kimonostereo
Well-known member
Last week my replacement pickup for my Black Magic Crystal Axis arrived. I took it out of the box and this is what I found.
Yep. It looks like they sent me a Reflex/25th pickup along with the ring. No problem. Just remove the pickup ring and it'll be all good, is what I thought. Then I proceeded to install it. That's when I noticed that the pickup base plates were different. The bridge had a black painted plate and the replacement had a brass plate. Hmmm.
A photo of the bridge pickup removed.
Well the brass dog ears would show up pretty well on this Black Magic Crystal Axis and that simply would not do. Luckily I had some black paint that I applied with a brush to just the dog ears of the base plate. That seemed to do the trick. I am guessing that Dimarzio made a special set of covered Axis pickups specifically with the black backing for the limited covered pickup Axis run.
Soldered the 4 wires in and then tested. Once I confirmed the pickup worked, I closed her up and restrung.
She's as good as new, and EBMM customer service took care of it quickly.
My only complaint is that I had to pay for the replacement. Anyone who has seen this guitar on the forum knows that it was previously owned by Fing for about 2 months before it was sold to me. Somehow during that period of 3 months the pickup just died. It had spent most of it's time in the case as I don't have much time to play during this time of year, and it came out for some photos that I posted, but that was about it. I don't gig or record. Just a closet player. While I understand that the warranty on the guitar doesn't transfer when the instrument is sold, I just felt sad that the pickup was defective and it wasn't covered at all, especially on an instrument that isn't even 6 months old.
Yep. It looks like they sent me a Reflex/25th pickup along with the ring. No problem. Just remove the pickup ring and it'll be all good, is what I thought. Then I proceeded to install it. That's when I noticed that the pickup base plates were different. The bridge had a black painted plate and the replacement had a brass plate. Hmmm.
A photo of the bridge pickup removed.
Well the brass dog ears would show up pretty well on this Black Magic Crystal Axis and that simply would not do. Luckily I had some black paint that I applied with a brush to just the dog ears of the base plate. That seemed to do the trick. I am guessing that Dimarzio made a special set of covered Axis pickups specifically with the black backing for the limited covered pickup Axis run.
Soldered the 4 wires in and then tested. Once I confirmed the pickup worked, I closed her up and restrung.
She's as good as new, and EBMM customer service took care of it quickly.
My only complaint is that I had to pay for the replacement. Anyone who has seen this guitar on the forum knows that it was previously owned by Fing for about 2 months before it was sold to me. Somehow during that period of 3 months the pickup just died. It had spent most of it's time in the case as I don't have much time to play during this time of year, and it came out for some photos that I posted, but that was about it. I don't gig or record. Just a closet player. While I understand that the warranty on the guitar doesn't transfer when the instrument is sold, I just felt sad that the pickup was defective and it wasn't covered at all, especially on an instrument that isn't even 6 months old.
