PLEASE HELP WHAT PICKUP IS THIS!!

[caspa411]

Hey guys just signed up to this as I thought you would be just the ppl to help. A very good friend of mine owns a guitar store and has done so for over 40 years, after digging through his shed he pulled out a box of old pick ups with all sorts of things in there old Tele pickup from a 69 and a few other random ones but this one caught my eye. I have attached pics. Is this a duncan or not? I have hard wired (stright to the jack out put tone and volume bypass) it following the SD diagram and is sounded very thin and almost out of phase with itself, just wanted to see what you guys thought and if you have any ideas, hope you can help guys its driving me crazy, just to mention the JBJ sticker is covered with wax its not just sat on top, of the plate

[jimlp]

The pickup is a Duncan JB that was wound by MJ, cool find. Should be black is hot & green/bare is ground with red/white taped off if not splitting the pickup.

[caspa411]

Would there be a reason why it doesnt have a baseplate stamp? I have no idea how old this is, all i know its been in a shed for a very long time. Does it seem legit to you? thanks for the response. Any reason why it would sound thin after following the SD wire codes?

[o.p-i.v]

did you solder red and white together? if not that would result in a very thin sound

[caspa411]

yep all wire were soldered, the only thing I can think of is there is something wrong with the pickup it has been sat in a damp shed for a long time, gonna have to test it with a meter and see whats what, or its that I hard wired straight to the jack input. I did the same with a 79 X2N and that did give a very thin sound but wasnt as noticeable with the power the X2N puts out. I'am going to have to extend the wires anyway so ill trim them all back and re connect them after that. My main concern was finding out if it was a SD pick up or not, hoping to get more confirmation on the fact that it is,

[DrNewcenstein]

Yes, it's a Duncan, as has already been stated.

Wiring it direct to the jack vs to a knob first would not make it sound thin. Tap the screws/poles with a metal object and see if both coils make noise.

[Dr.K]

Would there be a reason why it doesnt have a baseplate stamp? I have no idea how old this is, all i know its been in a shed for a very long time. Does it seem legit to you? thanks for the response. Any reason why it would sound thin after following the SD wire codes?

It doesn't have a baseplate stamp because it's pre '83. It's legit. It could be thin because of a dead coil. Did you meter both coils?

[caspa411]

I've not tested on the meter yet, will check it out tomorrow and see what it comes up with, anybody what reading should come of this pick up? The only way i can describe the sound would be very low and twangy almost, I left the amp on the same volume settings as I had been running my LP though using the neck pick up everything on full, then switched to this and the volume was way down. I did tap both coils and they did make noise, but that was only after I was messing with the wiring and I wired the black and the white together and sent the red to the hot
thanks for all the responses its very much appreciated

[ehdwuld]

I've not tested on the meter yet, will check it out tomorrow and see what it comes up with, anybody what reading should come of this pick up? The only way i can describe the sound would be very low and twangy almost, I left the amp on the same volume settings as I had been running my LP though using the neck pick up everything on full, then switched to this and the volume was way down. I did tap both coils and they did make noise, but that was only after I was messing with the wiring and I wired the black and the white together and sent the red to the hot
thanks for all the responses its very much appreciated

please to explain please

[caspa411]

After getting the thin sound from the pick up with the standard SD wiring, black to hot, green and bare to ground, red and white taped, ( I didn't tap the poles when it was wired this way) I then wired it up a different way, red to hot black and white taped off green to ground, I then got a little more volume from the pick up than before and tapped the poles to make sure they were making noise

[Ed Hunter]

After getting the thin sound from the pick up with the standard SD wiring, black to hot, green and bare to ground, red and white taped, ( I didn't tap the poles when it was wired this way) I then wired it up a different way, red to hot black and white taped off green to ground, I then got a little more volume from the pick up than before and tapped the poles to make sure they were making noise

What you need to do is meter it. it should read approx 15.7K since it is a older one. No matter what for normal JB full humbucking it has to wired either standard duncan black to hot,green and bare to ground and red/white taped off. unless you find it to be out of phase with another pup then replace green for hot and black to ground with bare wire

[caspa411]

took a few more shots

[caspa411]

Ok, do I need to to have the red and white together then meter it? Took some more shots of the inside of the pup,

[ehdwuld]

twist and solder the red/white
loose connections are bad connections

[DrNewcenstein]

Hmmm. Pic of the internal coil connections is interesting. Should the Black and Green be joined inside? I thought it was black + white and red + green between the coils? Been a while since I've seen the inside of a pickup.

Also, while both coils will make detectable noise when you tap the metal bits no matter how the pickup is wired, when both coils are active you should get the same volume level of noise. Softly rubbing the poles/screws with the tip of a screwdriver should be enough, you don't need to tap them hard.

[caspa411]

That's what I was thinking Dr. This is why I had the concern of whether it was a SD or not because the wiring didnt add up to me. If anybody can shed some light on this matter it would be really appriciated.

[Ed Hunter]

That's what I was thinking Dr. This is why I had the concern of whether it was a SD or not because the wiring didnt add up to me. If anybody can shed some light on this matter it would be really appriciated.

Really the meter will save a lot of time here. Wire it as per duncan wiring spec and take a reading then we can go from there

[caspa411]

Hey guys, ok, I striped all the wires back on the pickup and re soldered right to the jack, everything ok, no thin sound, volume was the same as my les paul bridge pickup, BUT... put the pickup on the meter and got nothing! tested 2 other pickups and all came out fine but got nothing from this, took all the wires apart and test them and nothing still! Any ideas?? One thing I will mention At one point it did go to 15. 4 then it climbed down back to zero then nothing at all after that not even a flicker, all the other pickups I test went right to the numbers bang on every time

[ehdwuld]

frig the meter
if it works just play it

too much on details