Pickup Geeks. What be these?

Hoarasaurus

I recently bought a lovely 83 Washburn Force 30, but the pickups didn't grab me, so I've fitted a set of Bulldog Sweet 62's purchased from the gentleman @horsehead ;

So, I'm pondering whether to let the originals go, but before I decide that, I'd rather like to know what they actually are!

From my googling, Washburn simply listed them as Vertical Humbuckers. Pics below...

Funkfingers

They are exactly what they say on the label. (He wrote, barely concealing the fact that this is the extent of his knowledge.) They are trying to resemble Seymour Duncan Quarter-Pound pickups … which were fashionable at the time.

Strictly speaking, stacked coils pickups are split rather than tapped.

When I first glanced the pics, I hoped that they were SSL-4T tapped QPs. 

The VHS pickups might be of value to somebody restoring a similarly elderly Washburn.

OilCityPickups

Strictly speaking any humbucker that has a coil shorted to ground is split or shunted. A tap is an output take off point some way into one coil. They look they are trying to be like Tom Anderson Strat pickups to me (without the central magnet array).  

A tom Anderson 

Hoarasaurus

OilCityPickups said:

Strictly speaking any humbucker that has a coil shorted to ground is split or shunted. A tap is an output take off point some way into one coil. They look they are trying to be like Tom Anderson Strat pickups to me (without the central magnet array).  

A tom Anderson 

Except that they pre-date Tom Anderson guitars founding by a year.....

I'll dig out my multimeter and get some readings. 

I would've thought they maybe Dimarzio related (I've a Washburn Bass from that era, that had a Dimarzio P bass pickup fitted) But they don't seem to tie up with their offerings.... 

Philly_Q

Those Tom Anderson pickups were similar to Schecter Monstertones, which would've been around earlier.  Again, the oversized polepieces.  I'm not saying that's what they are though.

tekbow

OilCityPickups said:

Strictly speaking any humbucker that has a coil shorted to ground is split or shunted. A tap is an output take off point some way into one coil. They look they are trying to be like Tom Anderson Strat pickups to me (without the central magnet array).  

A tom Anderson 

Is that what the schecter pickups are based off? Didn't Anderson work for Schecter in the 80s?

Edit: already asked above.

ICBM

They will be OEM pickups by one of the Japanese manufacturers, I don't know which. Given that they're almost certainly worth next to nothing, and that the guitar - although itself also not valuable - is a rather rare and quite interesting one, keep the pickups. You or someone else may one day want them to put back, and you will never find another set.

I have the Force 4 bass, which like this guitar has a rather unusual neck joint with a longer than normal unobstructed back at the heel end - ideal given that it's my backup for my Rickenbacker 4001, which is similar. Oddly that spec sheet shows the basses as not having any pickups! The one in mine is a DiMarzio-alike P-Bass type.

blueskunk

Strat types. 

OilCityPickups

Yep I think the ancestral pickup for all of these was the Schecter Monstertone ... 

Hoarasaurus

ICBM said:

They will be OEM pickups by one of the Japanese manufacturers, I don't know which. Given that they're almost certainly worth next to nothing, and that the guitar - although itself also not valuable - is a rather rare and quite interesting one, keep the pickups. You or someone else may one day want them to put back, and you will never find another set.

I have the Force 4 bass, which like this guitar has a rather unusual neck joint with a longer than normal unobstructed back at the heel end - ideal given that it's my backup for my Rickenbacker 4001, which is similar. Oddly that spec sheet shows the basses as not having any pickups! The one in mine is a DiMarzio-alike P-Bass type.

Yeah, the Force 30 has the same neck joint. Brilliant neck access!!


It's not a guitar I'll be geting rid of, easily the best made production guitar i have; it plays and sounds incredble. I love that my mostt Strat-ey sounding guitar, is not a Strat! Hmm... to ponder.....

Thank you all for your comments, I had never heard of the Schecter Monstertone before, or the Anderson ones. 

However, @OilCityPickups I think i have found an even older one in my search.

I present the 1965 Burns Baldwin Bar O Matic Stacked Humbucker.

OilCityPickups

Hoarasaurus said:

ICBM said:

They will be OEM pickups by one of the Japanese manufacturers, I don't know which. Given that they're almost certainly worth next to nothing, and that the guitar - although itself also not valuable - is a rather rare and quite interesting one, keep the pickups. You or someone else may one day want them to put back, and you will never find another set.

I have the Force 4 bass, which like this guitar has a rather unusual neck joint with a longer than normal unobstructed back at the heel end - ideal given that it's my backup for my Rickenbacker 4001, which is similar. Oddly that spec sheet shows the basses as not having any pickups! The one in mine is a DiMarzio-alike P-Bass type.

Yeah, the Force 30 has the same neck joint. Brilliant neck access!!


It's not a guitar I'll be geting rid of, easily the best made production guitar i have; it plays and sounds incredble. I love that my mostt Strat-ey sounding guitar, is not a Strat! Hmm... to ponder.....

Thank you all for your comments, I had never heard of the Schecter Monstertone before, or the Anderson ones. 

However, @OilCityPickups I think i have found an even older one in my search.

I present the 1965 Burns Baldwin Bar O Matic Stacked Humbucker.

You'll find I mentioned that Burns pickup in an article on here a good while back about rewinding a Burns Rez-O-Matic :-) 
For one of these ...
The neck pickup was the earliest stack I've found ... they did them in versions with and without pole screws. 

I mentioned Tom Anderson and Schecter was because of the large diameter A5 magnets common to those, not the stack design, which is way older. 

Hoarasaurus

@OilCityPickups ;

I stand inform and corrected. 

Mr Burns certainly was a leftfield thinker!

OilCityPickups

Hoarasaurus said:

@OilCityPickups ;

I stand inform and corrected. 

Mr Burns certainly was a leftfield thinker!

There were lots of ideas in early British electric guitars that were great ... the styling however was shite a bit  of an acquired taste.