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Randy Rhoads Les Paul Custom - T Tops?

CK6

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Feb 5, 2020
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449
Does anyone what kind of pickups Randy had in his '74 cream custom? I assume that the stock pickups would be T Tops. Sounds like it to me on the live TV performance in '81...

Would they be the same T Tops as a '77 Custom?

Thanks!
 

Hamerfan

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Joined
Dec 20, 2004
Messages
791
Randys pickups are the so called Pat. Nr. T-Tops with a black decal on the backplate, your pickups will only have a rubber stamp with the date. But otherwise they are identical.
 

CK6

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Feb 5, 2020
Messages
449
Randys pickups are the so called Pat. Nr. T-Tops with a black decal on the backplate, your pickups will only have a rubber stamp with the date. But otherwise they are identical.

Cool, thanks and much appreciated!
 
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Messages
600
Does anyone what kind of pickups Randy had in his '74 cream custom? I assume that the stock pickups would be T Tops. Sounds like it to me on the live TV performance in '81...

Would they be the same T Tops as a '77 Custom?

Thanks!
I have to kind of update this... actually it’s actually pretty easy to find out the information on that guitar on the Gibson site ... essentially said that those pick ups were mid 7K with A3 in them and so they named the new Limited addition pick ups which I’m not even sure you could buy outside of the guitar itself are called Super 74s.
I remember when they released his signature Limited edition Cream Las Paul... Gibson said they went through the pickups and found out that they were Alnico 3 and most likely those were under wound I haven’t seen any T-Tops in the 70s that were over 7.7 and I’ve seen some of them down to 7.2 but interestingly enough.....recently Seymour Duncan came out with some pickups with an A three that were under wound based on some 1960 “the candy” Les Paul... One last thing, one of the reasons why a lot of companies went to ceramic and other companies went to Alnico three was because A three has little or no cobalt in it and cobalt was a strategic and is a strategic mineral for military uses and that was in high demand during the Vietnam war up until even a bit after... I think by 77 they were probably back to A5’s unless they had like an over abundance of what was in stock from earlier .... it’s really hard to tell I think that’s one of the reasons why JBL and Altec used huge all A5’s was because they had like a ton of material that they had bought up but that’s just an opinion
 
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Joined
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600
Sorry to drag this out I actually had a 1977 all black Les Paul custom the covers were off of the original pick ups and they were black T-tops
 

Progrocker111

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Dec 10, 2003
Messages
4,013
Yes, T-Tops on 77 Custom should be nearly identical to stickered T-Tops on 74 Custom.
 
Joined
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Messages
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I have to kind of update this... actually it’s actually pretty easy to find out the information on that guitar on the Gibson site ... essentially said that those pick ups were mid 7K with A3 in them and so they named the new Limited addition pick ups which I’m not even sure you could buy outside of the guitar itself are called Super 74s.
I remember when they released his signature Limited edition Cream Las Paul... Gibson said they went through the pickups and found out that they were Alnico 3 and most likely those were under wound I haven’t seen any T-Tops in the 70s that were over 7.7 and I’ve seen some of them down to 7.2 but interestingly enough.....recently Seymour Duncan came out with some pickups with an A three that were under wound based on some 1960 “the candy” Les Paul... One last thing, one of the reasons why a lot of companies went to ceramic and other companies went to Alnico three was because A three has little or no cobalt in it and cobalt was a strategic and is a strategic mineral for military uses and that was in high demand during the Vietnam war up until even a bit after... I think by 77 they were probably back to A5’s unless they had like an over abundance of what was in stock from earlier .... it’s really hard to tell I think that’s one of the reasons why JBL and Altec used huge all A5’s was because they had like a ton of material that they had bought up but that’s just an opinion
Eric steckel’s Signature SD Pup.... which
Is way less expensive than the Super 74 ever was ... So besides the strength or the charge of the A3 and whatever kind of wind Difference between the two of them ... Which should be pretty minimal due to the fact that they’re both Gibson.. they were wound on the same machines probably by even the same ladies ... maybe the insulation of the wire ... essentially you have pickups Centered between 7.4 and 7.6 with A3’s. And a Post said a sweeping statement that they’re all the same well obviously they’re not if Gibson took the pickups out of that 74 custom and found out that they were A3’s and then Seymour Duncan took the pickups from 1960 ‘Candy’. George Gruhn in vintage guitar magazine probably around 2000 ...who is accepted as like the guru of all things Gibson, completely denied the reality and the fact that there are Tim Shaw Designed pickups and that they are different.
 
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El Gringo

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Joined
Apr 8, 2015
Messages
5,657
Eric steckel’s Signature SD Pup.... which
Is way less expensive than the Super 74 ever was ... So besides the strength or the charge of the A3 and whatever kind of wind Difference between the two of them ... Which should be pretty minimal due to the fact that they’re both Gibson.. they were wound on the same machines probably by even the same ladies ... maybe the insulation of the wire ... essentially you have pickups Centered between 7.4 and 7.6 with A3’s. And a Post said a sweeping statement that they’re all the same well obviously they’re not if Gibson took the pickups out of that 74 custom and found out that they were A3’s and then Seymour Duncan took the pickups from 1960 ‘Candy’. George Gruhn in vintage guitar magazine probably around 2000 ...who is accepted as like the guru of all things Gibson, completely denied the reality and the fact that there are Tim Shaw Designed pickups and that they are different.
I find it difficult to believe that Gibson used A3 Magnets in the 70's . From what I know about Gibson was all A2 and A5 .
 
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I find it difficult to believe that Gibson used A3 Magnets in the 70's . From what I know about Gibson was all A2 and A5 .
A3 does not have Cobalt.... which was in high demand during the V War / after Cold War ... and therefore became extremely expensive.
This fact has been mentioned numerous times here at LPF and else where. So Gibson did not use A4's either apparently.
 
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