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Albert Lee Pickups?

U

uvacom

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Nov 25, 2006
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Okay, so I was modding my AL for some alternate switching, and I noticed that the neck and middle pickups say "APS-3" whereas the bridge pickup says APS-2 BP. Obviously the bridge is an APS-2 with a baseplate (which incidentally is much smaller than a tele baseplate as you can see, which might account for the bridge sounding kind of like a strat/tele hybrid), but what are the APS-3? Seymour duncan doesn't offer them commercially, and I'm trying to figure out how they differ from the APS-2.

I'm assuming they are still Alnico II, as both the APS-1 and APS-2 are Alnico II, the only difference being staggered (APS-1) vs flat (APS-2) polepieces. I already checked and the DC resistance is the same on all 3 pickups (6.4k), so that isn't it.

Could they actually be Alnico III in the neck and middle positions? That would be pretty cool. :)

Oh, here's a pic so everybody can see (interestingly the neck pickup appears to have been manufactured more recently than the other two, and is the only one that is ROHS compliant which I guess in this case probably means they just used different solder) -
CIMG0639.jpg
 
beej

beej

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Yep- those look familiar :)

Maybe SD can shed some light for you. I've called DiMarzio in the past about similar questions and I've told me what model certain pickups are (rebranded), so perhaps SD can help you out like that.
 
Shnook

Shnook

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I've always been under the impression they were SD SSL 1's. Guess I was wrong.
 
Last edited:
Spudmurphy

Spudmurphy

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I'll be posting pics of underneath my scratch pate next week as I'm having a replacement one fitted.
So it will be interesting to see what's written on my SD pick ups.
 
U

uvacom

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Spudmurphy said:
What will the mod entail and what extra will it give you?
Cheers
Spud
Click to expand...

Just replacing the stock switch with a Schaller Megaswitch E, it change position 3 from middle pickup only (which I never use) to a neck/bridge combo which I find very useful especially given the tele tones the AL is capable of.

I've already replaced the 250k CTS pots with some 500k Bournes sealed pots, gives a little bit of a brighter sound and more output, and the sealed pots are so much smoother feeling and a little quiter, also more rugged. I also replaced the panasonic (at least I think it's a panasonic, some kind of metal film anyway and it's not a xicon greenie) tone cap with some Sprague Orange drops (huge polypropylene caps which I think sound nicer), and just for kicks I wired up the Fender "Greasebucket" tone circuit. It's okay, not an exciting circuit, it just keeps the bass in line when you roll back the tone, which may or may not be useful depending on your needs.

The only cosmetic mod I've done was replacing the stock knobs with some black domed tele knobs, which I definitely think looks classier. EBMM uses those knobs for the piezo models, I'm not sure why they don't use them on all of the ALs unless it's just a cost thing, I personally think it just looks unequivocally better but it is subjective.

I'd like to replace the saddles and ferrules with titanium, and the nut with mammoth tusk. But that's probably at least $250 and I'm skeptical the difference would be that great. Still, it'd be a fun experiment.
 
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