Looking for a sound clip

[ShannonH]

Hi all,
I had a request for a humbucker size of a Fender wide range (I know, not entirely possibly.) I've heard (played) the new ones, and I can't say they're great. does anyone know of a decent sound clip of one of the old ones? Thanks

Shannon

[Peter Naglitsch]

I have done a few rewinds/rebuild of the WR reissues. Try to get hold of a brand new reissue (available on E-bay) and do that and you will be fine (although it will be quite costly for the cutomer). Wind them to 5000 to 6500 turns depending on need of output and replace the threaded slugs with threaded mags from Sensmag and you are home. Takes s bit of tinkering to get be able to use the existing bobbins with the threaded magnets but it is doable.

I think can provide soundclips of "before and after" in a Tele neck if I dig through my bag of clips if that helps

[ShannonH]

here's the thing

I have done a few rewinds/rebuild of the WR reissues. Try to get hold of a brand new reissue

He wants these in a standard humbucker size. Here's my idea, tell me if it's bad:
wind a bright-ish pickup, say 7k with 42, use all screws and an A3 magnet to minimize pull and get closer to the strength of the CuNiFe magnet. This should have that upper brightness that the WR's seem to have. I could wind it to 11K with 43 too. I think a scooped mid would be better, but that's me. He's been using the Duncan version of these.

[Peter Naglitsch]

He wants these in a standard humbucker size.

Ah, ok. I have done that too. Using threaded mags and a low wind (for that type of pickup) of 5500 turns per coil I can get a pretty decent WRHB sound from my pickups. Sounds really good in the neck of a Tele. Using a cover without holes and punching holes in two offset rows, three in each row. Gives you a look reminding of WRHB.

[Possum]

....

Not really a good idea. Steel pole pieces vs. single cunife magnets, there's just no comparison in tone, one vs. the other. They aren't even really related to eachother. Probably a better idea would be to use alnico rod magnets in two slug coils and twiddle around with that for awhile. You may have to cut some rods down. Maybe someone will sell you a few of those SensMags that are threaded. I bought a bunch of alnico 2 and 3 rod magnets short enough to use in slug coils in an experiment to see how they would sound in a traditional humbucker but it made the pickup sound really bright and stiff sounding. If it were me I wouldn't take the job because its something you haven't done any R&D with and will end up making something you're not proud of and will spend a ton of time trying to make something work that will never equal the real deal. This really reminds me of the old Dynasonic pickups. Fender bought the DeArmond name awhile back and instead of making an authentic Dynasonic reissue pickup with big alnico rod magnets, they used steel slugs and put two different sized alnico magnets at the base of the rods. They sound nothing like real Dynasonics and sound more like P90s instead. You might want to refer that job to someone who does what he really wants rather than make a customer unhappy with something thats not more than the bad reissues Fender already makes. If someone contacts me to make something like that I always refer them elsewhere if its not something I very comfortable making...

[ShannonH]

thanks

Not really a good idea. Steel pole pieces vs. single cunife magnets, there's just no comparison in tone,

That's what I told him. He's using the Duncan version now, so it might I might swallow my pride just for the extra cash. The duncan version is made with A2. Thanks for the input.

[David Schwab]

That's what I told him. He's using the Duncan version now, so it might I might swallow my pride just for the extra cash. The duncan version is made with A2. Thanks for the input.

Just see what kind of tone he wants and go for that instead of worrying about making an exact copy. I seem to remember those old Fender pickups were on the dark sounding side.

[Possum]

....

After 8 years of doing this I learned not to take on jobs that require experiments and unknown results. You could spend a year trying to duplicate the WR pickup in a standard bucker sized bobbin set, easily. If your customer doesn't like the results, you'll be the one taking the blame and will probably end up with a customer who will tell others your work sucks because you couldn't do what he asked. Been there dun that.

[Ward]

Reminds me of the days when you'd get shit bands come into the studio to record. They had no idea and after all was said and done, the recordings were crap because the studio and or engineer were crap.