Vintage strat pup question
This is actually pretty tough to figure out, as it requires cross-checking several possible combinations of specs.
If it is actually a Fender brand pickup:
- Black bobbins, wax potted, Formvar insulation = in this combination, it's either pre-1965, or early '80's and up
- Flat poles = Musicmaster, Duo-Sonic, Mustang, lap steel, or mid–late-1970's Strat.
- 6.2K = most likely Musicmaster, Duo-Sonic, or 6/12-string lap steel (Strat and Mustang pickups didn't often have that much wire on them)
This sort of points to it being a '50's or '60s student model or lap steel pickup. However:
- Musicmaster, Duo-Sonic, and lap steel pickups had magnets that sat lower in the flatwork. They come nowhere close to sitting flush with the top of a Strat pickup cover. Your pickup was made specifically for covers with holes, not smooth covers. That rules out ALL student model or lap steel pickups of any year. It's for sure a born-and-bred Strat pickup, in other words.
- The magnets are larger than early Fender magnets (or at least they appear so in the pictures). They are also very smooth, and have somewhat sharp (non-beveled or smoothed-over) edges. This doesn't match how early black-bottom pickups were. Another reason why it's almost certainly not a '50's or '60's pickup.
This is what vintage Duo-Sonic pickups look like in Strat covers (on one of my own guitars). See how the magnets don't go up into the holes in the pickup covers? It's because they are made to be covered with smooth covers. Also notice that the magnets are smaller, rougher, and don't have sharp edges.
This might point you back to the original idea of it being a '70's pickup. However, don't forget the Formvar, the wax potting, and the cloth-insulated leads. With those specs, no way this is a '70's Fender pickup, not even an oddball. They didn't even have Formvar in the factory, or a wax potting setup on the assembly line at that time. Some larger-than-normal, non-beveled magnets could conceivably have made it into a '50's or '60's pickup, but Formvar and/or wax potting could not have conceivably made it into a '70's pickup. Leads could have been replaced, but not likely.
Considering all this, I'd say that it can be 100 percent ruled out as a Fender brand pickup older than the early '80's, when they started doing reissues. That means that it's either an aftermarket pickup, or an '80's-or-newer Fender vintage-style pickup. I'm not familiar enough with newer Fenders to know for sure whether or not they have ever made a pickup that is mostly-vintage-style-but-not-quite. But I would make a guess that it's unlikely that they've made a pickup that has vintage-style flatwork, wire, and potting, but that also has large, sharp, flat-poled magnets. I'd say you have an aftermarket Strat pickup there.
