I just purchased a used Classic 50's Strat that is supposed to have Custom Shop Fat 50's pickups installed. Indeed, the box with the old pickups was included. However, when I looked at the pickups in the box (supposed to be the originals), they appeared to never have been installed, no solder on the wires. All three have 016730 engraved on them. Can anyone tell me if they are the original pickups? I plan to remove the pick guard later and will see if the ones installed are in fact Fat 50's (the diagram instructions say they are colored coded with a dot) so hopefully I will know then, but for now I'm concerned. I guess I'm mistrusting of the shop that said they installed them, not the prior owner.

The Fat 50's set features a RWRP middle pickup -- Fender usually distinguishes these types by using yellow and while lead-in wires on them. If your set lacks this I think you've been hosed.

Arjay

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"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

'Cept... hang on. Isn't tvr1979 saying the guitar came with pickups installed and another set in a box? That's two sets of pickups: presumably one or other are the promised CS Fat '50s? That doesn't sound like a hose job.

I think we need to see photos of the undersides of both sets of pickups. We may or may not be able to determine what they both are from that.

Got a camera, tvr1979?

BTW: on another thread which I now can't find you mentioned the paint job on a handbuilt British sports car you owned. Would that happen to have been a 1979 TVR by any chance? Was it a 3000? Got a photo of that too, please?

Cheers - C

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016730 would be the stock staggered pole coils. It's possible they clipped the wires rather than desolder them. Who knows?
But I'm betting the installed coils are as advertised.
I'm also guessing the coils in the box have a blue and a white wire on one, a red and a white on another, and a yellow and a white on the third...

Thanks everyone,
The ones installed are Custom Shop Classic 50"s (I looked under the pick guard), the ones in the box have white/black wires, wrvond. I still don't know what they are...maybe whoever changed them wanted the original PU's that came with the guitar and switched them? Yes Ceri, I did own a 1979 TVR 3000s. I wasn't impressed with lacquer paint because I bought it new (it was about 10 months old from the time of manufacture), and the paint was already starting to cloud. Noticeable when you looked at parts of the car that were not exposed to sunlight. I'll try later to post some pictures. I just switched from Microsoft to a new Apple and haven't tried downloading pictures yet.

The Fat 50's are a RWRP set -- the middle pickup will have a yellow lead-in wire. They only come with white pickup covers (standard fit, and can be swapped for aged white, parchment, black, etc). The magnets are staggered and the pole pieces are beveled.

If what's in the box doesn't look like the above description, then the pickups are not Fat 50's.

Arjay

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"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