Mystery Steel

Pickup found recently on.......perhaps you've heard of it.......eBay. I'll take a stab and say early or mid 1950s. Vacuum molded lucite cover backpainted gold. Surprised there is not a tone knob on the bass side which seems a bit odd. Seven digit potentiometer code wasn't recognized by the Guitar Dater Project, odd as well. Let me know if this pickup looks familiar to you. The coil is P-90-esque in its construction and sounds, er, golden. The neck is from a 1962 Fender Duo Sonic with original Klusons. Chopped Telecaster string-thru bridge which, for a couple months last winter, I thought was an invention of my own. -But nothing new under the sun as the saying goes. Tra la. Double-cutaway cherry wood (poplar sides) body is hollow with Dobro-homage mini F-holes. Strung with .13 gauge roundwounds for extra whomp. Action is set up to follow the contour of the neck radius but the bridge could be adjusted to a flatter radius for a slide player.

This 3/4 scale guitar reminds me of John Lennon's 1958 Rickenbacker 325 during the period that it was painted black. That guitar has an even shorter scale, 20.7". Nearly five inches shorter than a Telecaster!