techquest

Good to know that hopefully the mystery has been cleared up, albeit maybe

The fact the screws are missing tends to sit with my last comment and perhaps down to a less than professional, fix, rewind or other by a less than conscientious repair guy. I have no doubt that they are what they say they are on the box save, the issues mentioned re the insulated wire. Everything stacks up. Is there anything else we can help you with, or anything else you want to know?

Good to get the photo's. The patent is correct and the sn is for July 81 What colours are the wires inside the grey insulation? You say they have never been used! Do you mean by you or anyone else as far as you are aware? Braided was always used on the pups back then. So could they have possibly been rewound in the past for instance due to a problem, or the braided replaced due to a problem, and who ever did the job didn't have any braided wire to hand, or used the insulated type for whatever reason that made sense at the time.

Is there an engraved patent number on the can around the area of the studs, something like 2737 842, normally to the right of the date stamp. The neck pup should read about 7.35 The bridge about 7.25 Of course such readings being subject to the wire used, in some case the wirer might have gone off to lunch, came back and picked up a piece of wire of the floor which made that reading completely off in comparison to all the others made that day. Hence why any pup, especially those from bygone early days, can sound so different from guitar to identical guitar.

Shaws were introduced from Jan 1980 to about 1984. To my knowledge stamped markings appeared in June 1980, either 6 or 7 digits (so your 341718 fits in ok) . Prior to this they were date stamped with the format (MonthDay Year). In 1983 stamps disappeared though pups continued to be made the same way up until 1989. The 490, or P490 as they were named, appeared in 1989, followed by the introduction of a 57 Classic version. Shaw’s being introduced into Heritage Series guitars, along with Customs, continued to be used in post 84 Customs. Photo's would definitely help in any attempt to identify them