Dodgy eBay pickup—return or partial refund?

xscaramanga

I bought this Seymour Duncan on eBay for what I thought was a fair price. The listing picture showed the original braided two-conductor cable, but when it arrived, that had been replaced with a bodge job:



There's glue everywhere, including what looks like a fair bit between bobbin and baseplate. The pickup does appear to work though. I haven't installed it but I pushed the wires to a guitar cable and tapped the polepieces with a screwdriver, and got a thump through the amp. 



AFAIK the extended cable is not screened, although I don't really know how to tell.

Link to uncropped image.

Do I just send it back or accept a partial refund? If a partial refund, what would be reasonable?

simonk

I’d be sending that back I think.

Shark_Eyes

I'd just send it back it's clearly a bodge job and might have caused other issues. They've tried to deceive you with the images so I wouldn't risk it.

ICBM

If you're unhappy, send it back. If it doesn't correspond to the image then it is 'not as described', and Ebay will side with you in any dispute.

xscaramanga

ICBM said:

If you're unhappy, send it back. If it doesn't correspond to the image then it is 'not as described', and Ebay will side with you in any dispute.

I am unhappy, but I don't know how unhappy I ought to be. I don't know if the replacement cable is functionally as good as the original even if it's less aesthetic. I don't know how likely the cable is to need replacing again, and I don't know how difficult having all that glue everywhere would make that. 

Basically I need to know what the pickup is worth in its current condition and what putting it back to something like original condition would cost. Then I can make an informed decision. @Alegree, would you repair something like this?

OilCityPickups

If that's epoxy or even hot melt glue ... trying to remove it to change the output lead would probably kill the pickup and necessitate a rewind on one coil at least. Get your money back. I would probably try repair a vintage PAF with this bodgery ... but not a mass produced modern pickup. Like that it's worth £20 or less in my opinion.

I would charge £15 plus postage for a new output lead ... but I'd recommend you not to get it done!

xscaramanga

OilCityPickups said:

If that's epoxy or even hot melt glue ... trying to remove it to change the output lead would probably kill the pickup and necessitate a rewind on one coil at least. Get your money back.

Right you are! Thanks all.

Funkfingers

Not as described. Return it for a full refund.

SPECIFIC REASON FOR REJECTION 
The lumpiness of the blue heat shrink insulation is worrying. What the hell could be going on at that point of the output cable that would require electrical connections? All that is supposed to occur at one end of the pickup. 

GENERAL CLUES FOR DUNCAN HUMBUCKERS
The fact that the waxed paper tape around the copper coils is visible is a giveaway that the pickup is not wholly original.

Covered humbuckers should have residual solder blobs on the baseplate where the metal cover used to be fastened.

With a few honourable exceptions, open bobbins Duncan humbuckers should have a couple of turns of black "fabric" tape wrapped around their edges. This overlaps the raised lip of the metal baseplate. If the fabric tape looks a bit stretched at the ends of the pickup, it has probably undergone a magnet swap or, possibly, a tidy conversion from single con + braid output cable to something more versatile.

xscaramanga

Funkfingers said:

GENERAL CLUES FOR DUNCAN HUMBUCKERS
The fact that the waxed paper tape around the copper coils is visible is a giveaway that the pickup is not wholly original.

Covered humbuckers should have residual solder blobs on the baseplate where the metal cover used to be fastened.

With a few honourable exceptions, open bobbins Duncan humbuckers should have a couple of turns of black "fabric" tape wrapped around their edges. This overlaps the raised lip of the metal baseplate. If the fabric tape looks a bit stretched at the ends of the pickup, it has probably undergone a magnet swap or, possibly, a tidy conversion from single con + braid output cable to something more versatile.

It's a Slash signature. I've had a look online at some images and I'm not certain, but from the images I can find, I think it's normal for there to be no fabric tape on these. Anyway, I have initiated a return.

Funkfingers

I included the general points to assist in anybody who is wondering why some pre-owned pickups on eBay seem so unusually inexpensive.

Alegree

I reckon if you were to open it up you could disconnect the bobbin leads from the output cable leads then you could get the output cable out without risk. But the difficulty of doing that would depend on what the adhesive is.

ICBM

It looks like hot-melt glue to me, but I still wouldn't risk it unless the pickup was under £20, as OilCityPickups said. Or better still, free.

frown

“If there’s any doubt, then there’s no doubt.”

Send it back.