It is currently Mon Mar 16, 2020 10:47 am

All times are UTC - 7 hours



Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 
Author Message
Post subject: Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup manufacturing issues
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 5:23 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm
Posts: 4
Hello Guys,

Its my first post here, glad to join this community!

Recently i have bought a Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup set from a top seller on eBay. When i received it, i got surprised by 2 issues*:

1) "low quality" of magnet beveling as you can see on these pictures:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/442/03neck.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/526/02middle.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/43/01bridge.jpg/

You can see that some poles are very beveled, and others are simply not beveled! I understand that this pickup is supposed to have "hand beveled poles", but this is too much variation in my opinion :-)

2) Resistance is way too high comparing to the specs:

Measured (B M N): 6.7K 7.0K 6.6K

Spec (B M N): 6.2K 6.3K 6.0K

These measurements were made directly on the pickup, without any other eletronics connected to it. The same Multimeter tells me a resistance of 5.7K in a Custom Shop 69 set that i have too, which seems to be correct.

After all, im not liking the sound of these pickups. I was expecting a vintage output, but these resistances are almost equal to Texas Specials (which i dont like by the way).

* at this moment i still dont know if these 2 points are "issues" or if they are just characteristic of this kind of custom shop pickup.

My feeling is that something is wrong (fake pickups), but the package seems to be ok, the pickups have the Custom Shop decal on the base, and Bridge/Neck pickup have the blue and red dots.

I would like to hear your opinion. Thanks!


Top
Profile
Fender Play Winter Sale 2020
Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup manufacturing issues
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:22 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26416
Location: Tombstone Territory
Your DCR measurements are significantly over the factory spec for sure. Is the middle pickup RP/RW? Its leads should've been yellow and black.

For a vintage vibe, these hotter pickups should probably be lowered a bit -- say, 1.5 mm on the bass (wound-string) side and 1.0 mm for the treble side.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup manufacturing issues
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:28 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm
Posts: 4
Hello, thanks for the reply!

Yes, the middle is RW/RP, and the wire is yellow.

I still can not understand why the DCR is so out of the spec. Maybe i will contact Fender.


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup manufacturing issues
Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 6:42 pm
Offline
Rock Icon
Rock Icon
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
Posts: 26416
Location: Tombstone Territory
I built a hardtail Strat about four years ago and bought a new set of Fat 50's for it at that time. Their DCR specs were right on the money and the beveled pole pieces were uniformly machined.

Sounds like QC/QA is starting to slip.

Arjay

_________________
"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup manufacturing issues
Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 7:17 am
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm
Posts: 4
Guys, i was just wondering... The DC Resistance is around 10% higher on all of 3 pickups. There are only a few reasons for this:

1) 10% more winding

2) The wire resistance is 10% higher than spec

#1 is out of the question in my opinion, it would be a stupid mistake for this kind of product. Then, probably the wire resistance is 10% higher.

Does somebody here knows the resistance tolerance for this kind of wire? (i mean, difference to the nominal resistance per meter at 25 ºC)

Thanks!


Top
Profile
Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Fat 50s Pickup manufacturing issues
Posted: Fri May 10, 2013 6:25 pm
Offline
Hobbyist
Hobbyist

Joined: Tue Apr 30, 2013 4:56 pm
Posts: 4
Hello guys, thanks for all replies. What i did on last days:

- Measured the DC Resistance again (this time the amb. temperature was 15ºC, previously it was around 25ºC)

- Measured the Inductance of each pickup

- Have inspected the pole pieces that have are not bevelled to see if they were mounted upside down

- Have inspected the pickup at all (wire color, bobin, blue and red dots, custom shop decal, etc...) trying to identify some evidence of fraude

The results:

DCR @ 25ºC (B M N): 6.7K 7.0K 6.6K
DCR @ 15ºC (B M N): 6.5K 6.8K 6.4K
DCR Spec (B M N): 6.2K 6.3K 6.0K

Inductance Measured (B M N): 2.7H 2.6H 2.5H
Inductance Spec (B M N): 2.8H 2.75H 2.4H

Pole pieces which are not beveled ARE NOT inverted. Also, the pickup seems to be genuine: it have the blue and red dot indicating the Neck and Bridge pickups, the winding wire is orange, cloth output wires, fiber bobin, etc...

Conclusions:

1) The hand beveling of pole pices is terrible. Probably the guy who makes this beveling was not in a good day when this pickup was manufactured. Anyway, there is a big fault on the quality assurance process.

2) The DCR is higher than spec, but since it varies too much with the temperature, it is not possible to say that it is a problem. See this material from Lollar Pickups:

http://www.lollarguitars.com/blog/categ ... esistance/

3) The pickup IS original (despite the terrible pole finish)

4) I decided to install and stick with them, but will report the finish issues to Fender.

PS: yes, one pole (1st string) of bridge pickup have a huge scratch


Top
Profile
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 6 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 7 hours

Fender Play Winter Sale 2020

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to: