I posted this is the pickups section but figured on more traffic here. Anyway:

I had a set of CS69s but just couldn't bond with them. So I was gonna sell them and get a set of CS54s until I bumped into a fellow ReRancher at the ReRanch Forum that had what he thought were 57/62s. That was another pickup that I had considered. So we traded. His pickups came out of his Vintage Hot Rod '62 Strat. The wires are neck pickup - white and black, middle pickup - yellow and black, bridge pickup - white and black. The wires are all cloth and wax. The only thing I could find on the internet leads me to believe that these are Fat 50s. At any rate, I am not a fan of whatever these are. If you need some more info, I'll be happy to give it. Oh yeah, staggered pole pieces too. Thanks.

Hookup wire colour is in no way a determining factor in pickup identification. Anything could have been used. The black/white/yellow configuration seems to be used for any vintage style set that features a reverse wound middle pickup.

In truth I can't think of any way to tell exactly what the pickups are. Resistance readings are far too varying with handwound pickups to accurately determine what they are. Measurements are approximate.

If they sound good, don't worry about it. Whats in a name?

_________________
No no and no

Thanks Nik. Only problem is that they don't sound good so I'll be changing them to something else.

SO
What sound are you after Dvlsadvc8t? What exactly is wrong with the sound of the current pickups? Is it possible that the guy you traded with ripped you off?

I recently got to try a Squier with 57/62's on it, next to another Squier with Tex specials's in it. I really thought they were 'there' as far as singlecoils go. Plenty of top end without sacrificing mids. The bass end was a little lacking in output but very defined. Very much the atypical singlecoil. The TS's by comparison lacked a little in the top end, but pushed the mids and bass a little more. Thats just as a comparison to the 57/62's.
I often think pickup design is like a 3way seesaw. What you gain in one end, you take from one of the others.

_________________
No no and no

Didn't rip me off. Known him from the ReRanch forum for a while. In fact, he was going to sell them in orser to buy the CS69s from me but we both thought they were the 57/62s at the time.

Anyway, these pups pretty much lack definition all over (to me they do). They sound very fizzy and not 60 cycle hum fizzy. Add in a little overdrive and the top end goes off the chart with them. Without any effects (which is what I normally run) they seem lifeless and nothing stands out other than they sound like they want to cause the amp to break up - and I'm running through a Twin Reverb. I don't know how else to explain it without sitting there with the guitar in my hand and playing, but I have to say that I like the stock pups in my MIM strat better than these.

I think that they definitely aren't 57/62s but also perhaps just a bad set. Some do come out bad that don't get caught and this happened to be a set. I'll probably put the original pups back in sometime today and play with those until I get either some 57/62s or some Seymour California 50s.

Well nik, I came home and grabbed the Strat to try to figure those things out. I finally got them to sounding good. These are some pretty sensitive pickups when it comes to pickup height. I made even very minor adjustments and it changed the tone immensely. What I was hearing before wasn't something bad with the pickups but was a product of them being too close to the strings. I've never had a single coil react like that, but I can say that I have now. Looks like they may be keepers after all.

Found out today from Fender that these pickups are not 57/62s but are a slightly hotter version of the 62s that are in the American Vintage 62 Strat. That explains why they don't sound like 57/62s.