Interesting RE-vamp idea of Fender MIM pickups

[trevorus]

I have a set of these here, and they have been sitting ever since I took them out of the MIM strat I used to own (miss that thing!). I've been eyeballing them to remove the magnets and slugs to put in A5 rods from someone like stew-mac. Since these are wound on an encapsulating bobbin, the windings are safe from the magnets. I've already popped the slugs loose on one. Anyone done this, and if you did, what were your findings for improvement on the original sound?

[ohmb0y]

On the Mojotone site, there is a video about doing this. I've been wondering myself.
Rod Magnets

[David King]

I guess the first thing to do is to measure the existing slugs. I have a really old Asian bobbin kicking around, I've pulled out the slugs long ago. Don't know if it would tell you much about the MIM pickups.

[mkat]

Yes, I've done it on a strat set and a jb set (these were awful pickups), but there's more going on with pickups than that. The constraint is the geometry of the bobbin. Then, you need to deal with tone shaping, what you like and so on. You can put a5 rods in there or other configurations with slugs and different types of magnets, but you might need to adjust the windings. BTW, I didn't bother to adjust the windings on the jb set, I made new pickups for the bass.

[Sweetfinger]

Many years ago I swapped the mags between an Am. Std. pickup and a Mexican pickup. Just looking at them, you'd think that the bobbin and wire were the same, but my fuzzy memory seems to recall that they didn't sound as good swapped. YMMV. Maybe Fender actually winds them differently? Since the sonic winner(for me) of the two types of pickups is actually the std. Mexican, I just leave them be and didn't do any more experimentation. Perhaps someone here could tell if the wire is a different guage or insulation. This is one of those areas of research that is um.... underfunded... because no one really cares about molded plastic bobbin Strat pickups- no matter what the magnet type. I look forward to the day when Ebay ads will be exhorting the great tones available from the "beveled edge, concentric grooved top, steel poled" Mexican Strat pickups. RARE!

[big_teee]

That all sounds like an option.
However if you wind I recommend getting real rod magnet flatwork and making real 50s, 60s, or 70s P/Us.
One of the main things I do is change the height of the bobbin depending on P/U location.
Either shorter or taller. That's not an option with a fixed bobbin.
IMO making real Strat P/Us is just to easy, and they sound too good to mess with the imitations!
That's my 2 Cents.
Terry

[David King]

Mine, (older type with single WEAK ceramic magnet on the back of the slugs), looks to be 43 awg. I think Fender did some significant R and D on the MIM stuff. They sound different but they are generally usable as-is. This one I have sounded truly dreadful from the get-go.

[Sock Puppet]

Steve Kerching's site may be of interest here. He used to be a regular on the old forum:

Pickup winding tutorial

[David Schwab]

One of the main things I do is change the height of the bobbin depending on P/U location.
Either shorter or taller. That's not an option with a fixed bobbin.

It's not hard to make them shorter. Remove the slugs, saw some material out of the middle, and stick it back together with shorter slugs.

You can also make them taller the same way, and just tape over the gap.

[David Schwab]

Mine, (older type with single WEAK ceramic magnet on the back of the slugs), looks to be 43 awg. I think Fender did some significant R and D on the MIM stuff. They sound different but they are generally usable as-is. This one I have sounded truly dreadful from the get-go.

I just assumed they bought the cheapest Asian made pickups they could find. Maybe they are cheaply made Mexican pickups. I don't think they did any R&D except looking for price. Otherwise they would never have used two neck length Jazz pickups on the older MIM Jazz bass. That point to them using what they could get for cheap. They didn't even go out of the way to make a bridge length pickup. After all, they don't want the cheap instruments competing with their good stuff.

I have a few of those pickups. I wondered if the weak ceramic magnet was intentional, or just low quality. I think it's the latter.

[RedHouse]

I have a set of these here, and they have been sitting ever since I took them out of the MIM strat I used to own (miss that thing!). I've been eyeballing them to remove the magnets and slugs to put in A5 rods from someone like stew-mac. Since these are wound on an encapsulating bobbin, the windings are safe from the magnets. I've already popped the slugs loose on one. Anyone done this, and if you did, what were your findings for improvement on the original sound?

I've done it, it's a marginal improvement, no miracle tone, the pickup acts more dynamic like a real strat pickup but since you have not changed the winding it's a very small improvement and might go un-noticed by a novice.

I've done it recently on my nephew's guitar and it sounded a little better. Didn't improve his playing though.

[David King]

I found one of the poles and it measured .1955" x . 531

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

I've done it recently on my nephew's guitar and it sounded a little better. Didn't improve his playing though.

Of course it won't improve his playing. He needs torn tight jeans and a leather vest. Or, if he's more into blues, a hat. Then his playing will improve.

[copperheadroads]

Most of the plastic bobbin strat pickups that i measured the height between the flanges ,Are quite a bit shorter than the average fiber bobbin pickup

[trevorus]

Should be relatively easy to fit though, just have some hang on the back side of the bobbin. I do plan on doing my own winding. I'm looking for old sewing machines right now.