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?
My YouTube channel,
Half Speed Solos: classic guitar solos demonstrated at half speed with scrolling tab and no waffle.
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
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?
Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message
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.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Send it back.