for: Gibson Support Question .. Bob, Vince, Rodger

[bluezguy]

OK you guys ... I've had this question posted everywhere for the past 6 months to a year and to date, have only had speculation, guesses and piles of mad, hot, horse dung for answers.

 

- 57 Classics are wound with both coils containing equal length of plain enamel 42awg / purple brownish color wire.

 

- facts state and, are close, but not 100% absolute truths, that equal coil windings DID NOT BEGIN until approximately 1965 - 1968. Here it is:

 

"The separate bobbins of a PAF can measure very differently due to Gibson's manufacturing techniques. For example one bobbin could measure 3.5k, and the other 4.5k ohms (for a total of 8k ohms). This mis-matched ohms is actually a good thing, as certain frequencies will stand out if both bobbins have different resistance. This contributes to why two PAF pickups can sound quite different. The coil winder was a Leesona 102, and did have auto stop counters to keep pickups windings consistent. But these winders ran using a fiber gear and were prone breakage. The work around to fixing the counters is to time the winding process. That is one reason for the randomness of PAF pickup resistance. Around 1965 to 1968 (exact date unknown), Gibson changed from a manually-run pickup winding system to a fully automated system. Because of this their humbucking pickups all became a consistent 7.5k ohms from 1965 and later. The manual-run system had a machine operator that decided when a pickup bobbin reach about 5000 turns of wire. So there was plenty of room for under and over-winding. When the fully automated system came into place, the pickups were very consistent in their windings (and hence total ohms)."

 

So, I BEG YOU, why do you call a 57 Classic a "57 Classic" when in fact, from my readings even off the Gibson.com sight, it is Burstbuckers that seem to fit this historic information with their bobbins wound with unequal lengths of wire???

 

Example: Duane Allman played a '57 LP that he traded for a '59 Sunburst in Daytona Beach EXPEPT, he kept the pickups out of his '57 and put them into his new '59. What we hear on Statesboro Blues and the rest of the Filmore album are '57 pickups in a '59 LP.

 

Don't get me wrong guys .. I've been a dedicated user of Gibson guitars since the late '60s and, I've probably used more 57 Classic pups than the amount of popcorn in a medium sized theater jug .. I've loved them! Why do y'all guard this information like some kind of ancient Chinese secret?? That's for laundry soap ... not a dynasty like Gibson!!!

 

Why are they called 57 Classics ???

 

With respect,

 

The Chicken WHO WON'T GIVE OUT HIS NAME FOR OBVIOUS REASONS