Fender Wide-Range Pickups

ogulkoker · Post by **ogulkoker** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:52 pm

My 72' Telecaster Deluxe Reissue has two Wide-Range humbuckers... Are there two kind of Wide-range pickups, one for neck, one for bridge, or are they just same? I don't use my bridge pickup, can I put this one to my other guitar's neck? Sorry for my bad English...

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 11:03 pm

Welcome to the boards!

I looked around, but couldn't find an answer for you. A couple other members have Telecasters with the wide-range humbuckers, so maybe they know.

Until then, you can test them for yourself if you have a multimeter.

Test the resistance through each pickup. If the difference between the pickups is about 100 ohms or less, they're probably identical.

You must disconnect one wire from each pickup to measure accurately.

Even if the two pickups are different, you can still use the bridge pickup as a neck pickup instead. It will just be louder.

deadonkey · Post by **deadonkey** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 12:41 am

as far as i know they're the same.

Sublimedo · Post by **Sublimedo** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 10:13 am

from what I remember the two are very different. the neck is closer to a vintage sound with alnico 3s while the bridge is closer to a regular humbucker with alnico 5s

Post by **Mike** » Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:55 am

They not the same. Bridge and Neck pickups always have different impedances unless you're the worst pickup designer ever. The string vibration is WAY higher at the neck.

deadonkey · Post by **deadonkey** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 4:01 am

Mike wrote:Bridge and Neck pickups always have different impedances unless you're the worst pickup designer ever.

Like Leo and Seth Lover.

Post by **Mike** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 8:09 am

They're unbalanced HUGELY in volume unless you compensate for the difference.

ogulkoker · Post by **ogulkoker** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 1:57 pm

I hope a Wide-Range user will answer it, but also i think your answers are enough to understand what i can do

Post by **Mike** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 2:12 pm

I have them, and year they're different. Look:

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/pick ... e72hum.htm

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:55 pm

Mike wrote:They not the same. Bridge and Neck pickups always have different impedances unless you're the worst pickup designer ever. The string vibration is WAY higher at the neck.

iirc, p90's are universal

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-90

slight variance, the last set that i got (80 lp double cut) were very similar resistance, both around 8

Post by **Mike** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 4:57 pm

http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... hot_soapb/

Seymour Duncan says no.

"Available for both neck and bridge positions in a balanced set. Also popular, is an SP90-2 Hot in the bridge position with an SP90-1 Vintage in the neck for tonal versatility."

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:58 pm

Mike wrote:http://www.seymourduncan.com/products/e ... hot_soapb/

Seymour Duncan says no.

"Available for both neck and bridge positions in a balanced set. Also popular, is an SP90-2 Hot in the bridge position with an SP90-1 Vintage in the neck for tonal versatility."

aftermarkets are different, i had some rio grande p90's that i pulled out of one of my guitars that had a very large difference, but out of 4 or 5 gibby p90's i've had, all rated in the same area, i should have specified OEM in my first post.

filtercap · Post by **filtercap** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:30 pm

Yeah, I was wondering that too..... whether back in '72 they used two different-impedance pickups or just stuffed the same pickup in both places..... and if so, whether they decided to do the same in the reissue or improved it by increasing the windings on the bridge pickup. The internets are mum on this, like it's some sort of conspiracy.

finboy · Post by **finboy** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 8:52 pm

filtercap wrote:Yeah, I was wondering that too..... whether back in '72 they used two different-impedance pickups or just stuffed the same pickup in both places..... and if so, whether they decided to do the same in the reissue or improved it by increasing the windings on the bridge pickup. The internets are mum on this, like it's some sort of conspiracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Wide_Range

doesn't say on there, but it does give a bit more info.

i've seen guys on ebay say the originals are universal, and show a readout from a voltage meter, but take it with a grain of salt, its ebay.