...
Oil City Pickups ...
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And maybe there’ll turn out to be an overlooked gem waiting to be (re)discovered...
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
If you ever did make a modern version of this, I had a half drunk daft idea for a name for it...
The Gnarlington
Great for gnarly blues and garage fuzz abandon.
Actually it sounded better in my head...
Those japanese girls were not like the old sloppy Mexicans winding at Fender filling the bobbins to full whilst they talked about hairstyles LOL.
I had something similar on an early japanese guitar might of been Zenta
Nice work
I may well do some 'influenced by' pickups of this sort of design ... maybe in humbucker cases
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog