Fender Wide Range PU Cover

[vistajrc]

I recently aquired a '72 Tele Thinline. Everything is stock, but somewhere in its history a previous owner took the pickup cover off the bridge pickup...why I'm not sure. PU works fine, but I'd like to get a cover to complete the look. Anyone know where I might find one?? Thanks

[jonson]

Angela insruments stock the replacement pickups so worth a call they may have covers.
http://www.angela.com/

[vistajrc]

Good call. I just emailed him. This has been a very tough part to find. I might just have to buy one of the reissue pickups, take the cover off and try to relic the part so it matches the other one. Thanks.

[eurekaiv]

In the same boat... I got a great deal on a thinline but both pickups had the covers removed (and one converted to a single coil ). Buying a repro is probably your best bet unless you can manage to find a broken original worth cannibalizing for the cover.

[David Schwab]

Everything is stock, but somewhere in its history a previous owner took the pickup cover off the bridge pickup...why I'm not sure.

Everybody took the covers off humbuckers in the 70's. That's why they are mostly sold without covers these days. For the most part, they sound better that way.

You get more output and a brighter tone.

[vistajrc]

David,

The things we all did in the 70's.....I agree the pickup w/o the cover sounds great, but so do the covered ones I have on my tele deluxe and custom. Sounds like I have to keep searching or relic a reissue. Thanks for the post.

[eurekaiv]

The problem with removing the cover from a wide range is that unlike a Gibson style humbucker, the solder lugs are on the top of the coil. When I rest my hand near the bridge I occasionally hit them with my pinky finger causing a nice high pitched squeal.

[parentheticalfact]

I'll offer some of the things I've noticed with these old pickups that may help or make your search worse.
The newer covers seem to be quite thick compared to the vintage covers. Japanese reissue covers are not too bad, but the new covers are not very good and don't have the same fender stamp. The stamp on a vintage cover is very light and sometimes hard to see compared to the clunky stamping they use on the new reissues.
Just some food for thought.

[David Schwab]

The problem with removing the cover from a wide range is that unlike a Gibson style humbucker, the solder lugs are on the top of the coil. When I rest my hand near the bridge I occasionally hit them with my pinky finger causing a nice high pitched squeal.

Yeah, these are not good pickups to take the covers off of, but my point was it was the thing to do back then, so people did it.