MMK 45's or others!

Dear Westoners,

I'm looking for a bridge MMK pickup - my recent drubbing on ebay has left me inarticulate for want of one. MMK 45 or others will be fine. Essentially I'd like to warm up the bridge my Onyx Wing.

Got a bucket or two of these beauties collecting dust? Let me hear about it ----

Best,

Ian

Clap a stopper on that caper, afore she gets abaft the mizzen!

There's one on ebay now isn't there? look under "Ibanez MMK" ?!

Um, nope --> that's the lost effort to which I refer! The bidding ended somewhere near 6:30 am my time this morning.

Ah! As usual, I'm a day late and a dollar short!!

It would have been cool... oh well, I will bide my time.

Yeah, keep watching the bay; I'll keep an eye out on NZ's Trade me for you as well...

Dont forget that sellers quite often do not state that the pick up is an MMK xx, but rather describe the guitar or make from which it was taken. I usually chase up the seller for more PU details if the source instrument is an Aria or Washburn or Vantage as these can also be MMK's. Even Jap ( Matsumuko ) Epi's had MMK's so keep your search as wide as possible.

John had thread on MMK's on the Mat site that was interesting ( I cant find now ... typical)

You could also ring around some of the more established Guitar shops and Luthiers to see if they have done a swap out on the above guitars in the past and may have kept the original PU's. You never know what they may have in their old parts bin ....

I wonder how much it would cost a PU winder to replicate an original MMK? Hey ho .... probably too much yet I can buy a Catswhisker PU, custom wound in the UK for about £50. And they will wind it to your specs ( MMK? ). For that, its is guaranteed which is obviously better than buying an unknown MMk that may pack up a month later.

Steve777 wrote:John had thread on MMK's on the Mat site that was interesting ( I cant find now ... typical)

This one?

Thats the one, cheers John

Woah - there's some fantastic detailed info on that thread! Thanks again..

I extracted some info and pasted below.

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"After testing quite a few pickups and collating a stack of posts I am confident on what the numbers mean.

MMK45 - 11.8K coils with ceramic magnets
MMK53 - 11.8K coils with alnico magnets
MMK61 - 8.4K coils with Alnico ?? magnets
MMK75 - 8.4K coils with Alnico ?? magnets
No marking - Protomatic 1's 15.8K coils ceramic magnets
No marking - Protomatic 2's 8.4K coils Alnico magnets

The actual coil tolerances will vary due to manufacturing tolerances and the lead pickups are generally a bit hotter but the above values are close working values.

The bobbin colours, cover type, slug type (ie cosmetics), wiring configuration (ie. 3 conductor , 4 conductor etc) have no relevance to the MMK numbers. It makes sense with the assembler being able to see what coils strength and magnet type are from the MMK pickup marking. He has no need to have a code to tell him what the bobbin colours are or what wiring it has......he's got eyes to do that.


Rationalising MMK numbers to names I get:

MMK45 - Smooth Crash, Protomatic 4's and 5's. (I think Proto 4's and 5's are the same pickups......with the more expensive guitars having the 5 pickups.....very good marketing )
MMK53 - Protomatic 3's
MMK61 - Possibly AL-5's or AL-7's.....inconclusive
MMK75 - Classic Powers
MMK75 with chrome or gold covers - Classic Power 2's

If anyone has any info that shoots this down in flames.....please flame on.
Any info on Classic power 3's, AL-5's, Proto 7's appreciated.

Cheers
PeteRH
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anaerobe wrote:Dear Westoners,

I'm looking for a bridge MMK pickup - my recent drubbing on ebay has left me inarticulate for want of one. MMK 45 or others will be fine. Essentially I'd like to warm up the bridge my Onyx Wing.

Got a bucket or two of these beauties collecting dust? Let me hear about it ----

Best,

Ian

Clap a stopper on that caper, afore she gets abaft the mizzen!

ive got a pair of mmk 45's that ive just taken out of a mint westone thunder jet that belonged to my dad, Ive put an EMG Zakk Wyle set on the guitar so the pups are surplus i was going to try and sell them for £15 each let me know if youre interested, im in Guildford in the UK and can post them or you can collect. Cheers Philipe

Hi there.

I'm sure there are lots of punters that would by your PU's but equally, there would be lots of punters who would buy your Westone in its original condition. Personally, I would hang on to the MMK 45's. You will probably get alot more for your guitar with the MMK 45's than with out.

I'd hang on to them if I were you. They make the Thunder what it was .... awesome!

Yep; hang onto 'em; the instrument will be worth more with all of it's OEM bits onboard should you decide to sell it on.