tryin' ta I.D. a pickup

[popsaka]

Hi mates! Quite a few years ago I got this pup but never used it..Its a sealed chrome block humbucking w/ 7.8kohms single braided lead (no taps) ...On the back: "181205(?)" + "SUPER 80" (or '8C') ink-stamped.
On the front it has a 'hand w/ index finger outstretched and butterfly wings on the back (top) of hand and behind the lot is a circle w/ points going left and right.
I can feel 6 poles and the gauss is quite strong and heavy... 6 string bass?
So what the heck is it? (thanx in advance and cheers)

[popsaka]

BTW no pole pieces showing

[GuitarTechCraig]

Ibanez Super 80.

[jkemmery]

Check this out:

www.tradeaway.com/listed.phtml?ID=135512

Guy wants 10 grand for 100 of those puppies! He claims they all have the protective plastic still on them.

GTCraig, you're an Ibanez man, is this a decent find?

[wolf]

He says if you had to buy those in a guitar shop they would cost between $100 to $150 whereas if you bought a hundred for $10,000 they'd "merely" be $100 each. Where's the big savings?

And popsaka you said:
Its a sealed chrome block ... single braided lead

As anyone on this board knows, I hate those things. Many decades ago, I got rid of 2 of those in my Gibson SG guitar because you can only get one sound out of those. Can you parallel wire them? coil split ? put it out of phase with another pickup ? NO

I'm too old for the "Ibanez generation", but from what I can see, they are innovative guitars. Maybe they made those "one sound" pickups before realizing how much tone variation you can get if you utilize all 4 wires.

[jkemmery]

In my experience, Ibanez makes some pretty nice guitars ... but they also make some pretty lousy ones. Unlike other manufacturers that warn you with a "budget" monicer, such as "Squier", or "Epiphone" or "SE", you have to know the Ibanez line to know the good from the bad. That being said, I played a Korean made Ibanez in a local shop a couple of weeks ago that played and sounded as nice as you could expect an off-the-shelf guitar to play. It actually played better than a $1500 Fender Custom Shop Strat I picked up and played at another shop just for fun the next week or so. It had a coil tapping bridge hum called a "True Duo" which I came to find out is a pickup made with 3 coils, basically hum with a stacked screw coil. It was pretty innovative, but still, it was like $800 for a Korean made guitar ... (Nothing against Koreans ... but for that kind of jack, I'd opt for something made on our own shores). Still, I'm with you on the single lead humbuckers ... we can get some much nicer one's for less than $100 a pop, unless you are restoring that old Ibanez, or just a huge fan of those Super 80's, I can't see shelling out more than $25, if that, for a 2 connector humbucker.

[popsaka]

thanx guys ...@ 3/4" deep I thought there might be some magnetic magic goin' on though I understand that a 'too strong' mag can actually speed decay... (no no anything but that!!)
Well hasn't anyone cut one open yet? The main reason I was toyin' w/ the idea of using it in treb/brg pos on my "getting really old japanese copy of a les paul special" was low noise and high enuf output... thanx again y'all

[sumgai]

pops,

Well, no one actually said you can't/shouldn't use the thing in your "budget friendly" axe, but some of them did say, "it's not an ideal pickup". There's a difference between the two, and you have to decide if it suits your purposes or not, regardless of what others have to say about it.

I'm sure wolf will agree, if grudgingly, that if a pickup works, no matter what the design, then there's a niche for it, somewhere, for someone. You just might be that lucky winner! ;D

Oh, and have I slipped a gear here........ have I, or has anyone, welcomed you to the NutzHouse yet? If not, then let this serve as such! ;D

HTH


sumgai

p.s. Apologies for putting words into wolf's mouth, so to speak. But what fun would life be if the Administrator couldn't abuse his power once in a great while. ;D