Identify this humbucker

[MarkThomas]

Went to cleaning/restringing my newly acquired Model 3 today and was able to pull out the humbucker to try and identify it since it doesn't seem to be a stock JC90c (no cover).

There is no sticker or stamps on the back, so hoping one of you has an idea of what this may be? Thanks!

[Cleveland Metal]

Well, after contemplating it, I went down and popped the covers off several J50BC's I have here and EVERY one of them was different.

All had a small piece of green tape with J50BC handwritten on them. There were 3 Different heights, and several different styles of pole pieces in each PU.

One was 12 hex head per bobbin, one had 6 smooth pins on one bobbin/flat head screw adjustment on the other bobbin (like yours), the other two are just smooth pins on the bobbins. Several had copper tape on them, one was electrical tape, and one was black cloth tape...

On two of them, the cover popped off VERY cleanly with no residue at all. and one of those looked cosmetically fine to be able to use without the cover.

Not sure what is up with those soldered on ears for the mounting screw on yours. None of mine have that.



So, with allthe variances, I guess I'm getting at this "could" still be the stock J90C that was issued stock I spose. and they were able to pop the cover off of it and it was nice looking. I have one of the bunch that looks great, the others are very yukky looking with the covers off.

Otherwise, I have no idea what that is. It doesn't look like a typical commercial aftermarket PU to me.

There are more knowledgeable JC and pick up dudes here tho... So, I'm just chiming in.

[Newc]

12 hex heads on each bobbin? Carvin M22SD?

You'll have to put the pickup on a meter and compare the readout to the chart in the electronics manual (posted in the Big Sticky).

[Cleveland Metal]

Actually, only 11, my bad...

Markings say J50BC! haha...



BTW Mark, this is how yukky they "can" look without the cover, haha...

[MarkThomas]

Wow, yeah that is "yucky"

This pickup sounds ok, so would be nice to know what it is. The fact that it has no markings on it makes we wonder if it isn't a sub-standard piece of junk.

I think I need to find a JC90c to put in here. I cleaned and restrung it, but now see I need to either remove or sand down a block that has been glued in to only allow the Floyd to dive. The block is just a hair too thick so I can't get the Floyd level with the body, making the action a little high at the 12+ frets...so, I gotta take it all back apart anyway...may as well throw a hummer in there. Oh well, getting good practice with my first Floyd this way =]

Thanks for the input, guys!

[Cleveland Metal]

Hey, as strange as that one one you have looks, it just MIGHT be a J90C, one of my covers came off with the PU looking just fine, and yours does not really look like an aftermarket pickups with that weird shit soldered on the tabs. I would not put that past jackson, haha... Some of mine have Jackson engraved on the back, some don't, and the tape they use to mark em with the model could come off.

Ehh, I tear the stock pickups and trem out of every older Jackson anyways... Never liked the sound of them really, especially with the JE-1000/1200/1500 circuitry.

I'm an EMG 81 guy, but an SD Custom Custom, or Maybe a Custom 5 are nice sounding PU's in those guitars.

[MarkThomas]

Well, like I said, it does sound good, so maybe I'll let 'er fly. My buddy has a Model 3 as well, so will plug his guitar into my set-up and see if it sounds the same. I also have a Series 10 with a nice Jackson hummer in it, and they do sound similar.

Thanks alot, CM! I really appreciate your help! I guess they are right...CLEVELAND ROCKS!!

[Cleveland Metal]

Certainly bro, not sure I was a ton of help but I try when I can

[metalchurch79]

Those soldered pieces on the legs of that pickup are an obvious repair by someone at one time, and I doubt it's factory.
You can see a pencil line on the right side too.

Someone probably used a screw with the wrong thread count and stripped the threads on it at one time, and that was their answer to that one.

Those 11 hex screws on that pickup are very strange indeed, I've never seen one like that before.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Looks Like a J90C but i dont remember seeing one with a grey outer wrap around the wires. What are the colors of the wires comin out of it? Are there four wires or just two? The one wire i can see looks purplish pink which isnt a Jackson pup wire color. Could be a replacement pup. Or a moded J90c. What does it read on a meter?
Gil

[DonP]

Someone probably used a screw with the wrong thread count and stripped the threads on it at one time, and that was their answer to that one.

Or this pickup might have been "direct mounted" at one time. I have a couple of pickups where someone drilled out the threads in order to do that.

[Cleveland Metal]

Didn't really think of that... When I've gotten stripped ones, I went to a larger screw (hard to find) and re-tapped it, or I've also melted silver solder into the hole and rethreaded into it.

[metalchurch79]

Or this pickup might have been "direct mounted" at one time. I have a couple of pickups where someone drilled out the threads in order to do that.

Yeah I thought that too.