The Electra Forums

A cross-link to a fairly lengthy discussion of MMK's... er... Protomatics.... I mean Hammers.... well you'll see...

http://www.matsumoku.org/ggboard/viewto ... &hilit=mmk

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

And if you jump here... http://forum.westoneguitars.net/t971-we ... story#7627 you will be transported to one of Mr. Presley's threads over at the Westone site. About 2/3rd's of the way through he mentions the birth of the UBC (read Magnaflux) pup design. The Westone Genesis is one model line that utilizes that style of humbucker.

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

I still don't know of anyone that can prove and document the existence of UBC's. It's been bandied about a lot. Granted I don't hang at the Westone site very often - last I checked though the search for a real live UBC pup was still going on.

There is one in any stock Genesis I as my knowledge goes. I will try to dig up a link to a thread I wrote there where Tom Presley himself replies confirming their existence. Check back later this evening...

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

Bottom line is that both Magnaflux and SuperMagnaflux are (were...) both just Marketing terms. Different pickups were used all over the place, but these are the only terms you'll typically see in catalogs and advertising.

I believe the UBC design is genuine, it makes a ton of sense and somewhere out there Tom talks volumes about the logic behind them and how they spec'd it out. When it was introduced and how many models used them is a bit of a mystery though.

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Electra Guitar Videos ===> http://www.youtube.com/user/mjm33mjm?feature=watch

I believe the design is genuine and yes, It makes a ton of sense. I've just never heard of anyone with a confirmed UBC. I'd sure like to get my dirty little hands on a pair of them.

From memory, I think my particular Spectrum ST was thought to have UBC pups; it certainly can howl and it is one of the last of the Spectrums being an 87 and by that stage they had binned the early UBCs which were a disappointment, and had been putting MMK 45s in them up till late 86/early 87. These are thoughts which David Blair and I had gone around and around on a long time ago, and because he is so much more knowledgeable than I, and knew what the bottoms of these pickups looked like, he was of the opinion that mine had the "proper" UBCs...

You'll have to wait until I have all my gear about me before I can go any further with this, which hopefully should be about the middle of next year.

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

Here you go jead. Check the 3rd reply down the thread...

http://forum.westoneguitars.net/t2220-t ... -genesis-I

I had a number of subsequent pm's with Mr. Presley after this post that I stupidly deleted. The upshot of them was how to go about attempting a rewind, online sources of material, etc. Within the context of that post and the follow up pm's he confirmed I did in fact have a UBC as the Genesis I Anniversary models were a limited run that had them.

That very pup is right now on it's way over to jolly old England to a Westone fourumite who offered to repair it for helping him out with a Craigslister here who refused to ship international.

Since that post I have picked up 2 more Anniversary Genesis models and all 3 of them have that same humbucker.

IDK, but if I was a betting man I'd have go with what the guy who designed the guitar said to me.

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

Nice Ice! That's recent enough to explain why I was still a sceptic. I have never seen a pickup connector like that. I have to think those UBC's are really rare. and I bet they sound great too. Thanks for the info.

If'n I can ever make it to an ElectraFest and you do as well I will pack one along and you can find out for yourself.

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

I have a pair of Westone pickupa (currently waiting for me to finish the re-build on a trashed X310) that has unbalanced coils. I don't remember the numbers but I have posted on it in the past.

By numbers do you mean markings on them, or resistance readings, or ??

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

Huh, just backread the link again and noticed (once again) that John's Genesis II does not conform to the standard build.

You really need to get an answer on that John. Unless you can recall that it seems to be a modification after the build, you might just have a one-off of some sort.

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...

As far as David Blair and I - and one or two other interested parties - could make out, my Genesis II is untouched since it left the factory.

So, controls in odd positions, 3 way switch and no coil split/phase reverse... Can't remember what pickup was in it and at that stage was not into tearing guitars down to document what was in 'em, so that's a job that will have to wait until I have my gear back!

If it is a one-off, why, or rather how, did it end up in a pawn shop in Christchurch, NZ looking quite unloved? And why build it with a 3 way? And no coil tap?

I do know it had a very clear, bell-like tone to it clean, and dirtying up the sound wasn't really it's forté as it did tend to get a little muddy and lacking in the mids... A tiny wee bit of amp overdrive was about all, really!!

However, my memory is not something to be relied upon; more later... much, much later!!!

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"... and on the eighth day, God created New Zealanders.

Because even the Australians need heroes."

As far as how it could end up in a pawn shop the answer to me would be lack of knowledge by most folks who saw it there. Or an original owner with the same dysfunction.

When my wife worked at Schmitt Music back in the day she says she remembers that they had a half dozen or so x390's for sale there for a year or better and only moved one of them.

Most people who even asked to try one out would say that they couldn't be worth what was being asked for them. But mostly they just hung on the wall and looked dang good doing so.

Brand ignorance : 1, Uninformed populace : 0

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...throw me a frickin' bone here, people...