Mystery pickups in ‘81 Breezysound

[dcochran4]

Thanks to a connection I made on my first Tokai purchase, I was able to get help purchasing and importing this 1981 TE55N that was shared here in the Sightings section:
Thread '1981 TE55N'
1981 TE55N
My appreciation to those who routinely post there!

It arrived yesterday, so I started checking electronics while changing the strings. I wasn’t too surprised by the pots being 250k, as we know those have a propensity for replacing the 1 megs.
I was surprised, however, that the pickups weren’t TEB’s, as in my other 1981 TE55N! Closer inspection evinced some subtle disparities:
- TEB bridge bobbin has three holes, where as the mystery bridge pickup has only one

- TEB bridge base plate has two phillips heads (first photo for reference), but mystery bridge pickup has none (subsequent photo).


The neck pickup evinced some subtle disparities too (TEB pictured [rather poorly] first for reference; mystery neck pickup pictured second):



They could be replacements, like the pots, but the wiring, patina, flat poles, etc. all appear commensurate with the age of the guitar.

I welcome ideas about the provenance of these mystery pickups!

Note: TEBs referred to above as found in TE55N with SN 1019514. Mystery pickups residing in TE55N with SN 1018401.

 

[dcochran4]

For some additional context/confusions, here are photos of the TEBs in my 1981 TE70 with SN 1019847.

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

HNGD!

Sigh, ID'ing pickups is hard. The problem is that the "single hole" bobbin is the Telecaster standard since 72 (74?) years (which is why you can spot a bridge PU swap in a Breezy within a second). Same goes for the plain base plate, this is how most of the the non-Tokai PUs look.

The cloth wire (and color) is ruling out only 10 out of 200 aftermarket Tele PU sets from 100 boutique PU winders (numbers made up). DC-resistance , coil wire color, the color of the tape and the combination of them all may help at least narrowing down the possibilities.

That being said, both PUs have a Fender vibe to them, the slightly protruding magnet slugs on the neck PU bottom, the way the base plate ("elevator plate" actually) is grounded... DC-R would be the most important thing to know.

 

[dcochran4]

Update:
The mystery bridge pickup read 6.92k and the mystery neck read 7.25k.
However, the good news is that I found some TEBs for sale this week, received and installed them (along with some 1meg pots, and the simple treble bleed)! I’m even happier with this guitar now.
Thanks for the input!

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

Wow congrats on finding a set of TEBs so quickly! Again, restoring it to its pretty controversial original condition is an even bolder move against the mainstream than just not giving in to that old reflex to change the pickups, kudos!

Of course I fully understand when people have a different idea on how their Tele Breezy should sound, or how "traditional". As you probably know I wanted to check what the stock pickups and the strange circuit is good for, and I'm glad I did because I found a lot of useful things in it.* Hope you find them too!

Re the DC-R readings of the other pickups, the closest in (never really precise) resistance would be a Nocaster set if they're aftermarket Fenders, or just something completely different.

 

[dcochran4]

Wow congrats on finding a set of TEBs so quickly! Again, restoring it to its pretty controversial original condition is an even bolder move against the mainstream than just not giving in to that old reflex to change the pickups, kudos!

Of course I fully understand when people have a different idea on how their Tele Breezy should sound, or how "traditional". As you probably know I wanted to check what the stock pickups and the strange circuit is good for, and I'm glad I did because I found a lot of useful things in it.* Hope you find them too!

Re the DC-R readings of the other pickups, the closest in (never really precise) resistance would be a Nocaster set if they're aftermarket Fenders, or just something completely different.

I was glad to find some so soon as well! The seller said they come out of a late 80’s Breezy, and the back stamps did appear to have smaller font than the other two pair. If I hadn’t let excitement get the best of me, I would have thought to put them on a multimeter too before soldering them in.

From what I’ve read (and from what my mind permits me to recollect):
- TEBs are a little “hotter” than typical tele pickups. I suppose I could empirically adduce that with some simple multimeter work.
- A 1-meg volume pot purportedly gives a more “wide open” sound, not to mention the brighter result of a 1-meg tone pot.
All that said, I think I especially benefit from the original Tokai circuit and components, considering that I play through a 1970’s solid state bass amp and 2x15 cab from Acoustic Control Corp haha.

Interesting that the mystery transplants appear close to Nocaster values!! I found similar info on my cursory search, so your comment reinforces the idea!

 

[Homer J. Simpson]

- TEBs are a little “hotter” than typical tele pickups. I suppose I could empirically adduce that with some simple multimeter work.

The few TE-B readings I have so far are not that much hotter than regular Tele PU sets but the latter usually have less DC-R on the bridge and more on the neck position. But DC-R is such a bad metric to derive the actual sound character from. Inductance would be much better for that, but it's relatively new and still rare that pickup winders even publish that. If I'd be planning on going into the flipping MIJ vintage guitars business (which I luckily can't and won't) I'd buy Gauss and LCR meters because I'd love to find out more about all those obscure Maxons, Gotohs, the other Gotohs or Keiyos, Yamahas...!

- A 1-meg volume pot purportedly gives a more “wide open” sound, not to mention the brighter result of a 1-meg tone pot.

I recorded a short demonstration of the difference 1MΩ vs. 320kΩ volume pot here ("simulated" with a parallel resistor on the pot). I always failed to see the benefit of a pot change vs. "rolling back the tone knob a bit" besides simplification. But I can see the downside of giving up the treble reserve particularly for the neck pickup, which typically struggles with a low Q due to the cover and low resonance peak due to a higher capacitance (which is also pretty much all a lower pot resistance does - damping the resonance peak). Factor in a 30' guitar cable because you made it to the big stage and a the 250k pot may or may not make you rather unhappy. This is all quite different on a Tele, compared to a Strat.

I find the Breezy circuit just so much more versatile as is, also the treble bleed is helping a lot with the neck + both pickup positions - with a driven amp you can turn volume down much and have a clean and rather stereotypical Tele sound, then turn it up to "8" and enjoy a still transparent but fat crunch rhythm sound and when you turn it all the way up you get a really chunky solo sound (which wouldn't work well with chords anymore). I have a Strat with a treble bleed cap (my first treble bleed ever) but the pickups just don't have the low end to make that useful to me and I immediately hated it, that's why I was surprised how useful that is on the Breezy with all the punch it has.