Squier Super-Sonic pickup question

yks · Post by **yks** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:41 pm

Were any of the 90s Squier Super-Sonic sold with stock white or cream-coloured pickups instead of black?

I found a nice silver sparkle item in a pawnshop for $150... it has cream-coloured pickups which seem to have been wired up incorrectly (reducing the volume of either pickup to zero turns them both off!) so I assume they are probably aftermarket. I haven't opened the guitar up yet to see if there is more info on the pickups. They sound really good though.

Noisy Cat · Post by **Noisy Cat** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:54 pm

As far as I know they only ever came with black pickups

jculpjr · Post by **jculpjr** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:04 pm

We need pics- if you got a Supersonic for $150 original pickups or not- that's a steal.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:40 pm

buy it, fuck the fact that the pups may be unoriginal. buy that fucking guitar!

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:42 pm

buy this thing!!! O_o

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:31 pm

jculpjr wrote:We need pics- if you got a Supersonic for $150 original pickups or not- that's a steal.

^This. You can easily find original pickups on ebay if you want it all original. That is a fantastic price!

mixtape · Post by **mixtape** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:40 pm

Those aren't stock pickups, but buy it anyway!

endsjustifymeans · Post by **endsjustifymeans** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:56 pm

150?

gofive · Post by **gofive** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 7:20 pm

It's amazing that you can still find Pawnshop deals like that in the age of ebay!

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 10:51 pm

this guitar came with 2 independent volumes. with no tone knob.
lots of people think its a tone and a vol but its not.

so if you have either of the volumes turned down when you flick the 3way switch it will kill it like a les paul

yks · Post by **yks** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 3:15 am

Thanks for all the replies.

When I asked the question, I had already bought the guitar for $150. Oh yes, I knew it was a great deal even without doing any research on the Super-Sonics. Apparently the guitar had been hanging in this shop for some months at $175 and nobody wanted it (!), so the owner was very happy to get rid of it for less...

I could post pics... but it's a straight-ahead silver sparkle, only with cream-coloured pickups. It's been bashed around a bit but the sparkle finish hides the bruises well.

When I open it up to check the pickup wiring, I'll take some pics and post them. By the way -- I am aware that the two pots are both volume. But with the wiring the way it is, if either volume knob is 100% down, both pickups are completely muted. That means both are shorting out the whole system. Also, currently the neck pickup has a big, warm sound but the bridge pickup (or combination of both) is kind of weedy in comparison, so I think there is something wrong there... it's not the normal difference you'd expect between neck and bridge.

wadeaminute · Post by **wadeaminute** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 4:21 am

I'll give you $160!

The stock ones were always black. I have six. Changed the pickups in the first five, and am keeping my second white one stock. I have two silvers - although one is now coral.

I wouldn't hesitate for anything less than $300. That's a great deal. Congrats.
Now mod it like crazy!

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:11 am

The pickups could be DiMarzios if they're double creme due to their trademark on that, they'd be branded on the baseplate. I think Artec/Dragonfire have done some double cremes though, and it would seem if they're bladed all bets are off.

gofive · Post by **gofive** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:15 am

yks wrote:Thanks for all the replies.

When I asked the question, I had already bought the guitar for $150. Oh yes, I knew it was a great deal even without doing any research on the Super-Sonics. Apparently the guitar had been hanging in this shop for some months at $175 and nobody wanted it (!), so the owner was very happy to get rid of it for less...

WHAT?!?!?! WHERE IN THE WORLD WAS THIS PAWN SHOP??

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:18 am

Many old-school US pawn shops still have great steals in 'em guitar-wise, primarily because it's not a global market and whoever walks into that store is the demographic (so if you're in like, rural Iowa, not the same as Manny's Music prices). With more and more pawn/consignment/used instrument shops using eBay prices as a ballpark figure to offer you 40% of though, this is becoming increasingly rare.

The big thing with guitar players in the '70s/'80s and even leading into the early '90s was finding some pawn shop in the middle of fuck-ass nowhere that had '50s Gibsons and pre-CBS Fenders priced for beans. I used to read letters in older guitar magazines that bordered on letter to Penthouse status, "there were TV Specials on every wall, I tripped over a $100 No-caster on my way in" etc... they always started or ended with "sadly I was drunk off my ass and can't remember where it is."
I think by the mid '90s or so it was becoming unrealistic to find that sort of thing going on, but then the internet really put a stop to it and the explosion of online guitar sales put the final nail in (because now not only can they see what it's worth but they can flip it online themselves for the going rate from wherever they are).

yks · Post by **yks** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:45 pm

So here's the machine... and the wisdom I found inside.
The pickups don't have any markings on the bottom, but maybe someone can suggest what manufacturer(s) based on style?
(are those little square holes on the neck pickup a giveaway?)

oh and I guess it's not really true these are 'cream colored'... they are white, with a little aging.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:12 pm

are the pups wired to the pots and then the switch between the two? seems like it would be easier and cleaner to wire the pups to the switch and then to the pots. altho i guess that may make the volume volume thing not work. but i guess it doesn't work at the moment anyway. perhaps one is working as a master volume and the other is a normal working volume(in slave) for the pickup its designated to.

robroe · Post by **robroe** » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:29 pm

this is how it should go

wadeaminute · Post by **wadeaminute** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 5:19 am

My silver one is getting completely re-worked with P-Rails in Triple-Shot rings, black pickguard, and hardtailed with a cut-off tele bridge. The fun of Super-Sonics, for me, is modding them. I have so many leftover Super-Sonic parts.
Yours isn't stock anymore, so there is no point in attempting to preserve it. Go nuts.

yks · Post by **yks** » Fri Mar 29, 2013 12:12 pm

I'll probably be adding a pushbutton momentary kill switch. The rest of everything is pretty great as is!

I haven't sorted out that volume pot shorting issue -- as far as I could see, the guitar is wired up as in the Seymour Duncan diagram above, but as I described before the two volume pots seem tied together in a way that is unlike other similarly-wired guitars I've had. For the time being it isn't a problem since I tend to run full volume out anyway.

Squier Super-Sonic pickup question

Squier Super-Sonic pickup question

Thanks

Re: Thanks