Hi..I need your help!

If you have tried to authenticate your second hand pickups as Tex Mex, then you must be aware of the difficult task of authenticating second hand Fender Tex Mex pickups.

Reading the many strat forums it’s easy to find folks who are trying to authenticate Tex Mex pickups but are unable to do so for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:

1. Fender quality control is inconsistent and has changed the color of the leads from time to time so the lead colors can be meaningless

2. Fender quality control is inconsistent and has released Tex Mex pickups with DC readings out of the factory box that vary and/or are inconsistent with the resistance stated right on the box and/or in other Fender literature

3. Some blog pictures and accounts suggest that some Tex Mex pickups that came as original equipment on Strats from the factory have beveled poles while others do not.

4. By some accounts and posted pictures, American standard pickups can look just like Tex Mex pickups but they likely will not sound like Tex Mex pickups.

5. Fender does not distinguish the Tex Mex pickups from any of their other pickups by a unique stamped part number or production number or any other distinguishing stamped characteristic.

6. Some folks claim that the Tex Mex pickups can be distinguished because of their staggered poles. Maybe, but this does not take into consideration the fact that some musicians need to better balance their string to string sound using Tex Mex so they may have pushed the poles back down to accomplish this balance, which then makes their Tex Mex look like a standard Flat pole pickup.

These are some of the pitfalls I have found.

If anyone knows of a reliable way to authenticate second hand Tex Mex pickups by some reliable manufactuer mark or trait, or other method, please let me know. This could help me and many other Fender enthusiasts!

Bill

Hi billy11,

I'm not sure what you mean that these pickups have been inconsistently made, or what QC has to do with how the pickups are made or what color wires are used. All of the Tex Mex pups that I've seen look just like this, white wire for neck, red wire for mid, and yellow wire for bridge, with hand written numbers on each. The neck and mid should be 6.4 K ohms, and the bridge should be 7.4 K ohms. I don't recall any Tex Mex with beveled magnets. Typically, many other Fender pickup sets with RWRP mid pup use the yellow wire on the RWRP mid pup, but the Tex Mex and a couple of other sets use different wire colors for all three pups.

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

hmmm i just put a set of these into my 85 mij 50's reissue but it is the neck pup (white wire ) that has more numbers written on it , the ones with the red and yellow wires have the same numbers writen on them (716) any thoughts ?

_________________

They're not expensive pickups, so they're probably real. They're just Texas Specials with a thinner platic bobbin.