In the process of building our “Blackie” tribute guitar, I discovered that the original pickups were grey bottomed mid to late ‘60s single coils and not mid- ‘50s pickup as is often assumed.
I decided to build a set of pickups based on a late ‘60s design using grey bottom flatwork and plain enamel coil wire with lacquer dipping but tweak the wind and magnets to produce the sweeter tones that Blackie was famous for. The result is these wonderful “Blackjack” pickups.
We use the distinctive and era correct purple-coloured Plain Enamel coil wire and nitrocellulose lacquer potting rather than traditional wax potting. Lacquer isn’t as effective as wax and only partially penetrates the coil creating a hard and brittle outer coil with (what I call) a “fluffy” interior. This happy accident makes some very lively “edge of microphonic” performance, and in use, this translates into a bright and sweet tone with outstanding clarity and with just the right manhunt of snub-nosed treble.
Available only as a full set of three, aged or un-aged.
DC: 5.7 - 6k approx.
