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Post subject: Squier Vintage Modified '72 Thinline Tele: Pickups
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 4:41 am
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I bought a Squier Vintage Modified '72 Thinline Tele. I've always wanted a '72 thinline but never had the money. Now, with the Vintage modefied that changed.
I am absolutely blown away by the craftmanship of the body and neck. Beautiful wood, lovely finish.
What seemed a bit too good to be true from the beginning was the pickups. The discription sais Widerange Humbuckers and the cover of the pickups sais Fender, which to me, theoretically, would mean that they are actual Fender Wide Range Humbuckers. That would be unbelievable at that price. And it is.
Knowing that the current WR HBs are AlNiCo or in some cases Caramic instead of the traditional CuNiFe I decided to use that guitar with the factory installed Pickups until I would have the money to get proper vintage spec pickups but I exchanged the rest of the electronics for original spec using CTS 250K Pots and a CRL Switch - the good heavy duty US stuff. The result was disappointing, a very dull sound.
So now that I finally got some extra money again I sent the pickups to Goodtone pickups, one of the best Pickup winders in Europe. All his pickups are handwound. He offered to completely disassemble the pups and rebuild them to original specs for me.
As he disassembled them he found the following: The Pickups are made by G&B a Korean Pickup manufactor known for bad products. So the Fender Name on the cover is a bit of a lie.
Inside the Cover that so proundly boasts the name Fender there is a normal sized humbucker. No wonder they didn't sound good with the 250K Pots.
So There are two lies about these Pickups. One of them is the Fender Brand on the cover. That could be explained away with wanting to give the proper look.
But the Fender Website clearly states that the pickups are Widerange Humbuckers. That is just untrue. They are standard sized humbuckers (of poor quality) inside a Widerange humbucker sized tin case.
To be realistic I think for the price of that guitar it still is great and nothing more should be expected. But the discription should be correct anyway.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified '72 Thinline Tele: Pickups
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:42 am
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At the same time, you're both right and wrong. I sympathise with your feelings, but on the other hand, as you say, getting original WRH's for the price of that Squier really was too good to be true.

So, welcome to the world of modern economics...
Every major company has subcontractors, and it's quite common policy to brand a component with the principal manufacturer's logo. Nothing new here; F-logo tuners, Duncan designed pickups, etc.
The name of the pickups was, AFAIK, invented by Fender, so reusing it is up to them. Nothing new here, either - the new (American) Elite series has little to do with the original 80's Elites.
BTW, since the "Wide Range" name doesn't have a ™ or a ®; it seems to be usable for other manufacturers, too.

I'm a bit surprised at your pickup rewinder company - the reissuing of WRH's has been common knowledge for quite some time already, so the disassembling was unnecessary.

If you need pickups like the original WRH's, rewinding the ones you have now may not be enough - the original construction (CuNiFe combined with essentially a "double single coil") is something else.
Telenator makes "almost copies" of the originals, but there are a lot of other alternatives: Creamery, Lollar, Fralin, Novak etc.
And as can be expected, the price of a pair isn't cheap.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified '72 Thinline Tele: Pickups
Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 9:02 am
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Hi jmattis
I know about all the subcontractors and that stuff. My point is that making a Pickup that looks exactly like a much better one and also calling it the same and putting the same name on it may be somewhat misleading to people who are new to the guitar market.
My Pickup Guy disassembled the original G&B Pickups to see how much of it he could use for the rebuild. He was hoping to find useable bobbins. He will now completely rebuild the pickup, using widerange sized bobbins, CuNiFe polepieces and the correct wire (I don't know which) and will only use the cover and maybe the bottom plate from the G&B pickup.
I sent him the pickups originally to get CuNiFe polepieces and the proper winding. That was the original plan. Now he'll need to do a bit more. Which I don't mind.
So what I'm saying is: Not only are the pickup not original Fender (which would be OK as that is, as you pointed out, common practice) But they're not proper widerange pickups either. And even if widerange is not a TM or anything it still means a certain type of pickup. Maybe not legally but otherwise.
All that being said I want to point out again, clearly, that I still think that guitar is an amazing deal! The pickups are the weakest link in its construction and the pickups are the easiest part to upgrade. And the quality of the wood and the craftmanship makes it really worth putting in the money for the better pickups. In the end I will have spent nearly as much on upgrading the pickups and the electronics as I have for buying the whole guitar but then it will be a great guitar.
To me that was clear from the beginning. But there are a lot of other people out there who don't know these things.


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Post subject: Re: Squier Vintage Modified '72 Thinline Tele: Pickups
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 10:16 am
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Twangbang wrote:
Hi jmattis
I know about all the subcontractors and that stuff. My point is that making a Pickup that looks exactly like a much better one and also calling it the same and putting the same name on it may be somewhat misleading to people who are new to the guitar market.
My Pickup Guy disassembled the original G&B Pickups to see how much of it he could use for the rebuild. He was hoping to find useable bobbins. He will now completely rebuild the pickup, using widerange sized bobbins, CuNiFe polepieces and the correct wire (I don't know which) and will only use the cover and maybe the bottom plate from the G&B pickup.
I sent him the pickups originally to get CuNiFe polepieces and the proper winding. That was the original plan. Now he'll need to do a bit more. Which I don't mind.
So what I'm saying is: Not only are the pickup not original Fender (which would be OK as that is, as you pointed out, common practice) But they're not proper widerange pickups either. And even if widerange is not a TM or anything it still means a certain type of pickup. Maybe not legally but otherwise.
All that being said I want to point out again, clearly, that I still think that guitar is an amazing deal! The pickups are the weakest link in its construction and the pickups are the easiest part to upgrade. And the quality of the wood and the craftmanship makes it really worth putting in the money for the better pickups. In the end I will have spent nearly as much on upgrading the pickups and the electronics as I have for buying the whole guitar but then it will be a great guitar.
To me that was clear from the beginning. But there are a lot of other people out there who don't know these things.

If you're not getting those pickups done by Telenator, I seriously doubt you're getting CuNiFe magnets. There is a lot of misleading information on the internet about people who loosely use the term "True Vintage Specs." Buyer beware.


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