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identifying pickups from 1982

wild.joz

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
1,934
Hi all,
going through my parts box (mix of old knobs, pickups, screws and whatnot :wah ), I found I still had the pair of pickups which were in my 82 Les Paul .
I have no clue on how to identity them, but I noted the codes on the back (they're both black bobins).

One has '499 881' inked and 'PAT. NO. 2.737.842' stamped
The other has '498 382' inked and same stamp as above.

I recall these sounded pretty good before I swapped them for Seymour Alnico pro IIs many years ago.

Does anyone have an idea what these pickups could be?

:salude
 

wild.joz

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
1,934
Couple of pics

bcad6260.jpg


6ffb5f8d.jpg
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2006
Messages
83
Looks like a Shaw with the rough magnet and white plastic spacer. Should read around 7.5

I had them in my '84 Les Paul back in the day.
 

Hamerfan

Active member
Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
791
Do these clips from mylespaul-forum help? Your have definitely Shaws!

From My Les Paul Forum:

There is a lot of confusion and misrepresentation when it comes to Tim Shaw PAF reissue humbuckers, I often see pickups being advertised for sale as Shaws that clearly are not Shaws, so I have put together some identification pointers for Tim Shaw PAF reissues, I hope this will help guide you with the identification Tim Shaw PAF reissues humbuckers..

Shaw's have white plastic spacers,

a rough cast U O A 5 magnet (a tad shorter than standard mags),

bobbins without the "T" that had been used for more than a decade on theT-top humbuckers and the correct square hole in the bobbin

penny copper colored wire on the bobbins,

black and white lead wires coming from the bobbins,

the resistance will measure close to 7.5 Ohms when checked with a meter,

they have base plates embossed with patent number same as the later T-tops,

some Shaw's also have an ink stamp on the base plate, but the later ones don't have the ink stamp.


Here are some model numbers of Shaws I have owned. They all had two white plastic spacers, thick, rough cast AlNiCo 5 magnets, the square in circle holes mounted on the opposite side than PAFs or 57 Classics (etc) do. And DCR measurements between 7.1k and 7.4K:

First 3 number on neck and bridge pickup as they come in stock guitars:
401/403
489/490
329/330
137/138
372/373
498/499
392/393
898/899
 
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