Southpa Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 They belong in the neck and middle positions of my friend's strat. I've never seen single coils with such large pole pieces, no discernable markings except a paper sticker on the back of each reading "7R". The bodies, ie. bottom plate and bobbin seem to be 1 piece molded plastic. Normally I've been able to take pickups right apart, not these. Backs The guitar is a swamp ash Warmoth body w/ an original 1980 US made all maple neck. Its been played ALOT (ie. natural relic) . Neck is one of the very last 3 bolts made , around mid 1980. I got sick up and fed with watching him play this guitar, action was almost 3/8" high at the 12th fret, real scratchy electronics and massive humming. How he managed is beyond me but I admit he does a pretty good job. Hes played a few of my guitars and realized whats missing, doesn't have a clue on how to do a proper setup etc. (like most guitar players I know ) So I took on the job, for free, to refurbish his guitar. I already levelled, recrowned and polished the frets and am now tackling the electronics. I also lined the inside of the pickguard and pickup cavities with the rest of my copper shielding tape. Good stuff! No need to solder across seams. I took some pics of resistance readings across overlapped taped areas. I have to order more now. The bridge pup is an older Seymour Duncan Vintage '59 hb. The ones sold now at SD site are 8.5 kΩ DC resistance, this one is 10.5 Everything is mounted on a Warmoth pickguard (has the sticker still attached) and I suspect those single coils came with the pickguard. I looked but did not find, did Warmoth ever make and sell fully loaded pickguards with only a volume and no tone sometime in the past? Anyway, I found that one of the single coli pickups was dead, absolutely no reading. I pulled the tape and checked the windings but did not find anything obvious. And the other pickup gave me a strange reading of 18.5KΩ. Thats pretty high output for a single coil. Maybe I'm reading the meter wrong. I'm impressed by how lightweight this guitar is, thats swamp ash for ya. I think it will be a real player. When I told my friend about the dead pickup, huh, something he didn't even know (shrug) he suggested swapping both of them out for something else, needs a new middle pickup for sure anyway. Hes after something with balls, but I told him not to spend too too much. More pics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spazzyone Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 (edited) they are definetly duncans the markings make that clear and they look like quaterpounders with 1/4" pole peices like this one http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/femf.../heather002.jpg http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d38/femf.../heather001.jpg and that high k reading could be right the pics i posted are ssl 7's that are 14.7k...very hot singles so the seven could mean qtr pounder and the r could be reverse wound reverse polarity i bet with the sheilding job they will sound sweet also try this http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/I-3789.html the part about single coils...this works good but anyway contact duncan and they will help you with the old model number system.....hope this info helps Edited March 4, 2007 by spazzyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prs man Posted March 4, 2007 Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 I would agree spazzyone is correct looks like quarter pounders to me. if you look at the Duncan web site you will see the quarter pounders have 1/4 pole pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted March 4, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2007 (edited) Excellent, thanks for that info. Now I guess we'll be keeping the working pickup. I'd like to find out whats wrong with the other but got no way of pulling it apart without damage. Oh well, I'll just have to figure out where the best place to situate the 1/4 lb (neck or middle) and then find out what other sort of single coil will compliment it. so the seven could mean qtr pounder and the r could be reverse wound reverse polarity Hmmm, that could also be the source of all the noise. Putting 2 pickups with the same polarity side by side would double your hum when shared in switch position 4. I'll have to make sure we get a new middle pup with the opposite polarity of the working one. I'll check with the Seymour Duncan guys to confirm that. Once again, thanks muchly! Edited March 4, 2007 by Southpa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 You know what's spooky about this whole deal? I've worked on the exact same guitar! Nine years ago, my boss had a Warmoth parts-o-caster that he had assembled himself but had major playability issues due to a poorly shaped and cut nut. I fixed all that for him and I fell in love with those Quarter Pounders. Lotta meat for a single coil pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted March 5, 2007 Report Share Posted March 5, 2007 Yep first thing I thought when I saw those pole pieces was quarterpounders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted March 9, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 9, 2007 OK, so one of the QP's is dead. I've looked around locally for a replacement QP but no show, could order one thru Long and McQuade but they want 70 bucks. My friend doesn't want to spend that kind of money for a single coil and we'll just replace it with a regular strat pup. The big question is...can we assume that the "7R" sticker on the back of the QP means reverse wound/reverse polarity, (is that a middle pickup)? And if so, should I be looking for a neck or middle position single coil to replace the broken one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samba Pa Ti Posted March 11, 2007 Report Share Posted March 11, 2007 (edited) guitar fetish make pickups like that... they dont seem to do strat ones though ive got a tele bridge pickup with oversised (bass guitar) pole pieces. http://store.guitarfetish.com/alfaovpotene.html would a tele neck fit into a strat ? i think it should but i never tried Edited March 11, 2007 by Samba Pa Ti Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spazzyone Posted March 11, 2007 Report Share Posted March 11, 2007 OK, so one of the QP's is dead. I've looked around locally for a replacement QP but no show, could order one thru Long and McQuade but they want 70 bucks. My friend doesn't want to spend that kind of money for a single coil and we'll just replace it with a regular strat pup. The big question is...can we assume that the "7R" sticker on the back of the QP means reverse wound/reverse polarity, (is that a middle pickup)? And if so, should I be looking for a neck or middle position single coil to replace the broken one? contact seymour's customer service for that info and $70 for a 1/4 pounder is kinda high they can be had on ebay for around $50 or contact me as i have a few new ones floating around but none are rw/rp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted March 11, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2007 The guitar is back in my friend's hands now and hes real happy with the results. I replaced the bad pickup with a used stock single coil (6.5 KΩ)and took my chances. The remaining quarterpounder (actual value 16.5 kΩ) is in the middle and the new pickup is in the neck position. Having 3 totally different pickups isn't all bad, quite a variety of tones when switching around. When not playing the guitar is quiet as a mouse now. I also replaced the pickup switch, contacts were pretty bad and there was some degree of corrosion. Anyway, thanks for the heads up on what pickup is what. My friend was so impressed with his "new" guitar and my work that he wants me to fix his Larivee acoustic. Big split in the side that is slowly growing. Be careful with those acoustics that have natural or very light polyester finishes. This one has mahogany sides that are easy to split, very likely from resting on keys in his pocket, will have to tell him about that. I realize now that those lacquer or polyurethane finishes do more than make the guitar nice 'n shiny. The glossy finish also helps to hold the wood together! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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