Dirty Fingers

[William Mundey]

Anyone ever have an old "Frankenstein" guitar that you throw old misc. pickups in? I have one that I think has an old Gibson Dirty Fingers pickup in it. Is there an easy tell?

I haven't had the pickup out to look at the underside yet. Waiting to change strings and clean it up. It is a great sounding pickup through the clean and dirty channels. I can't put it down. I have been eschewing my Gibson's, Fender's and PRS's in favor of this old dog lately.

 

[zombiwoof]

Don't the Dirty Fingers p/u's have two rows of adjustable pole pieces?. Also, I think they are a hot ceramic mag pickup, so measure the resistance and see what it is. This is just from memory, so I could be wrong here (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am!).

Al

 

[Black58]

Don't the Dirty Fingers p/u's have two rows of adjustable pole pieces?. Also, I think they are a hot ceramic mag pickup, so measure the resistance and see what it is. This is just from memory, so I could be wrong here (I'm sure someone will correct me if I am!).

Al

Correct. .. and they are also uncovered zebras.

 

[Kris Ford]

Didn't some also have 2 adj. screws for height per side? Or was that another?:hmm

 

[William Mundey]

These have adjustable pole pieces on both sides, but has a double black bobbin.

 

[Black58]

Didn't some also have 2 adj. screws for height per side? Or was that another?:hmm

My '80 Sonex has 2 on the bass side, 1 on the treble.

 

[Black58]

but has a double black bobbin.

:hmm

 

[Big Al]

My '80 Sonex has 2 on the bass side, 1 on the treble.

The Sonex didn't come with Dirtyfingers, Black58. If I remember right the were outsourced, possibly Schallers.. I only saw them in Black, (Dirty Fingers with double screw coils). The "Velvet Brick" humbucker was the only Gibson zebra I remember, (only in the bridge), some early Shaw PAFS were too, under nickle covers.

 

[Black58]

The Sonex didn't come with Dirtyfingers, Black58. If I remember right the were outsourced, possibly Schallers.. I only saw them in Black, (Dirty Fingers with double screw coils). The "Velvet Brick" humbucker was the only Gibson zebra I remember, (only in the bridge), some early Shaw PAFS were too, under nickle covers.

:hmm

Just went down 'n checked out the owner's manual
(my first guitar an' I'm the original owner! :wah .. :rofl).
Said it's equipped with 2 "extremely high-output pickups". That is painfully TRUE! :hee
... :hmm .. Oh, it's a Sonex Custom; I forgot to mention. :##


Now, I don't know! :laugh2:
.. They're original.
They have 2 adj. on the bass side, 1 on the treble.
Double screw coils.
Zebra.


Not that it really matters on that fuckin' turd, but I am curious, now.

:hmm

 

[spidey]

Correct. .. and they are also uncovered zebras.

John Sykes's Dirty Fingers were black not zebra.

 

[zombiwoof]

The Sonex didn't come with Dirtyfingers, Black58. If I remember right the were outsourced, possibly Schallers.. I only saw them in Black, (Dirty Fingers with double screw coils). The "Velvet Brick" humbucker was the only Gibson zebra I remember, (only in the bridge), some early Shaw PAFS were too, under nickle covers.

A friend gave me a Sonex with the neck busted off the body, when I checked the pickups, I noticed that they had no screws on the bottom plate to secure the pickup to the plate, like most HB's have. I think I opened them up and they were completely encased in some sort of Epoxy, basically glued to the inside of the covers. Not any kind of Gibson pickup that I'm experienced with. I haven't taken any readings off them, but that guitar had active electronics in it, that I plan on taking out if I get around to fixing it up. The neck broke off pretty clean, only needs to be re-glued and one little piece of wood replaced. By the way, those guitars use a combination of wood and some kind of acoustic-foam construction in the body, Gibson claimed that that construction had better resonance than an all-wood body in their literature on the line.

Al

 

[Black58]

A friend gave me a Sonex with the neck busted off the body, when I checked the pickups, I noticed that they had no screws on the bottom plate to secure the pickup to the plate, like most HB's have. I think I opened them up and they were completely encased in some sort of Epoxy, basically glued to the inside of the covers. Not any kind of Gibson pickup that I'm experienced with. I haven't taken any readings off them, but that guitar had active electronics in it, that I plan on taking out if I get around to fixing it up. The neck broke off pretty clean, only needs to be re-glued and one little piece of wood replaced. By the way, those guitars use a combination of wood and some kind of acoustic-foam construction in the body, Gibson claimed that that construction had better resonance than an all-wood body in their literature on the line.

