ID old pickups?

[Tone Loco]

I have a couple of humbuckers I've dragged around since the 70s. Pretty sure they came from an SG, probably early 70s. Potted with some real hard black substance.

Is there something I can do with my multi meter that will give me any sort of indication of how "hot" they are, which if either is hotter, and possibly what the model is?

I want to stick some "low power" HBs in a guitar and wonder if these would be in the same ball park output wise as duncan 59s or some other non-hot rodded HB.

[Giraffecaster]

set your multimeter on the omega looking setting - that'll give you the resistance reading

sounds like you may have some epoxy pottet pups. gibson made some but there are others like bartolini who did too

[Tone Loco]

set your multimeter on the omega looking setting - that'll give you the resistance reading


What do I touch the probe(?) ends to?


sounds like you may have some epoxy pottet pups. gibson made some but there are others like bartolini who did too

They look just like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GIBSON-T-TOP-HUMBUCKER-1970-s-TARBACK-T-TOP-PICK-UP_W0QQitemZ110421695302QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageName ZRSS:B:SILF:GB:101

The number he quotes definitely looks low compared to pretty much any I've seen on the Duncan site.

[Giraffecaster]

one end of the probe on the outer shield of the lead and the other on the end of the lead

[NoahL]

can 5.75 be right for a humucker? i'm looking at that eBay ad.

[Tone Loco]

can 5.75 be right for a humucker? i'm looking at that eBay ad.
Yeah, if you look for "tar back" or tarback in the US ebay, you'll see similar or lower (5.24?) on them. Check completed auctions too. And this was the early 70s. Supposedly '68-'72 for the tarbacks from what I read last night. Lotsa over driven rock at that time...

Low output pickups probably forced cranking the amp more, getting power amp distortion not pushed preamp from high output pickups.

It's a theory anyhow :D

I'll go measure mine and get back to you...

[Tone Loco]

Ok, for the neck, presumably since it has the longer lead I get 5.01 pretty consistently. Bridge 7.12.

In case my multimeter is in question, on a set of Duncan 59s I get 7.35 neck, 8.13 bridge.

Now I know why I was so impressed with the dimarzio "super distortion"s I put in back then. I was playing a twin reverb and never able to get it past 2 or whatever on the volumn knob so getting something to hit it probably twice as hard made a noticeable difference.