Fender Wide Range Humbuckers

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed May 05, 2010 9:56 am

Just needing a bit of advice really...

I was considering replacing the neck pick up in my Tele with one of these. I'm just curious to know if anyone uses them, had any problems or could advise on something maybe a bit more suitable. Can't seem to find much info about them on the net so thought I'd ask on here.

Thanks very much.

Simon

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:06 am

I believe Lee Ranaldo uses them in his Jazzblasters but I don't know if they are readily available, I think he gets hold of vintage ones.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:19 am

Yeah, well there's a site called www.telenator.com that sell the one's he has in his guitar. I don't even know if you can buy them over in the UK but I guess I was just looking for a vague idea of what they sounded like before getting them from the US. Being a leftie there's nowhere that sells tele's with the single coil in the bridge and the humbucker in the neck... curses!

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:23 am

Telenator?

Isn't that the guy who came on here defending his WRHB clones?

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:26 am

Reece wrote:Telenator?

Isn't that the guy who came on here defending his WRHB clones?

I've no idea. I was just looking them up on google and their was a link to the Fender forum with him posting something about them with a link to his site.
What was the story with him?

timhulio · Post by **timhulio** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:40 am

Forget that guy; he has anger issues.

Novak and Lollar make WRHB clones now and they've got a great rep.

Empires · Post by **Empires** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:47 am

Reece wrote:Telenator?

Isn't that the guy who came on here defending his WRHB clones?

That's him

Lank to old thread

I've been having a look round for decent WRHBs recently..

I didn't fancy paying for an original and the reissues I just wasn't convinced by:

Novak is doing somewhat of a 'closest to' that's getting some good reviews but I just didn't want them 'that much'
I haven't investigated the Lollar ones Tim mentioned.
I get the feeling it'd still be pretty much of a 'it's good but it's not right' type purchase

Best of the budget reissues seem to be:
GFS Vintage Split
G&B Twangmaster - felt a bit easier about the wider spacing on the bridge pup with these

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Wed May 05, 2010 10:48 am

Yep, avoid Telenator, he sells more snake oil than pickups. Novak can rewind reissue pickups to be near as dammit (as can Bareknuckle in the UK) and has hinted that he may be releasing his own. If I were you, and assuming you haven't routed yet, I'd go for a standard sized humbucker rout; that way you can drop in loads of pickups, be they WRHB clones, PAFs, Filtertron style things (had one of these in my old tele - it's great) or HB-sized P90s. Actual WRHBs make a dirty great hole that can only be fllled by one type of pickup.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed May 05, 2010 11:14 am

Some great advice given above so thanks very much for that.

I'm liking the look of the Novak one's although they do seem pricey when you factor in shipping costs too.

It's difficult to decide whether spending more on the Novak's are going to get me better results than the GFS one's...

I think either way I'd have to cut the scratchplate in order to fit either the original wide range pups or the humbuckers so I guess it wouldn't make much of a difference on that front.

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Wed May 05, 2010 11:19 am

Au contraire my old love: cut it to suit widerangers and you're limited to widerangers. Cut it to fit humbuckers and you can put anything in there. And while I'm a confirmed GFS fan, most of what I've read suggests that their widerangers are visual clones only.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed May 05, 2010 11:22 am

benecol wrote:Au contraire my old love: cut it to suit widerangers and you're limited to widerangers. Cut it to fit humbuckers and you can put anything in there. And while I'm a confirmed GFS fan, most of what I've read suggests that their widerangers are visual clones only.

Haha, yeah, didn't think of that to be fair! doh!

I'll certainly give it a think but my heart is leading me to the Novak's. Now I have to sell some stuff to fund buying one...

Empires · Post by **Empires** » Wed May 05, 2010 11:33 am

benecol wrote:visual clones only

I'd say that about the ones from axesrus as well...

and just to add fuel to the fire, Novak rips the reissues to shreds

Loink

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Wed May 05, 2010 11:43 am

Waiting for the Winter wrote:I'll certainly give it a think but my heart is leading me to the Novak's. Now I have to sell some stuff to fund buying one...

Well that's fine - the one Novak makes, importantly, is standard humbucker sized.

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Wed May 05, 2010 12:11 pm

I put Seymour Duncan Antiquity Humbuckers in one of my Jazzmasters (the one in my picture) when I fancied a guitar with humbuckers, I have no idea of what their comparison to the wide range pickups is though but they sound good to me.

JJLipton · Post by **JJLipton** » Wed May 05, 2010 12:55 pm

They were designed by seth lover or bill lawrence? Perhaps you should look into some seth lover's SD pickups or Gibson 57 classics.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Wed May 05, 2010 1:03 pm

they're constructed completely differently to any of seth lover's gibson designs though, i doubt that's a particularly sensible option if he's after a WRHB sound (whatever that actually is...)

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed May 05, 2010 1:20 pm

stewart wrote:they're constructed completely differently to any of seth lover's gibson designs though, i doubt that's a particularly sensible option if he's after a WRHB sound (whatever that actually is...)

Yeah, the singer in our band plays a Thinline with WRHB's in so I kind of know what they sound like. I've got a 57' classic in one of my guitars and it tends to have a little less clarity than the WRHB, so going for the 57' in the Tele is a definite no no!

I've had no joy finding anywhere that stocks the WRHB in the UK so it's looking likely that I'll get one of the Curtis Novak copies from the States and begrudgingly pay the shipping!

aen · Post by **aen** » Wed May 05, 2010 2:03 pm

I had one in a tele with 1 meg pots. too damn tinny. However, Ive played a number of modern tele deluxes, adn they all sounded KICK ASS, i think those have 500k or 250k pots. I wish I would have tried a pot change before I flipped the pickup.

Dingus · Post by **Dingus** » Wed May 05, 2010 2:05 pm

I put a pair of the GFS ones in my Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Custom, but they just didn't do it for me. It didn't really sound like the WRHB tones I was familiar with, so I sold the guitar.

There is a guy who reconstructs the current Fender WRHB Pickups (ones you already own) on the Classifieds Section of Telecaster.com, he charges a ton for it. No clue what they sound like though, just wanted to add another option to the mix for anyone interested.

I haven't tried the Lollar WHRB ones, but Jason Lollar makes some of the best pickups I've ever heard. He's a super busy guy, but he frequently answers his own phone. I called and ended up purchasing a P-90 (that is the pickup I believe he most known for), and it sounds amazing. It makes my cheap Epiphone Les Paul Jr. '57 Reissue sound heavenly. Maybe I'll post a demo sometime, but yeah I'd call Jason if you have any questions. He actually wrote the book on Pickup Winding (which was out of print for years and fetching up to $300 on eBay).

EDIT: I just checked the Lollar site and didn't see the WRHB on there. Is it a custom order?

Additionally it's worth mentioning (at least I didn't see it mentioned in this thread) that one of the reason these (original) pickups are so expensive, is that they use non-standard magnets made from CuNiFe (a Copper/Nickel/Iron alloy).

Dingus · Post by **Dingus** » Wed May 05, 2010 2:16 pm

Additionally I've never been to that Axesrus site before, so pardon me if this has already been brought up, but MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA: