He hired Seymour Duncan (OEM work) around the mid 1970s to design and work on Mighty Mite pickups.
Seymour started advertising rewinds in late 1977/ early 1978 and then started making his own pickups in late 1978 and one of these pickups was the short lived EVH pickup which Ed stopped in late 1978/ early 1979.
This pickup presumably resurfaced again after a long time as the EVH78.
Ed went to Seymour Duncan to have some rewinding done presumably when Seymour advertised his rewinding services in late 1977/ early 1978 and one of the rewound pickups specs was presumably similar to the EVH78 pickup specs.
Ed's black PAF starts appearing in photos from very late 1977/ early 1978 around the same time Seymour Duncan started advertising rewinds and it looks like Ed's black PAF is one of the pickups rewound by Seymour Duncan.
EVH: Like the other guitars, I took it to a pro in Santa Barbara and had the pickup rewound. So it is custom-made and gives me an original sound.
from Young Guitar - June 1978 (reprinted and translated for The Inside - Issue 14)
EVH: and a guy named Seymour Duncan, I got pissed at him too. He called me up and said, "Can we use your name for a special pickup?" And I said no. Next time I pick up Guitar Player magazine, there's a special Van Halen model customized Duncan pickup. I called him up and said, "What the hell's goin' on?" So he stopped finally.
from Guitar player December 29 1979
FWIW
"I called duncans custom shop to inquire about the duncan 78 and was guaranteed that the 78 IS THE PU on VH-II? Was told that this is the rewind done to eddies P.A.F before he went on the world vacation tour."
http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php ... 7&p=326580" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There is little chance that Ed had any of his Mighty Mites rewound as the bobbins were wound using a bondable wire.
This coil bonding would stop feedback much like wax potting so maybe Ed liked that about the Mighty Mite pickups because the DiMarzio Super Distortions were unpotted and Wayne Charvel tells a story about potting one of Ed's DiMarzios and it shriveling up.
http://wayneguitars.com/wordpress/?page_id=444" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"By the way, the first Dimarzio pickup I potted for Eddie, got too hot and the cream plastic bobbin shriveled up. It looked bad, but it still worked fine. Eddie liked the way it looked. (He liked funky things in those days.) "
Ed had other Mighty Mite parts besides the Mighty Mite Distortion pickups (basically modeled on a DiMarzio Super Distortion) including a Mighty Mite bridge and a Mighty Mite single coil pickup in the Red Black and White Franky.
Ed's Destroyer with a white Mighty Mite Distortion pickup in the bridge (it has no small bobbin holes) and a black DiMarzio Super Distortion in the neck (it has small bobbin holes).


Early 1977 Burst Strat with white Mighty Mite (no bobbin holes)

1978 B&W Franky Seymour rewound PAF

1979 R&B&W Franky with probably a DiMarzio pickup that has shriveled after potting

1980 R&B&W Franky White pickup

Bee Dimarzio Super Distortion with changed magnet

Mighty Mite single coil in R&B&W Franky

Mighty Mite bridge

--------------------------------------------------------------
http://wayneguitars.com/wordpress/?page_id=444" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Wayne Charvel
Randy Zacuto (founder of Mighty Mite), from JB Player also purchased parts from me. He hired a friend of mine named Seymour Duncan, who had been making tele three piece bridge saddles and rewinding pickups to make Mighty Mite pickups for him. A short time later, Seymour came out with his own line of pickups. We also sold those.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://electricbassland.com/interviews/ ... ur-duncan/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Seymour Duncan
I started doing OEMs (original equipment manufacturing) for several guitar companies and then actually manufacturing my own pickups for sale and taking them around. I started making brass bridges for Telecasters and doing the phenolic pickguards for Telecasters and Esquires. I was also modifying 5-way switches – converting 3-way to 5-way and started doing more and more rewindings. I started advertising in 1977/78 to do rewinds and by the end of 1978 I started manufacturing the humbucking pickup and went towards having an injection mould made which at the time was pretty expensive. So that’s basically how I got started.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Mighty Mite from Seymour Duncan
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/fa ... -a/451475/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
462. I had an old "Mighty Mite" single coil that was damaged and the coil was very hard to remove, how come?
Mighty Mite pickups were made at a Southern California company called Turbo-Jet and the bobbins were wound using a bondable wire. After the bobbins were wound, the coils were heated in ovens and the special insulation would bond to each other making a solid coil. The coils were difficult to remove if the bobbin needed rewinding or turns needed to be removed. There are other bondable wire’s that are activated by chemicals but can get very messy when working with them. I prefer a hot wax solution used with a vacuum to draw the air bubbles out and this allows the pickup to be repaired easier and potting with epoxy also makes the pickup almost impossible to repair.