anyone know average output of vintage Mustang pickups?

glitchathon · Post by **glitchathon** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 4:35 pm

I measured my neck at 5.3k and bridge at 5.5k and was wondering if these are roughly normal for Mustang pickups of the early 70's? I notice SD Antiquities are 6.3k, and I was wondering if anyone knew what Linday Fralin or Curtis Novak outputs are for their vintage-spec Mustang pickups?

MaMo · Post by **MaMo** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:11 pm

Not sure if that's normal for the vintage, but it does make me wonder if the output level was higher when the pickups were new. I'm sure someone on here knows how aging affects pickups.

As for Lindy Fralin's Mustang replacements, they have several options. The lowest output is 6k fralin mustang pickups lank

Thom · Post by **Thom** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:14 pm

MaMo wrote:it does make me wonder if the output level was higher when the pickups were new.

Yeah, pickups do lose strength over time, I'm not sure how much or if there is some clever formula.

glitchathon wrote:my neck at 5.3k and bridge at 5.5k

I'd say that those were roughly normal for a guitar that age.

glitchathon · Post by **glitchathon** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:34 pm

cool, thanks guys. it is amazing what an extra 1k difference makes. My strat pickups are 6.4k or so and they are way louder. It is a bit of a challenge to switch between Mustand and Strat without major adjustments in pedal and amp settings.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 8:42 pm

Bill Lawrence's website wrote:Aging

Before the introduction of alnico magnets in 1935, permanent magnets were not quite that permanent. During a certain time, they lost a good amount of magnetism till they finally reached a stable condition. The process to accelerate this decay was called in the industry, "magnetic aging." In modern science, it is called "stabilizing." Since the â€˜50's, we use Alnico 5 magnets which lose, under normal conditions, less then half a percent per 100 years.

glitchathon · Post by **glitchathon** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:47 pm

Good info. Thanks NickS.

DaveB · Post by **DaveB** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:55 pm

I just measured a mid '70s mustang bridge pick up. 5.7K. I haven't measured my '67 Bronco, but it's gutless compared to anything else I own. It just needs a little more drive, that's all. It's still my favourite

Mages · Post by **Mages** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 5:16 am

raise them up higher. mustang pickups can be raised much closer to the strings than strat pickups because the magnets are farther back.

glitchathon · Post by **glitchathon** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 5:12 pm

mage wrote:raise them up higher. mustang pickups can be raised much closer to the strings than strat pickups because the magnets are farther back.

yea i noticed i got better sound by raising them much higher than i normally do with my strat.

captain38 · Post by **captain38** » Wed Mar 03, 2010 9:28 pm

Do you think the same thing would go for my 1981 fender bullet? I have been told that fender just threw mustang pickups in it. I LOVE how anemic and wimpy sounding that guitar is. I couldn't ask for anything more.