Staircase porn and a gratuitous Lo-Z family photo

[66Atlas]

I recently finished my project of replacing the newel posts, ballusters and handrails in our house; something I've never attempted before.  After completing it I can say I wouldnt wish this project on my worst enemy.  I originally thought it would only take a couple weeks but ended up being almost 4 months start to finish (Weekends, Holidays and a couple "sick" days).  That was for 12 posts, 130 iron ballusters and new handrails. TBH the project was delayed a couple weeks after I ran a miter saw halfway through my thumbnail, luckily stopping just as I knicked the bone.

Assuming no one will actually want to see a photo of my handywork I'll post a picture that people around here may actually be interested in.  The stair work makes for a nice backdrop I think 

[Grog]

I don't see any handrails at all!!??? Great collection of Lo-Z basses! I wasn't aware that any of the LBO brothers had an original LP Sig Bass with the oval pickup. Rarer than hens teeth!
(Good job on the rails also).

[Dave W]

Nice!

[66Atlas]

Thanks! the staircase work really came out nice but I'll never do it again 

The LP signature is a recent acquisition so I dont think I've posted anything about it since I got it last mo.  I really wanted one after I first saw Rob post pictures a year ago.  The 3 position switch in it was bad when I got it and had to replace that.  The pots and transformer all had 1970 date codes on them and their are some handrwitten numbers (400/200) on a piece of masking tape inside the pickup.  The pickup isnt a stacked humbucker like the '69 and Triumph, it appears to be the same as the later square humbucker winding imbedded in the round case.   I'll post some pictures I took later, You can tell it's different because it only fills the round case about halfway up.  I guess that would be consistent with the advertising calling it a "new design" pickup from the start.

[Basvarken]

Great collection of Lo-Z basses! I wasn't aware that any of the LBO brothers had an original LP Sig Bass with the oval pickup. Rarer than hens teeth!

Wow!
+1 !


Please do share more pics!

[Grog]

Even though I've never seen one in person, I think they used the same guitar version stacked Low Impedance Humbucker in both the guitar & the bass. They have only two wires instead of eight. When they changed to the rectangular version, the same pickup was used for both guitar, (neck & bridge), & bass. Here is a photo I posted a few years ago showing both sizes next to each other.

[66Atlas]

I had to run off to a meeting or I would have posted this earlier. - I really hate it when work gets in the way of my internet time.

I had suspected that it was the stacked humbucker out of the guitar too, but it doenst appear to be - at least based on what I've seen of them.



The reason I say that is I thought that the stacked humbuckers filled the case to the brim, this one appears to only take up about half of the housing.  Also it has what appears to be a rectangular magnet across the base of the windings.  There is also a solder terminal for 3 wires (2 from the windings and one to ground) that looks similar to what I've seen on the back of the later signature pickups. 

I naturally have to run off to another meeting now - stupid work - but will post a few more pictures this afternoon.

[Granny Gremlin]

You're right.  That is NOT the same as the LoZ guitar stacked humbucker; those would fill the white (usually black; gold on the L6-S) plastic cover to the bottom and had wired leads vs those 3 solder terminals.  Interesting.  Perhaps it is just the square pickup in a different chassis.  This is great cause I don't think we have ever seen one of these earlier ones before and weren't even sure any existed beyond those catalog photos.

Also, nice to see another formerly-white now pee pee yellow Triumph. 

[TBird1958]

Lovely basses!


Nice handiwork too!

[66Atlas]

Here's another picture of the inside edge of the pickup.  It's hard to tell from my crappy photo but the lower corner of the masking tape is actually imbedded in the top of the black epoxy so I'm assumming it's original to the pickup.  Any ideas what the 400/200 means?  I know nothing about these pickups, just makes for an interesting puzzle. If I ever take it out again I should really put a meter on it and see what it reads.



Oh, and a couple more beauty shots.

The dual outputs:



Headstock "Les Paul Model"



And thanks for the compliments Guys & Gals 

[Grog]

Interesting!! That's pretty much identical to the rectangular pickup. I wonder if Bill Lawrence  just used an existing pickup case for the first production models while they were waiting for the rectangular pickup case mold to be built?

[Basvarken]

I've always presumed the cream coloured oval pickup (in the early LP Sig) was the size of the guitar lo-z oval pickup.
And looking at the stairway pic I still think it is.

But that would make the pickup too narrow to make two (regular) coils sit next to each other.
So I have a hard time believing the rectangular pickup and the oval pickup are the same with just a different casing.

Maybe it is a stacked humbucker after all? With two rather shallow coils on top of each other?

[66Atlas]

You may well be right Rob.  The case if definitely smaller than the bass version in my Triumph and '69.  The outside dimension is around 1 1/8" and maybe a little over an inch inside which is way too small for a full sized humbucker if that's what the later signature pickups are.  It may even be too small for a firebird style mini-bucker.  The presence of what looks like a flat rectangular magnet on the back is what made me think of a traditional humbucker design but it may well be something else. 

I suppose I could try to sprinkle some metal filings over the face of the pickup to see if a magnetic field pattern appears?  Short of a xray I cant think of another way to tell for sure.

Whatever it is it sound good!

[Grog]

Could the rectangular case be significantly larger than the actual pickup coils? Look at the location of the solder strip on both versions. On the oval pickup, it's close to the edge. On the rectangular pickup, it's in a ways................

[amptech]

Here's another picture of the inside edge of the pickup.  It's hard to tell from my crappy photo but the lower corner of the masking tape is actually imbedded in the top of the black epoxy so I'm assumming it's original to the pickup.  Any ideas what the 400/200 means?  I know nothing about these pickups, just makes for an interesting puzzle. If I ever take it out again I should really put a meter on it and see what it reads.

Yeah, please do - this is interesting! That tape/scribble looks the same as on a supposed protoytype les paul guitar pickup I have.
If there is a tap on the coil, maybe you have 200/400 ohms?

I find the stu-mac 'polarity pen' a great tool for quick checking - but even holding a nail or something over the pickup will tell you if you have one or two poles.

MMMMM...white pickup.... they look soooo good!