JDB said:What about this, it has me a bit confused too.
"If A is 1 (prototype line), B is the year code and CDD are not disclosed"
CDD are not disclosed? So a prototype pup serial would read AB with no numbers following.?
JDB said:I have not seen a pic of a prototype pup, ....... that would sure help.
jib by said:..but have also read that the maxon codes went as such:
codes starting with 1 were u-1000, 2=u-2000,3=u-3000 etc...
japanstrat said:Well, after looking at a fair few Maxon Greco pickups with stamped serials on them I noticed the following.
Most Maxon pickups up to 1981 have a serial starting with a 1 or 2 but there are early 70s Maxon pickups in SG's that have serials starting with a 3.
In late 1981 the Maxon pickups seem to also go to serials starting with a 8 or 5 but this is only for a short time and this is about the time that Fujigen starts making their own pickups in late 1981.
I think that Fujigen took over all of the Greco pickup making from Maxon sometime in 1982 and from then on there were no Maxon serial number stamps on Greco pickups and the Greco pickups just had model stickers like Dry 82, Screamin etc but there are transitional pickups around 1982 that have Maxon serial number stamps and model stickers like Dry 82 so that makes it a bit more confusing.
Eventually the model stickers on the Greco pickups were dropped around the mid/late 1980s I think.
The Maxon pickups starting with a 8 seem to follow the usual Maxon pickup code
First number = Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) pickup production line code (1, 2, 8 etc)
Second number = Year (9=1979)
Third and Fourth number = Month (01=Jan ... 12=Dec)
Fifth and sixth number = Day of Month (01-31)
but the Maxon? pickups starting with a 5 seem to have a different code that might be according to the serials starting with a 5 that I've seen
First number = Nisshin Onpa (Maxon) pickup production line code (5)
Second and Third number = Day of Month (01-31)
Fourth and Fifth number = Month (01=Jan ... 12=Dec)
Sixth number = Year (9=1979)
but I'm not totally sure of this.
So maybe production line 5 had their stamp back to front for some reason.
The Greco DiMarzio pickups with a Maxon serial number stamped on them seem to have been ordered by Maxon from the US and then stamped and then sent to Fujigen.
As usual, nothing is really straightforward and easy when there are transitions and other factory things involved so some of this might not be 100% accurate.
The 70s Maxon pickups like the U-1000 and U-2000 Dry Z etc seem to be Alnico magnet pickups with the U-1000 having Alnico 8 magnets and the U-2000 having Alnico 5 magnets and the Dry Z having Alnico 3 magnets.
Some of the later 1970s and early 1980s Maxon made U-1000 pickups might have Ceramic magnets.
It looks like Alnico 8 was replaced with Ceramic in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
The Mint Collection 1982 Screamin pickups have Ceramic magnets but most of the rest have Alnico like the Double Trick (probably Alnico 5) and Dry 1982 (probably Alnico 2 or 3) and these pickups don't seem to have been made by Maxon but by Fujigen.
When the Mint Collection starts around 1982, Maxon start dropping out of making Greco pickups and Fujigen starts making Greco pickups.
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