I bought the 1969 strat pickups from Fender. The hand wound ones made by Abigail Ybarra.

I installed them on a beat up 1996 strat I picked up on Craigslist. I rewired it with the TBX tone control still in place and I reused the resistor that came with the strat that was wired between the tone controls. The innards were unmolested.

The guitar sounds great to me, and I suppose thats all that matters, but I am wondering if I did the job right.

Question for the technical types out there. Is the capacitor necessary, and did the 69 Custom Shop pickups need one? The instructions from Fender were mute on the subject, the diagram was very basic.

If anyone has an answer great, or a link to some refernece would be great. Thanks!

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So many guitars, so little time!

Your tone controls need the capacitor.
It bleeds off the treble to ground as you wind down the tone pots, giving you what we know as the tone control.

Now sir please clear this up. You installed a TBX tone control, not a regular tone control. Is that right?
If so are you completely happy with the TBX's operation? I personaly think that the 1meg side of it would be too much for 69's. Not that you're wrong, just my opinion.

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No no and no

I install a set into mine and used a 22pf paper and oil cap, and I am pleased with the results.

If you are happy with yours, then that's all that matters, right?

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Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

I guess if it sounds good to you is all the matters. In my experience with CS69 is that I have them with standard 250k CTS pots and standard red capacitor (22uf that fender uses). Neck middle and in between sounds awesome, bridge not so good. Tone control is wired to the bridge and maybe that is my issue. No matter at which detent I set the tone it just does not cut it.

I might try vintage wiring setup vs modern that I have now just to give it another chance.