Help. 50's dogear P-90 original or rewound?

I’m negotiating on a 57 Junior which is very clean and looks to be all original. There is one thing I’ve just noticed which is bothering me though, which is the wiring coming out of the P-90. As far as I know and from my own experience of owning a few 50’s and early 60’s P-90 guitars the two wires coming from the coil should be black. However on the P-90 that’s in the guitar I’m looking at the two wires are grey! My first instinct was to suspect that the p/up had been rewound at some point (it is hot as well at just over 9k). I’ve managed to get a few pictures of the wires in question and also the solder joint, thought it’s hard to tell if this is the original solder or not. The original masking tape is still there.

Has anyone else seen any original 50’s dogear P-90’s with grey wires as opposed to black? Or does this look like it’s been rewound at some point?

Below are a few pictures. BTW it’s an immense sounding guitar. Plugged straight into a Marshall it’s a big sound.

I've seen braided grey, not plastic?:hmm

I would think 57 should be black. My 56 had black, and every pic I could find via googling shows black.

From my understanding, hotter P90s are were common later in the 50s and early 60s.

sws1 said:

.........From my understanding, hotter P90s are were common later in the 50s and early 60s.

Click to expand...

From my understanding and experience I totally agree. I have 57, 60 and 62 juniors. Their "hottness" increases as the year gets later. The P90 in my 57 is by far less hot than the one on the 62, and by far the best sounding (and most versatile) one. The 57 can definitely do stuff that the 60 and (especially) the 62 cannot. The 62 only wants to ROCK. The 57 can clean up with a snappy tone that neither of the others can do while it can still get down and dirty when pegged.

Never seen that, and I've seen quite a few. Wire is too thick, too, and 9k+ is too hot for a stock '57 pickup. I'd say it's likely rewound.

Thanks for your replies folks and for confirming my suspicions. Everyone who's seen it agrees that it is a rewind. I've decided to pass on this 57 and am now looking at a 58 instead. From the pictures I've seen the p/up on the 58 looks unmolested and reads around 7.6k which is more typical. Everything else on it looks original and untouched from the pictures. I'm going to see it in person over the weekend so hopefully things will work out on that one...