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KevTN

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Nov 17, 2008
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I have really busy this past year and have neglected my JP6...so hoping things may settle down a little I took her to a local guy to get cleaned up setup and all the pampering she deserves. We were talking about the pickups. I thought I had Steve’s special in the neck and D-sonic in the bridge, but nothing was making sense so while he had the strings off we pulled the pickups and they were DiMarzios P1 in the neck and P2 on the bridge. We looked tried to research them out and could not find out anything. I called EB and spoke with AJ (I will have to say this is a big reason I am loyal to EB is their customer service). He said that the P1/P2 were never offered to the public and that EB no longer have any left. These were the first pickups in the JP and only for the first couple of years. He said that he really likes those pickups.

So, I am curious do you think that is a good find or meh?


Dropbox - JP - Simplify your life

Thanks for your input...
 

dave1812

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Did you ask for the Date Of Birth for the Guitar?
A always thought Steve's Special and D-Sonic were the first Pickups used when JP started with the EBMM Prototypes
 

ohbugger

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Nov 16, 2014
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Weren't the original ones sort-of custom, but based on the Steve's Special and Air Norton?
 

johnnyboogie

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Did you ask for the Date Of Birth for the Guitar?
A always thought Steve's Special and D-Sonic were the first Pickups used when JP started with the EBMM Prototypes

Steve's Special and D-Sonic are both bridge pickups.

D-Sonic served indeed as a bridge pickup only to be replaced by the CrunchLab pickup a little further down the road.

However, D-Sonic was not the original bridge pickup. I am missing the definitive answer at the moment but Pete DuBaldo definitely has the answer to this question.
 

KevTN

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Yes the birthdate is 3/13/2003. When I called Ernie Ball AJ confirmed there were some of the originals models with the P1/P2’s in them, but other than they were Porto types that pre date Steve Specials, and D Sonics...I am just trying to get info on them. I have wrote DiMarzio but I have not heard back from them.
 

KevTN

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Nov 17, 2008
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Did you ask for the Date Of Birth for the Guitar?
A always thought Steve's Special and D-Sonic were the first Pickups used when JP started with the EBMM Prototypes

I thought that too, and when I first got the guitar I called and asked for birthdate and was told those were the pickups, but when We pulled the pickups we saw the P1/P2 and I called EB and talked with AJ he confirmed they did use P1/P2 prototypes. He also said they didn’t even have anymore of them.
 

KevTN

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Yes, and they were used from 2001 until the introduction of the D Sonic as the bridge pickup in 2006/7. Just a few years later they were both replaced with the Crunch Lab & Liquifire.


Pete you know your stuff. Do you know any information on these PUs?

So, I have a lot of emotions going on here, excitement, confusion just trying to solve the mystery.
 
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Guitarshreda

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Nov 8, 2014
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Yes the birthdate is 3/13/2003. When I called Ernie Ball AJ confirmed there were some of the originals models with the P1/P2’s in them, but other than they were Porto types that pre date Steve Specials, and D Sonics...I am just trying to get info on them. I have wrote DiMarzio but I have not heard back from them.

There was never a Steve Special in the JP. When the D Sonics were introduced they kept the original neck pickup - the model based off the Air Norton (which is the type of neck pickup you have). These aren't prototype pickups, they are custom made pickups DiMarzio made specifically for the model. Like the EVH pickups which ultimately became the Axis pickups.
 

johnnyboogie

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Maybe that’s what these are? Do you have any more info? I am still trying to dig when I can. Work is getting in the way of the detective work. Lol

I feel for you =D

JP used Steve's Special and Air Norton on his Ibanez model, but not on the EBMM one. The pickups your guitar came with are DiMarzios for sure but not models that went into production. They are not Steve's Special/Air Norton.
 

Guitarshreda

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JP used Steve's Special and Air Norton on his Ibanez model, but not on the EBMM one. The pickups your guitar came with are DiMarzios for sure but not models that went into production. They are not Steve's Special/Air Norton.

Yup, these custom pickups are based on the Air Norton (Neck) and Steve Special (Bridge). When JP switched to the D-Sonic, that pickup replaced the Bridge custom pick up (based on a Steve Special). Then came the Liquifire/Crunch Lab duo.
 
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