Fender wide range humbuckers

che_guitarra

che_guitarra

New member
It's new guitar time, and i'm going to be building from scratch using Warmoth wood. I built a Warmoth telecaster two years ago and without a doubt it's my favourite guitar. This time i'm looking to build a '72 style Thinline - tweaked to my preferred specs.

Just curious about pickups. I want to stick with the Fender Wide Range Humbuckers - they don't seem to be the same dimensions of typical humbuckers, or am I wrong with this assumption?

Also, do any manufacturers make a clone of the Fender WRH but accommodating of standard humbucker routing/mounting?
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

The Creamery do these. They are also more vintage correct, and have been tweaked to sound close too.

The modern Fender version of the wide range is simply a normal bar magnet humbucker with 3 exposed screws per coil. The real WR pickups use threaded magnets from CuNiFe - an alloy no longer produced.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

The reissue '72 Thinlines sound pretty good to me, so i'll be happy to assimilate that sound over a vintage correct item. I've been looking for the last hour and noticed Lindy Fralin, Chris Novak and Seymour Duncan all make pickups that look like wide range pickups (sized to fit a regular humbucker routing), but i'm not sure what the pick of the bunch is for low-gain rock n roll?
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

All depends on the tone you want. Personally if I was going to a 72 T/line clone, I'd want to try and get as close to the real thing as possible - they are a unique tone.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

The original Fender Wide Range humbucker is a curious beast. Nothing else is quite like it. Sound is always difficult to describe in words but the FWR is especially elusive. Somewhere between a humbucker and a juicy Stratocaster. In fact, not a million miles off a big ol' G&L MFD single coil, in my opinion.

The CuNiFe magnets are essential to the sound. It would be interesting to know what current manufacturers are doing to simulate their properties.

EDIT - One of my school contemporaries owned a Fender Telecaster Deluxe. He used it to do a mean Hendrix approximation - especially the neck pickup.
 
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Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

I'd stick with the originals if I could, but Warmoth don't offer the correct routing to fit them. So it's a compromise to an extent. All I know is I fell in love with a '72 thinline RI a few weeks back - i'm not really a fan of the '70s design cues but the clunky single-coil-cum-humbucker tone dropped my jaw... where have you been all my life?
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

If you like the sound of the reissue WRHB's then stay away from the boutique clones...the clones (Creamery, Lollar, etc) sound like original WRHB's and the reissues are just overwound PAF style pickups in WRHB cans...

Now, on to the body...if you read Warmoths site on their 72 Thinline body page it says the following...

"Routed to accommodate both the big Fender humbucker and the Gibson humbucker in the bridge and neck positions."

So, whats wrong with getting a Warmoth body and hitting Ebay for a set of new WRHB pulls?? Folks pull them all the time in favor of originals or clones if they are looking for a more vintage correct sound and the reissues on ebay can be had for next to nothing.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

Hmmm... interesting about the pickups. The guitar I played didn't really have a P90 sound about it, infact it was remarkably tele-ish and ker-plunky... maybe the reissue I played had a few mods done to it (it wasn't a brand new RI - it was a late 90s MIJ).

In regards to the body I actually plan to use a standard Warmoth thinline body. The WR cavity isn't available as an option on this design. I'm also going to do away with a pickguard and opt for a rear routed control cavity instead, and wood mounted pickups. Like I said above i'm not really a fan of the 70s Fender 'natural' aesthetic, i'm going to change it up more to my tastes... in this case i'm shooting for a Tele Jet (?) of sorts:


JetTele_zps95d715e7.jpg
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

MojoTone is now selling a Wide-Range HB with the original construction (threaded rod magnet polepieces) in both modern reissue Fender and vintage Fender mounting sizes. I doubt they are CuNiFe mags, but are supposed to be voiced like the originals. Worth checking out IMO.

Al
 
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Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

Thinlines are built of WIN, go for it! Or if you wanna get away from the styling but close tone, mb a thinline strat body w/tele neck?
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

If you want actue CuNiFe magnet based WRHB pickups then this is your guy.

I've never actually used one of his pickups, but I figured I'd pass this on for informational purposes. Maybe somebody else who has could chime in.

http://www.telenator.com/
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

^ I was going to suggest him, mainly as info that the only person doing CuNiFe is this maker....but at $400+ PER PICKUP its not for everbody.....especially as the OP seems to be happy merely with stock humbuckers
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

Pardon my confidence but I simply don't need $400 pickups to sound good, nor do I need the most expensive of everything to be happy with a guitar. I really dig the '72 RI I heard the other day, and I think it's a tone that'd suit my rockabilly/surf/rock/roots chops, but i'd suggest if you're willing to pay $400 per pickup you're trying to buy an ability you just don't have.

I'm 50% sure the '72 RI I played had 'Fender' etched into the pickup covers, but I wouldn't describe it as a P90 sound unless an ash body can really shift the tone into a new paradigm. It sounded far too scooped to be a P90 clone. I'll go back tomorrow to investigate further, maybe the store owner can enlighten me.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

if it were me i would stick with standard humbucker routing, there are too many options for me to pass up... greed.

so does the creamery guy not use CuNiFe? he'd certainly have us think that he does, reading the text on that web page.

what's the deal with this reflector plate that the wide ranges had? do they have a strip of copper in between the coils?
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

Nobody does CuNiFe apart from Telenator. The Creamery does have a similar alloy, and has a special wind to make it close.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

che_guitarra said:
Hmmm... interesting about the pickups. The guitar I played didn't really have a P90 sound about it, infact it was remarkably tele-ish and ker-plunky... maybe the reissue I played had a few mods done to it (it wasn't a brand new RI - it was a late 90s MIJ).

In regards to the body I actually plan to use a standard Warmoth thinline body. The WR cavity isn't available as an option on this design. I'm also going to do away with a pickguard and opt for a rear routed control cavity instead, and wood mounted pickups. Like I said above i'm not really a fan of the 70s Fender 'natural' aesthetic, i'm going to change it up more to my tastes... in this case i'm shooting for a Tele Jet (?) of sorts:
Click to expand...

Where do P-90's come into play??

As for the sound of the reissue, if you dug it then just roll with reissue pickups...they are common and don't cost a lot.

As for them sounding like a Tele, I guess that all depends on what your ears tell you...I find the reissue WRHB's dark, hot and honky....none of the things I think about when I think about a Tele.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

AlexR said:
Nobody does CuNiFe apart from Telenator. The Creamery does have a similar alloy, and has a special wind to make it close.
Click to expand...

lollar does the authentic cunife as well.

the fender re-issue wide range are nothing like the originals.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

^ where is this info. Lollar doesn't have it on their website, and you'd think they trumpet this if true.
 
Re: Fender wide range humbuckers

the guy who invented fire said:
Where do P-90's come into play??
Click to expand...

My bad, I meant PAF. A lot of Google reviews seem to think the new Fender WRHBs are closer to a PAF than anything else, but i'm not hearing it on the guitar I played.

I went back to the guitar store today and the pickups are a mystery. There's no Fender branding as I thought I saw, and without pulling the guitar apart I have no way of identifying what this guitar is running.
 
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