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Fender Wide-range Humbuckers


verhoevenc

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Ok, so I wanna get an ORIGINAL Fender Wide-Range humbucker along with my GFS vintage split (copy of one), so the prototype can have the actual original (the neu x E-series in "progress" section). However, since fender makes alot more guitars with them in the neck position, and not so many with them in the bridge... it's hard to find the bridge one I want...

I contacted one of the sellers on ebay of a neck one, and he said that the ohm reading on this one (neck) and the last one he tested (a bridge) had the same reading?! Sounds a little fishy to me?!?! So what's the difference between the neck and bridge versions then?? could this be posible? Anyone have the ACTUAL specs? Any info here would help....

Chris

PS: it's a pain cause fender doesn't sell them seperately, you can ONLY get them IN a guitar.

PPS: what does happen if you put a pickup designed for neck position in the bridge position???

Chris

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Neck position pups are usually a little weaker & brighter compared to their bridge "sibling". But many guitars come with the same pickup in both positions, and there's no reason you can't use any pickup in any position, IF it's the sound you want. I dunno how Fender's bucker fits into this, but that first came out in the early 70's, and I'd guess it was the same pickup for both positions,at least back then.

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Yeah, they do make newer version obviously to put into their reissue teles.... however the particular one I'm looking at is a guy that has a ginuine one from the 70s that's ALL tarnished and reliced out and NASTY (i LOVE it ahahah).

However, I'd like to know the info of them regardless, cause in future guitars I build I won't nessesarily have the option for getting one from that long ago genuine.

Chris

PS: This is the one I'm talkin' about

e8_1.JPG

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ok, a little more knowledge if it helps anyone in their quest to help me...

so on the 72 tele thinline parts list on the website, it lists the bridge and neck as being a different part number.... however when i searched yahoo for the bridge pickups part number it brought up a shop in new orleans listing one in their inventory.... but in the description it said "neck or bridge" as in that it doesn't matter....

Chris

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OK, I'm emailing that guy to give the the TOTAL low down on these pickups. But I noticed something about them as well which makes me think that this guy MAY just be correct about the 10k. On ebay there's a guy selling one, the same guy that told me both neck and bridge have the same DC..... he's ALSO selling a SH-12, and a old tele deluxe pickguard which makes me go (oh, he's selling off all the pickup related stuff, jsut split it up into different auctions). Also, seymour duncan says that the SH-12s are 10k as well. So I bet he had those paired BECAUSE of that fact. Since he says both the neck and bridge are the same, he probably just had the bridge "wide-range" and was searching for the closest he could buy to match it with the character of having another in the bridge... and stumbled along the SH-12. (I'm really just listing this info so if anyone down the road comes along wondering about these pickups they'll know [i've been researching for HOURS literally about these things]).

I'll update when I get emails back from more people about them (liek the guy that wrote that review).

Chris

PS: PLEASE no one bid on these things.... I want them SO bad!!!!

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Alright, here's the guy's at Franlin's two cents. Way back when, they didn't really have the sensitive technology to rate them, so each will be a little hotter of not. So he said since this they were wound about the same and it shouldn't matter if you put one in the neck or bridge position, it'll work fine. This however has to do with the actual old ones... like from the 70s. As for the new reissue ones... I'm still in the dark here, cause an eBay auction I saw today listed a neck one as 7.76k...

So the search for the whole answer is still on....

Unless you're buying one from the 70s...

Chris

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Mystery Solved!!!! Finally got someone that knew almost WAY too much about them! Hahaha. A tech at one of Fender's listed service centers. To this day, despite what the Fender parts list says, the neck and bridge pickup are the SAME pickup! Both are about 7.5k he said (so we'll assume that ebay thing was correct on 7.76k exact). He said they are extremely interchangable bridge vs. neck, no problem! He also said, if you DO want to make this bucker hotter, there should be a wooden spacer if you screw off the back plate, remove that spacer making the magnets closer, and voila, he says he used to do it with the original PAFs etc too (since they were the same pickup neck and bridge). And suggested, just check which coil is north and south, pop it in, and go!

Chris

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You can't measure the resistance of pickups while they are soldered to pots, it throws it off.

I'm also not convinced that removing the maple spacer will add any output. Why would the magnets being closer together add more output? You get more output by going to stronger magnets or by adding more winds around the coil? Maybe someone here can explain how this works?

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I'm no expert, but from my college physics class I'm gunna guess that becuse magnetic field diminish over length. Ie: the farther away from the magnet you are, the less force it's gunna have. So I'm guessing putting the magnet closer ups the field power and makes it higher output...?

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  • 2 years later...
Mystery Solved!!!! Finally got someone that knew almost WAY too much about them! Hahaha. A tech at one of Fender's listed service centers. To this day, despite what the Fender parts list says, the neck and bridge pickup are the SAME pickup! Both are about 7.5k he said (so we'll assume that ebay thing was correct on 7.76k exact). He said they are extremely interchangable bridge vs. neck, no problem! He also said, if you DO want to make this bucker hotter, there should be a wooden spacer if you screw off the back plate, remove that spacer making the magnets closer, and voila, he says he used to do it with the original PAFs etc too (since they were the same pickup neck and bridge). And suggested, just check which coil is north and south, pop it in, and go!

Chris

The original Fender Wide Range Humbuckers read 10.6k so if someone is trying to sell you something reading in the 7.5k range, you can bet your life it's a re-issue pickup.

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Hey Chris,

I missed this thread (been brought back) but my new project guitar has on original that I mounted as a bridge pickup. A lot of what you have been told is false, they have individual magnetic poles and resistance may vary widely. They would not have had special neck and bridge and nothing on mine would indicate that. The are substantially bigger than HB's with wider spaced coils. All reissues are standard HB's in special covers...not fenders. The back of the pickup is very distinctive for identification.

If you need more info, I may be rewiring my guitar again soon and could do some measurements. I don't really want to take the cover off it (as it is a true original) but readings and some pics would be possible.

These are bright and low output (compared to a modern humbucker) pickups. They really do have a sound that goes kerrrramg!

Pete

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Talk about a blast from the past. I actually never ended up using these. However, it's funny that it was just brought up because I'm working on a 25" scale semi-hollow tele and was thinking of doing a wide range front bucker and a standard tele bridge pickup. So it's cool that this came up. So even the FENDER reissue ones are just normal humbuckers???? The ONLY REAL wide ranges are the originals?

Chris

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I remembered a rare post on the fender forum when I was researching mine...

FWRP Link

Someone wanted to build an original, in that thread are picks top and bottom of these pickups plus in my post further down, you will see what they are like inside (the amount of wax puts me off taking an original apart).

My understanding is that the reissues (unless the custom shop is making them somehow) is that they are standard hb's with offset screws. Certainly the guitar fetish versions are too. It would be extremely difficult to make a copy. The magnets are quite large, threaded and the metal rare, the bobbins low and wide and the cover is not available. The pickup itself is HUGE. The output is fairly low, clean bright with a very distinctive "clang" as is often heard on rolling stones records. It has a definite "fender" quality despite being an HB...this is what Seth Lover designed them to do, so don't expect a mellow sound from an original.

My understanding is that these pickups are very rare, expensive and covered in Mojo. Mine is probably worth more than the entire custom guitar (I got mine by accident effectively).

Hope that helps a little more... pete

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