can you identify pups

[vince20]

Does anyone know the origin (make) of these pups? I took them off a 1968 Fender Strat when refurbishing it some time ago. I bought it as a used guitar and I cant say if any one had previously carried out mods.
Each pup has essentially three wires, an independant red and a ground shielded white. see picture below.
I am curious to know the tones they produce and if the pups are original Fender. What are the red and sheilded white wires and how do the connect. Which is hot the red or the white?
vince20

[newey]

vince20-

No clue as to the manufacturer. On the backside, underneath the wax (or perhaps epoxy) potting, there looks to be some red lettering, but I can't make it out.

As to the wiring, you'd be well advised to test these with a multimeter, better safe than sorry and all that. My best guess here (and that's all it is) would be that the center white wire is the "hot" and the bare braided outer wire is the ground. The red wire is likely a "coil tap" connection (Note: Not a "coil cut" or "split coil" as with a humbucker). A coil tap on a single coil pickup takes the output from about half of the windings- the windings are "tapped into" in the middle. This gives a different tone but also a lower output, since you've essentially taken half of the windings off the coil.

But again, check it to be sure, I could be all wet.

EDIT:Another thought occurred to me. These could be active pickups, and the red wire is for 9V DC power. I'm not an active pickup guy, but the covers look like they might be actives of some sort, and there could well be a tiny preamp under that potting. But again, not sure.

[vince20]

Thanks newey. I'll leave the post hang  just in case others might shed some light on the Manufacture.

[vince20]

You were right newey the pups were Active pups. I found the actual brand on the internet, They were used as a replacement for Humbuckers back when the first A model ford came out I think. Used for heavy Metal sound as I understand. Here is a take I uplifted.
Vintage 1979 EMG SA pickups cream very rare brown back version reverse EMG red stamped logo on back of pickups Gold logo on top...original pots ..5 way switch and cap .original Fender 60's pickguard ......killer thick distortion..clear mids....has the spc controller for single coil or humbucker tone . All pots work perfectly no static or hum..this is very similar to the Pickups in David Gilmore famous Red 57 Ri  Strat...easy install solder red wire to positive on jack...battery ground to ground on Jack so when you unplug the amp cord the battery is off so doesn't drain..and solder regular ground from back of pot to second ground on jack...will be pre wired. The new DG20 is $320 modeled after these originals ... there is no comparison ..The aged pickups sound incredible...especially the blend with slight distortion also these clean up alot better then the new ones..because of the non rail design. the second pic is Davids original red strat.....these are the best vintage active single coil style distortion pickups you will ever find.
vince20

[thetragichero]

one dead giveaway that a guitar has active pickups (besides the presence of a 9v battery snap) is that the pot values are much lower than what we'd normally use. passive pickup-equipped strat usually uses 250k pots where one with active pickups will use 25k or 50k pots. this is because the active pickups present a low impedance signal so 'normal' value pots only really act as an on/off switch. in order to have the tone control act on the same frequencies the tone cap is embiggened, so instead of 22nf a 220nf cap might be used (rc filters are fun). if you're interested in the math we can nerd out further but that can take away from the geetar playing

cool find, by the way!

[vince20]

Thanks thetragichero

No dont go to any extra chasing as I dont intend to use the pups in any upcoming project. I was just curious and now I know their history thus far allows me to sleep at night.

vince20

[ms]

Jul 19, 2023 23:45:37 GMT -5 thetragichero said:

one dead giveaway that a guitar has active pickups (besides the presence of a 9v battery snap) is that the pot values are much lower than what we'd normally use. passive pickup-equipped strat usually uses 250k pots where one with active pickups will use 25k or 50k pots. this is because the active pickups present a low impedance signal so 'normal' value pots only really act as an on/off switch. in order to have the tone control act on the same frequencies the tone cap is embiggened, so instead of 22nf a 220nf cap might be used (rc filters are fun). if you're interested in the math we can nerd out further but that can take away from the geetar playing

cool find, by the way!

The purpose of a lower value volume control is to drive the cable capacitance better so that the frequency response of the instrument is almost independent of the volume setting.  Or, looking at it the other way, the reason for making the output impedance low is to make it possible to use a lower value volume control, enabling better uniformity of frequency response with control changes.

With a passive pickup, the tone control damps the Q of the resonant circuit formed by the coil inductance and cable and coil capacitance, and also introduces a much lower resonant frequency as the tone control approaches zero.  The output of the preamp does not have this property, and so the tone control behaves differently.