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So i traded my mexi strat for a deluxe 72 reissue telecaster as ive wanted one of these for ages, the guy i got it from was gathering the parts and he had everything but the pickups and knobs

My question is , is it worth getting the wide range pickups?
i have put some dimarzios i had spare in it and put some pickups rings on it to cover the rest of the pickup routes

i only ask because im in australia and ill have to order the from the US and its going to cost me a couple of hundred bucks to ship them over.
one of the reasons i like the tele deluxe is beacause of the looks of the humbuckers, but do they sound decent enough to order them?

if Anyone who has one of these or the pickups let me know your thoughts on them

Cheers,
Matt

mike did an demo of one
[youtube][/youtube]

general rule of thumb if you like the sound of those dimarzios then keep em!
if you put a set of WRHBs in it make sure you have 1meg pots in otherwise it'll sound nasty

Haze wrote:general rule of thumb if you like the sound of those dimarzios then keep em!

ah, well, can't do much damage with that now can we? perhaps it should've been rule of wrist?

the reissue WRHBs are decent enough but there's nothing especially unique about them besides the shape of the cover. any aftermarket pickup you want to put in there could easily be as good or better. I like these:

http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/hum-WR.shtml

Try a different amp first, I initially thought my 08 squier Tele Custom lacking until I acquired a Crate "V" Series 1512 tube amp. Once plugged in the Tele Custom came alive and I was like you considering a pup swap.

I've owned one of these guitars for six years and didn't get on well with the pickups at all until I changed the pots to 500k (from the stupid 250k pots it ships with). I tried 1M pots as well, but they were a bit too bright for my liking. The pots are cheap enough to try both, so if you do decide to go with the WRHBs, get four 5k pots and four 1M and give it a whirl. It's the only guitar I still have with humbuckers, and I do like the reissue WRHBs after the pot change.

I'm not sure where you're from, but the shops in my area always have these guitars in stock. If you can demo one you can get a reasonable idea as to the character of the pickups, but imagine that it will not sound as muddy after replacing the pots with correct values.

I entertained having a shot at those Novaks that mage linked, but keep in mind they are not a drop-in replacement as they are Gibson-sized.

Novak also can convert the RIs to vintage specs. A lot cheaper than other people are doing it for too.
"Other than the 3x3 pole pieces it is a Gibson style humbucker, and NOTHING like a vintage WRHB

Personally I think the pot switch does wonders for these guitars. Having finally heard a real WRHB in Pat's Bronco after he kindly made a demo, I'm pretty sure the pickups have the same sort of bright humbucker vibe then.

Thanks for the replies,

I was pretty much just going to leave the dimarzios in there, but then for the first time ever on Australian ebay a pair of brand new reissue wide range pickups came up, i didnt have the money to spare but as they never come up i had to buy them :p

should be recieving them early next week hopefully.

now my question is, do i change all the pots? to either 500k or 1 meg

or only the tone pots?
i may have a couple of new 500k cts pots i think, so maybe just the neck vol+tone for now?

cheers

you want 1meg pots

Volume posts first and if you still want brightness, do the tones also.

if you don't like the 1 meg you can just turn it down a notch and it'll be the same as a 500k. with the 1 megs you'll always have the option of the extra brightness if you want it.

I'm gonna replace the pots in my 72 custom, I should have done it years ago but never got around to it as I didn't use it that often... however I'm now using it as my main guitar for a band I've just joined...
I'm planning to change the HB pots to 500k, but leave the single coil at 250 and see how it sounds...

ok cool, i already have the 2x 500k pots, so ill change the volumes and see how i go.

i want these pickups now!

cheers