Al

They called it "Resonwood". It's essentially particleboard! :wah :rofl


.. btw, yer gonna re-glue a bolt-on neck? :hmm

 

[zombiwoof]

They called it "Resonwood". It's essentially particleboard! :wah :rofl


.. btw, yer gonna re-glue a bolt-on neck? :hmm

Firstly, it's not particle board, it's real wood in the middle, surrouded by the foam to make up the rest of the body. The wood was a basic frame structure, and was in any place that something had to be attached to the guitar (neck, pickups, hardware, etc.), they couldn't put screws into the acoustic foam and have them hold.

Secondly, it's a glued-in neck, it's a long story, but basically it was screwed to a wall in a studio's cafeteria, when they pulled it down they separated the neck from the body, along with a little bit of the foam/wood (small piece). It was being used as a wall decoration. They gave it to my friend, and he gave it to me. It also has some sort of adhesive on the back that has to be removed if I put it back together. It's a project I'm not sure if I'm going to do or not. There were different models of the Sonex guitars, possibly some had glued-in necks and others bolt-on. I did some research at the time he gave it to me, and there were expensive and cheap versions of Sonex guitars, the main thing they had in common was the wood/acoustic foam bodies. The frets are pretty low, too, so it would need to be refretted.

Al

 

[Xpensive Wino]

"the Gibson “Dirty Fingers” pickup is manufactured with three powerful ceramic magnets...The pickup’s overwound yet balanced coils also feature adjustable pole pieces, which allows you to fine tune the output of each individual string...The Dirty Fingers also features shielded, four-conductor wiring for series, parallel or split coil operation, and is fully wax potted..."


http://store.gibson.com/dirty-fingers-pickup/

 

[guitplayer]

Dirty finger
pat no ,double pole and black bobbins. see the copper?

 

[Kris Ford]

"the Gibson “Dirty Fingers” pickup is manufactured with three powerful ceramic magnets...The pickup’s overwound yet balanced coils also feature adjustable pole pieces, which allows you to fine tune the output of each individual string...The Dirty Fingers also features shielded, four-conductor wiring for series, parallel or split coil operation, and is fully wax potted..."


http://store.gibson.com/dirty-fingers-pickup/

So, it's a 500T with 2 rows of adjustable polepieces?:hmm

 

[William Mundey]

Thanks for the informative replies. Next string change I will check the wiring and underside. I believe it may have come out of a mid eighties Custom Shop, Ferrari Red, Les Paul with Kahler I used to own. Not 100% sure. I pulled it out of a box of swapped pickups I had years ago and loaded it in a pawn shop bought, Japanese Charvel Model 3. I am not usually into high output pickups. This one sounds great!

 

[Black58]

Firstly, it's not particle board, it's real wood in the middle, surrouded by the foam to make up the rest of the body. The wood was a basic frame structure, and was in any place that something had to be attached to the guitar (neck, pickups, hardware, etc.), they couldn't put screws into the acoustic foam and have them hold.

Secondly, it's a glued-in neck, it's a long story, but basically it was screwed to a wall in a studio's cafeteria, when they pulled it down they separated the neck from the body, along with a little bit of the foam/wood (small piece). It was being used as a wall decoration. They gave it to my friend, and he gave it to me. It also has some sort of adhesive on the back that has to be removed if I put it back together. It's a project I'm not sure if I'm going to do or not. There were different models of the Sonex guitars, possibly some had glued-in necks and others bolt-on. I did some research at the time he gave it to me, and there were expensive and cheap versions of Sonex guitars, the main thing they had in common was the wood/acoustic foam bodies. The frets are pretty low, too, so it would need to be refretted.

Al

Thanx, man. :salude

.. they're STILL as good looking and sounding as the back of my balls, though. :ganz

 

[William Mundey]

I had a Sonex at one time. Pretty much gave it away. Not a bad guitar, but at the time I thought, "why play this when I have a couple Les Pauls?"

 

[57Lefty]

Always liked those pups. Had 2 80 s explorers with those in them. Both double blacks, and lefties ! I was thrilled when they offered them in the trib series. I built a goldtop out of one.