why does fender put custom shop fat 50s pickups in all 2012 american standards? doesnt this devalue the true Custom shop Strats? For that matter in a 1956 team built time machine start, why do they put fat 50s in it instead of 1956 spec pickups?

There is much more to a CS Strat than just the pups. Fender just introduced a 56 RI, so now those pups exist and could be specified in a CS guitar.

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

Have you ever heard a set of CS Fat '50s pickups?

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

hehehe

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My Rig: Guitar into Pedals then into Amps and out into Speakers.

Why ask why? Perhaps, the question should by why it took so long to put some amazing pups in these bad boys. Even the humble American Specials had it going on with the Texas Specials!

I have heard them. They do sound great, but so do the 1960 CS pickups in my 2011 shoreline gold relic, the 1958 CS pickups in my 1958 NOS inca silver , the 1959 john english pickups in my 1959 john English light blue relic.

Fender paired those pickups with a Duncan Trembucker in 1998 when the Custom Shop Showmasters were introduced.

They Do sound nice..Cant blame Fender there! good call i Think...

First time I heard someone complain because Fender put better p/u in a strat

Fender has been selling the CS Fat'50s as replacement sets for more than a decade -- people put them in Squiers, MIMs, partsocasters. They might have been exclusively Custom Shop for the first few years (I don't remember), but for a long time they've been more democratic than that.

As for why the Custom Shop makes the Fat'50s available to the unwashed masses to put in their own grubby guitars and yet continues to use them in Custom Shop instruments, it's because they're great pickups.

(I don't know why they'd use Fat'50s in a '56 teambuilt though. There were mid '50s pickups that sounded like Fat'50s but a '56 shouldn't have a RW/RP middle.)

Always a good thing when better equipment trickles down into the lower lines. I dont think it will affect the value of your cs guitar though it thats what you are worried about.

I was thinking about putting these in my '62 AVRI strat.

These pickups can nail the 70's/early-to-mid 80's Clapton tone to perfection!

BTW I'm not certain if the CS had put Fat '50s into their Blackie replicas...