Hey Folks,
Ok, here's the story. A number of years back I had picked up 2 Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups...neck and mid, for my '96 MIM Strat. I had found them at the Cleveland GC on clearance for dirt cheap, so I got them along with a Duncan rail for the bridge. The VN's were (are) really great sounding pups and about 1000% better than the stock MIM pups, but over the years I really liked the sound of the Duncan in that Strat much better, so this last year I picked up two more Duncans to round out the set.

As I was going thru the basement studio the other day, I found the VN's and I jumped up on Ebay and got a bridge VN to make a complete set which I'm now going to put in my new Squire Standard. The problem is, when I pulled the neck and mid VN's out of the MIM I forgot to mark which pickup was which! DOH! Both pups look virtually identical (including one black and one white wire on each pup). The only difference I can see is a hand written marking on each...one had an "R" written on it and the other an "E" (looks like these were written on the back of the pups with some sort of white grease marker and both letters are circled). When I purchased these pups, I was told they were new and had never been installed so I assume these markings came from the factory.

So, the question is...how the devil to I tell which pup is for the neck and which is for the mid? Also, any idea what those hand written markings actually mean? I've already asked my local Fender authorized shop and the guy had no clue at all (he pretty much just stood there with his jaw open collecting flys), so I'm depending on the good folks here!

Thanks!
Jim

Anyone?

Is there a difference between them?

Are any of the wires different color?

Have you checked out the diagrams of Strat models that have those pickups? (See the "Support" link at the top of the page)

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Never mind...I finally found one of the boxes they came in. On the label of the box it says, "Neck/Middle pickup" so apparently they pickups for the neck and the middle are the same in this series.

Sorry...chalk that one up to a great many dead brain cells over the years!

Peace,
Jim