The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

[Gold star]

It would be interesting to read opinions on who makes the best replica of Fender's 1970s wide range humbucker. Seymour Duncan make one, Lollar makes one, a company in the UK make it too; Fender make it-but nothing like the original. Bearing in mind the original CuniFe magnet is now difficult- and costly to source, do they really come close to that sound or tone ?

[Mincer]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

Not being familiar with how the original magnets differ from the replicas, can you tell me what sounds the original has that the copies can't duplicate?

[hamerfan]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

The uk company is 'The Creamery', isn't it?

[Chistopher]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

I've never played an original WR humbucker, so I'd also be interested in knowing how they are "supposed" to sound.

[AlexR]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

The only 'real' clone was by Telenator.......who found a small and prohibitively expensive source of Cunife.

They were incredibly expensive pickups........like the cost of a top-end boutique PAF clone set just for 1 pickup. But the stocks ran out and he shut up that enterprise.


All makers now use threaded poles of one alnico or other. The majority of the sound will be in the rod magnets, and the way they are 3+3 offset. But of course the magnet is an important element, and makers will have to make adjustments in the way they wind the wire to compensate.

[orpheo]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

Creamery and Lollar make amazing widerange buckers. The CuNiFe magnets were only chosen because they turn well (the polepieces are the magnets and they need to be turned to receive a thread). However, Alnico is too hard (often) to be cut but recent developments in metallurgy has allowed for alnico to be turned relatively well nowadays.

That being said, of bigger importance for the tone are:

- spacing
- bobbin width
- wire gauge
- turns of the wire
- use of alnico polepieces instead of bar magnet and round stock.

Creamery and Lollar tick those boxes. I don't know how Curtis Novak's pickups are. I also found a set by Mojo Pickups UK but he has discontinued his regular wide range pickups. I can tell from my own experience that Creamery and Lollar wide range's are the most accurate technically and tonally.

[Gold star]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

The uk company is 'The Creamery', isn't it?

Yes

[Gold star]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

Not being familiar with how the original magnets differ from the replicas, can you tell me what sounds the original has that the copies can't duplicate?

hard to put in words. If you Listen to a 1987 covers album by Paul McCartney called Chobba B CCCCP , the guitarist on there plays a 72 Tele Custom, much of those sounds are done with the neck HB . Keih richards also had one in the 70s

[Gold star]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

I've never played an original WR humbucker, so I'd also be interested in knowing how they are "supposed" to sound.

listen to a band called Franz Ferdinand, The Hives, Keith Richards from the 70s/ 80s

[Ace Flibble]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

Having A/B'd them with real, legitimate 1970s Wide Range humbuckers in two otherwise-identical Tele Deluxes, I can say The Creamery's standard '71 replica model is a perfect match. Yes, they still don't have the CuNiFe magnets, but I don't care about what's inside, I care about the sound that comes out of 'em, and the ones I tried were identical in sound. That said, when he started offering more options I gave the Extar Width model a try for the bridge and that is better, to me; it's not as much of a 100% match as the original model but it actually does what you want a bridge pickup to do and push the amp. (The real Wide Ranges I've gotten to use never pushed the amps much, even though the pickup design has a reputation for generating crunchier tones.) Similarly when he reworked the standard version a little lighter as a Starcaster-specific model (to counteract the thicker sound of the hollow body) I gave the neck model of that a try in a Tele Deluxe and that too worked more like what I really wanted than the original did. Maybe it's just because we're so used to bridge and neck pickups being wound extra hot/extra cool respectively, but for me the standard '71 model was a perfect match, while an Extra Width bridge and 'for Starcaster' neck is a more actually usable combination.

Catswhisker, another UK company, also make a great WR copy, though with them while they do have a standard wind they will usually ask you what you specifically want and make you a one-off to match. They're more about taking a base concept and then tailoring the specifics to each customer rather than just churning out a single regular model. Great if you know exactly what you want and how to communicate that to them but if you're blindly guessing then you'll probably be better off just ordering the standard Creamery pickup rather than going for anything 'too' custom.

[Gold star]

Re: The best 'wide range' HB replica ...

Having A/B'd them with real, legitimate 1970s Wide Range humbuckers in two otherwise-identical Tele Deluxes, I can say The Creamery's standard '71 replica model is a perfect match. Yes, they still don't have the CuNiFe magnets, but I don't care about what's inside, I care about the sound that comes out of 'em, and the ones I tried were identical in sound. That said, when he started offering more options I gave the Extar Width model a try for the bridge and that is better, to me; it's not as much of a 100% match as the original model but it actually does what you want a bridge pickup to do and push the amp. (The real Wide Ranges I've gotten to use never pushed the amps much, even though the pickup design has a reputation for generating crunchier tones.) Similarly when he reworked the standard version a little lighter as a Starcaster-specific model (to counteract the thicker sound of the hollow body) I gave the neck model of that a try in a Tele Deluxe and that too worked more like what I really wanted than the original did. Maybe it's just because we're so used to bridge and neck pickups being wound extra hot/extra cool respectively, but for me the standard '71 model was a perfect match, while an Extra Width bridge and 'for Starcaster' neck is a more actually usable combination.

Catswhisker, another UK company, also make a great WR copy, though with them while they do have a standard wind they will usually ask you what you specifically want and make you a one-off to match. They're more about taking a base concept and then tailoring the specifics to each customer rather than just churning out a single regular model. Great if you know exactly what you want and how to communicate that to them but if you're blindly guessing then you'll probably be better off just ordering the standard Creamery pickup rather than going for anything 'too' custom.

good to know....