QUESTION
I just found a guitar my family has had for many years and no one ever played it. At first I had no Idea what it was but after looking on the Internet I found out it was an Epiphone Zepher with what re called new yorker pickups . The problem is there is no sound coming out of one of them and I took it to a local store and they tell me the pickup cannot be rewound and i need to replace it . Is this true or is the dealer just trying to pull a fast one I know you guys know alot about vintage guitar sand anything you can tell me will be greatly appreciated
REPLY
That is a great find wow you have a great American vintage guitar on your hands. The dealer is not actually scamming you. very few people know much about the new yorker pickup and even less on repairing the, the problem is they are sealed with wax on the bottom and are not easily aaccesses and are very very hard to work on. So i Will cut the guy some slack on this one . The pickups are a technical nightmare to fix you have to totally disassemble the pickup rewind it and seal it again and truthfully it is a pain in the you know what. Most people just buy other original; ones and install them it is usually cheaper.
The price to rebuild one is probably 250 and a used one in factory condition is 250 -300 dollars. and it is also original which keeps the value of the guitar intact. A rewound pickup Will bring less for the guitar but hell you got a great deal on it so who cares. I would recommend Rolf or Lindy Frailn to do the job they are very competent and guarantee what they sell and do. So either option is a good oe for you at this point
A brief comment of the pickups themselves is that they sound great and have a killer tonal range. I am not sure whey they discontinued the pickup other than that it is very expensive to manufacture and requires more time and money and companies as always look to cut costs. they were replaced by the mini humbucker which is cheaper and easier to make assemble and repair.
Hope this helps and if you need any more information on these pcikups let me know just e mail me at THE PARTS DRAWER . You have a great guitar enjoy.
Jim Pasch
Tags: epiphone guitar parts, epiphone guitars, vintage epiphone guitars