Closest production pickups to the original Fender "Wide Range" Humbuckers

[JB6464]

Without spending CS prices I am looking for a production humbuckers that sounds the closest to the original Fender "Wide Range" Humbuckers used on their Tele Deluxe builds with strat necks .
I know it needs to be a bright pickup with an A5 magnet for starters , I am building a Tele Deluxe right now and it has standard humbucker routes so I'm going to start from there .

 

[gsammo79]

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/...nge-humbucker/

Check this out. Not production but it would cut it

 

[PFDarkside]

Fender (supposedly) commissioned the original CuNife magnets for their recent Wide Range Humbucker reissue. Why not start there?

 

[Artie]

What is a "Wide Range" humbucker? I've seen the pics, and I've looked at them in the Custom Shop. But what is their specific tone profile that makes them what they are?

 

[jeremy]

they are pretty unique sounding. threaded cunife magnets for pole pieces and like a 10k wind with different bobbin size than a paf. seth lover designed em too!

 

[Artie]

I'll have to Google "cunife". Not really familiar with that.

 

[jeremy]

different type of magnet. dont know much about em except they were used on these and can be threaded. not as strong as a5

 

[JB6464]

http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/...nge-humbucker/

Check this out. Not production but it would cut it

$180.00 each is way more than I want to spend on this project .

 

[JB6464]

Fender (supposedly) commissioned the original CuNife magnets for their recent Wide Range Humbucker reissue. Why not start there?

I heard there are two types out , one does not sound like the originals and the other I'm not sure where to buy and how much they cost . I'll have to keep searching .

 

[Artie]

The CS units use A5 mags. Interesting. :scratchch

 

[beaubrummels]

Without spending custom shop prices and looking at only production, I would start with either a Jazz set or Full Shred set. (Possibly use two Full Shred necks, not the bridge.)

But if you seriously want the WRH sound, you'd have to go custom with someone somewhere, either Duncan (which is not exactly the original recipe) or I think Lollar does (or did) an accurate reproduction

 

[alex1fly]

Do you need the actual CuNiFe material? Or just the wide range spacing?

If you need CuNiFe magnets, you're going to pay. Currently that's just the market. Few people make them, and they're made custom. The material is difficult to extract, produce, or something. (I don't know for sure, but this is my understanding of the situation.)

If you are okay with just the wide range spacing (which does impact the sound), there's plenty of options that came up with I Googled "wide range humbucker". Here are some.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1232794134...MIm46xteP77wIVtR6tBh1oQQX0EAQYCSABEgJp-PD_BwE

https://www.themusiczoo.com/product...MIm46xteP77wIVtR6tBh1oQQX0EAQYCiABEgJxLPD_BwE

https://www.amazon.com/Fender-Telec...t=&hvlocphy=9053615&hvtargid=pla-659387341874

 

[gsammo79]

$180.00 each is way more than I want to spend on this project .

I misread your first post about needing two of em. Yeah, find a cheaper route if youre able.

 

[AlexR]

Nothing will sound WRHB unless you at least get to pole magnets ....and of course the pretty beefy wind to offset the low magnetic strength.

So you're into boutique repros.....or custom shop.


Otherwise you're just getting a regular humbucker with more treble that sounds nowhere near.
A filtertron probably has better chance of sounding 'unusual' in the WRHB way than most.

 

[allstarrme]

Revel will rewind reproduction ones for $100 apiece if you have the new versions. That includes new alnico pole pieces in place of the bar magnet. But you would need a set of repro’s to start from. I’ve never heard real wide range humbuckers sound good enough to chase down real cunife parts. The real wide range stuff just sounds very bright and thin to me. I would rather just put some Seth’s in that I at least know I could use. Maybe a firebird set for something different.

Maybe get 2 stagmag’s. Set them up to do series parallel things with a switch or triple shots. I have thought about pressing some a5 poles into the bridge and taking some winds off the neck to get it 10 to 12k.

Maybe the lace dually things with 2 singles on a humbucker plate would get close? I wasn’t a fan of most of the lace stuff so I never tried it out.

 

[Mincer]

They are such a weird design, which is why you don't see genuine reproductions outside of custom shops. I would also strongly suggest anyone considering them to try to play actual ones first, since they are sort of an acquired taste if you are used to standard humbuckers. I would think the original design was to try to get the frequency response of great single coils in a humbucker design. The pickups, in combination with 1meg pots have their own thing going on.

 

[htwheelz67]

you can always keep an eye out on reverb and ebay etc........I got a used set of mojotones for 150.00 and they sound great.

 

[ICTGoober]

Lindy Fralin offers a Wide Range Humbucker that is highly ranked (4.9 stars out of 5) by his users. However - it's $180 per unit.

 

[Ashurbanipal]

They're pretty cool pickups. CuNiFe is supposedly less stable than Alnico and Ceramic, so the poles can become degaussed over time; have heard of instances where old ones needed recharging.

In the most recent run of reissue Tele Customs and Deluxes, Fender have apparently reproduced the pickup per original design. Older reissues (and Squiers) have normal humbuckers in WR cases - they look the part, but they ain't the real thing.

Jamie at the Creamery (https://www.creamery-pickups.co.uk) another who is well regarded for his WR designs; he can make them in normal hb size and even to fit Jazzmasters.

 

[Mincer]

I know MJ winds pretty amazing ones, too.