Dual Professional pickup output

Ian McLatchie · Post by **Ian McLatchie** » 3 Mar 2001 10:19 am

I just picked up a beautiful 1953 Dual Professional. Both necks sound great, with the unmistakable hot sound of those Fender trapezoid pickups. Unfortunately, there's a big discepancy in the output of the two - about 8.3 versus 3.5 on the meter. I have a technician checking it over right now, but I wondered if people could offer their advice on what he's likely to find when he goes poking around in the pickup cavity. Any experiences with ruptured coils or other electronic glitches on these guitars? Also,
assuming that he finds that a pickup rewind is required, any recommendations as to who does high-quality pickup restoration? Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

Rick Collins · Post by **Rick Collins** » 3 Mar 2001 11:01 am

Ian,

I have a dual professional which had an open coil in one of the pickups when I got it and was lucky enough to find a replacement.

I don't know the proper impedence measurement of the coils; but I know for sure that the wire is copper #42 P.E. (plain enamel) in case you need to get one rewound. I would certainly rewind it with the same type.

The stringmaster's specs. are:
#42 P.E.; 1800 turns; 8300 ohms

I would bet the 8.3 is correct and the wraps about the same as the stringmaster,___just my hunch.

Rick

Jason Lollar · Post by **Jason Lollar** » 4 Mar 2001 2:53 am

The biggest problem with those is that the material they used for the oval part that the strings run through warps, often bad enough that the strings wil no longer run through, and breaks the coil. You can have a partial short where the pickups stil works but is noisy or has low output. I dont have my spec book here to look but I recall them being around 7 something K ohms of 42. Resistance varies somewhat on those and they are tricky to re-wind.

Ian McLatchie · Post by **Ian McLatchie** » 4 Mar 2001 6:14 am

Rick, Jason:
Thanks so much for the information. Thanks too to those who emailed their suggestions.
Thanks especially to Bob for making this exchange of information possible. I'm sending a contribution - your effort is much appreciated!

Dave Mayes · Post by **Dave Mayes** » 4 Mar 2001 8:04 am

Hello Ian. I send my rewinds to Seymour Duncan in Santa Barbara. He's worked on a multitude of these pickups over the years. I'm always been very pleased with his work.

Jody Carver · Post by **Jody Carver** » 4 Mar 2001 6:51 pm

Jason Lollar is the Man.......

Ian McLatchie · Post by **Ian McLatchie** » 4 Mar 2001 7:35 pm

Jody, Dave:
Thanks for the advice. The guitar is actually a four-digit serial number one, Jody, from 1953. There's not much sign of warpage or damage of any sort on the plastic shell. I know Lindy Fralin's work from the custom pickups he makes for my friend Joe Yanuziello. On that basis I'd have no hesitation sending him a pickup for repair, but a recommendation from a player of your stature makes it seem a much more secure prospect.