Fender Wide Range

[supa_scoopa]

Are these current production humbuckers any good?

[8Painting]

No.

I have a '72 Deluxe, they arent wide range. Theyre regular hums in a widerange housing.

Theyre part of the reason why im getting rid of mine. Really muddy/flat sounding.

[EunosFD]

Originally Posted by 8Painting

No.

I have a '72 Deluxe, they arent wide range. Theyre regular hums in a widerange housing.

Theyre part of the reason why im getting rid of mine. Really muddy/flat sounding.

Speaking of that, here's an interesting thread I came across (on another forum ) about modding them to help with that (Lindy Fralin content fwiw):

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.htm...-04-2910:22:17

[8Painting]

Originally Posted by EunosFD

Speaking of that, here's an interesting thread I came across (on another forum
) about modding them to help with that (Lindy Fralin content fwiw):

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.htm...-04-2910:22:17

Thanks for the heads up man, i'll have to try it out.

[strat6866]

i have a 72 thinline RI with wide range HBs. The bridge is great with O/D, very crunchy.
The neck is FAT......a little muddy though.

[RockStarNick]

Anyone take any readings with a multimeter? Are they calibrated for neck and bridge, or the same outout for neck and bridge.

I HATE pickups that are same output in neck and bridge. HUGE pet peeve.

[KennyM]

Do some searches and you'll find a few threads regarding Wide Range pickups. To sum it up, the main difference is in the magnet material which is not used today. In a discussion with Jason Lollar he pointed out that the magnet material is responsible for at least 75% of the WR character.

I installed some original WR pickups in a MIM 72' Tele Thinline Reissue and can attest that it indeed sounds completely different and much more improved.

[EunosFD]

Yeah the real/original ones with the CuNiFe mags def sound notably different (better IMO as well ). I came across another thread over at TDPRI not long ago where a member found some CuNiFe mag stock and is going to try and make some "real" WR pickups (or at least as close as possible):

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pick...umbuckers.html

I haven't seen any updates lately though, but I'm very curious as to how it'll turn out. I'd love to build up a semi-hollow Tele with a pair of WR's in it (and a Bigsby too please ).

[Tweedledee]

The new "wide range" pickups clean up quite nicely if you switch the stock pots in the '72 Deluxe or Thinline to 500k or 1meg ones. For some reason Fender puts 250 pots in there. Of course they won't sound like the "real" wide range 'buckers, but they'll sound much better than they do stock.