G&L pickup question

Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:43 am

Hey guys, I’ve recently purchased a nice strat style guitar that’s HSH and I was told the middle pickup was from a strat but upon further investigation I found there’s a G&L on the top, and that’s not a cover. The pole pieces are staggered as well. Can anyone narrow this down without pulling the pickup out? It’ll be a bit of a pain to get it out simply to look for something on the bottom unless I change strings. I tried looking in forums but I haven’t found where it’s stamped on the top or staggered pole pieces. I can’t imagine a guitar this nice would have a Chinese pickup in it. Any help identifying this is much appreciated

Re: G&L pickup question

Wed Feb 10, 2021 8:50 am

Hi,

Pix would help. Headstock & pups, both. G&L does make alnico pups, so that is a possibility. Also, somebody could have swapped the pups. From here, don't know.

Take care,

edg

Re: G&L pickup question

Wed Feb 10, 2021 9:19 am

As stated above, it’s not a g/l guitar, just a pickup. To take it out requires taking the strings off and unscrewing it. Was hoping someone would read what I wrote and point in a direction. Not sure how beneficial a pic would be to further explain what’s already visible

Re: G&L pickup question

Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:01 am

http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?p=37

Take a look here. Likely that it is a Legacy single coil.

Re: G&L pickup question

Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:37 am

It says all the legacy pickups pole pieces were flat. These are staggered. And I don’t see where any of them carry that raised G&L on the top. I’ve checked out every pickup on the internet in the g/l lineup and can not find anything like this

Re: G&L pickup question

Wed Feb 10, 2021 11:51 pm

Crossfirebluz wrote:Hey guys, I’ve recently purchased a nice strat style guitar that’s HSH and I was told the middle pickup was from a strat but upon further investigation I found there’s a G&L on the top, and that’s not a cover. The pole pieces are staggered as well. Can anyone narrow this down without pulling the pickup out? It’ll be a bit of a pain to get it out simply to look for something on the bottom unless I change strings. I tried looking in forums but I haven’t found where it’s stamped on the top or staggered pole pieces. I can’t imagine a guitar this nice would have a Chinese pickup in it. Any help identifying this is much appreciated


Like this? https://theguitarfactory.com/index.php/g-l-legacy-handwired-staggered-pole-piece-single-coil-pickup-set-white-071119.html

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 6:29 am

Not sure because the covers are still on. Someone sent me that and I can’t say with those on if that’s it or not. To me those don’t look staggered enough. At first glance this looks just like a custom shop fender pickup but has that G&L on the top

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:06 am

You're going to have to pull the pickguard and check. That would have taken 5 minutes rather than a couple days of forum replies.

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:21 am

Well to clarify this does NOT have a pickguard and also as stated above, removing this pickup requires taking the strings completely off. So again, Someone familiar with these pickups should point me in the right direction without wasting a set of strings. And a couple of days in a forum is cheaper than $8 for strings just to see if someone knows what it is. I’m not knowledgeable in G&L pickups but assuming this forum is full of people who are, I’m sure someone can identify this by what I said. And I don’t see what pulling it out will even accomplish because all of the ones I’ve seen outside of p90s and hb are black bobbined with no markings. Didn’t think this would be that difficult

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:54 am

I think you've gotten a few answers as to what they most likely are. You could also test their DC resitance with a multimeter and that would give you an almost definitive answer. Worst comes to worse, you can pull and re-string it with the same strings. No reason to throw a set away when you pull them off. Good luck in your quest.

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 11:25 am

I really haven’t gotten an answer. The closest thing is the listing that was for sale but the covers were on them so I couldn’t identify them exactly. All I know is it’s a g/l single coil that’s staggered and nothing is listed in their pickups as being staggered. I’m not too fond of restringing it or trying to use these same strings just to identify that. That’s why I posted here. Now if someone chimes in and knows what they are because they’re seen this before that satisfies me. Outside of that it’s a guessing game. Even if I pull it out and can’t identify it I’m no better off. If someone says it’s this or that I can decide based on that whether I keep it for the long haul or replace it then I can justify putting on new strings

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 3:39 pm

A picture of any kind would help, even if just from above without removing anything. I assume you're not talking about an MFD pickup? The pole pieces are adjustable.

David

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:20 pm

I can’t see how a pic of what I said will help in anything at all. No, they’re not adjustable...no, there’s no cover on it.....it has G&L in raised letters on it. How can a pic do any more justice than that????

Re: G&L pickup question

Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:13 pm

Crossfirebluz wrote:I can’t see how a pic of what I said will help in anything at all. No, they’re not adjustable...no, there’s no cover on it.....it has G&L in raised letters on it. How can a pic do any more justice than that????


Does the pickup look like this one but with staggered pole pieces?
Image

If so, then someone used a G&L CLF-100 pickup cover over some other non-G&L staggered single coil pickup.

G&L CLF-100 Alnico Single coil pickups came with covers with the embossed G&L logo, until around 2017 when the pickup cover tooling wore out and they have since left off the G&L logo
on the new tooling for the pickup covers.

Here is what the pickup covers looked like pre-2017:
Image

Hope this helps.

Re: G&L pickup question

Fri Feb 12, 2021 7:59 am

Thank you. That absolutely does. This answers my question. I appreciate that