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Post subject: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 5:21 pm
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Greetings from across the pond in merrie olde Englande...

Here's a strange one.

I bought my first guitar from the celebrated "Andy's" guitar shop on Tin Pan Alley, London, in 1986, aged 16.


On the headstock it is described as a Lead I (Lead i).

And I have loved it ever since, and I now even teach a course in guitar history at Leeds University.

Anyway, the internet is a wonderful thing, and I have been doing some digging into the history of my Fender guitar. And only today did I realise that the Lead I actually came with a single humbucker and the Lead III with twin humbuckers.

So I'm thinking... what have I been living with all these years? Were some Leads built with twin humbuckers; is it a Lead I neck bolted onto a III, which seems a little weird; or a Lead I customised to take two humbucker pick-ups?

Either way, it's a little odd, and I would certainly appreciate any feedback from anyone with some ideas and a greater depth of knowledge than I.

Yours sincerely

From an oddly sunny England

Simon


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2013 6:12 pm
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Perhaps you should "disembowel" the instrument and see what lies beneath the pickguard......?

That will tell you if the 2-pickup configuration is original to the guitar.

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


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 12:12 am
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Retroverbial wrote:
Perhaps you should "disembowel" the instrument and see what lies beneath the pickguard......?

That will tell you if the 2-pickup configuration is original to the guitar.

Arjay



+1!

Only the LEAD III came with dual HBs.

The LEAD I has a single HB and the LEAD II two SCs.

There are also a few LEAD IIs which were modified with 3 SCs and a 5-way switch.

We need a couple of pics to further examine that guitar! :twisted:


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:56 am
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Hi

Thanks for your responses. So yes, a Lead I with twin humbuckers. A strange mongrel of a guitar! Even further complicated by the fact it was sold to me as a Lead II (I checked the receipt).

I do have images but I seem to be having problems uploading them... I'm hitting the "Img" button and it just inserts the words "img/img" into the text box. Any ideas? I'll have a little play around (and I'm working on a Mac)...



/Users/simon/Desktop/double HBs.jpg
/Users/simon/Desktop/Fender Lead I.jpg
/Users/simon/Desktop/headstock.jpg


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:19 am
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Trouble to post?

Well it's so easy like a kid's toy!

First, you must create a free account within an imagehost website (photobucket, imageshack, flickr to name a few).

Once you've created your account upload your media there.

If you're using photobucket, there's no need to use the IMG tags. Just copy the IMG code containing the uploaded file and paste it.

Regards,

John


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:27 am
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Checking under the pickguard is also a must - from 1979 to 1981 the Lead bodies were routed for a single coil in the neck position and the humbucker at the bridge position. Once the Lead III came out in 1982 the bodies were changed to have the HH routing; an early Lead I would have to have been routed to accept a neck humbucker.

I know of one Lead II owner who has a Lead I neck on their guitar from the factory (bought it new, saw it unboxed and the neck has a Lead I decal). It could also have been a Lead III with a neck swap as well as being a Lead I modded with the neck pickup.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 9:29 am
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@John C

We already know that the Lead II employed two single coils.

Over the years a few guitarists modified their Lead IIs by adding either a third single-coil pickup in the middle or an HSS configuration and a 5-way selector.

Image


Image


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 11:39 am
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chromeface wrote:
@John C

We already know that the Lead II employed two single coils.

Over the years a few guitarists modified their Lead IIs by adding either a third single-coil pickup in the middle or an HSS configuration and a 5-way selector.


Did I say anything about a Lead II having 2 pickups? My point being that to do those mods the body would have to have additional routing.

I was telling the OP that if his guitar dates to 1979-1981 he should check for non-factory routing to see if it was a Lead I modded for a neck humbucker. Here is an original Lead I/II body from 1979-1981:

Image

And here is the body routing after the Lead III came out for 1982 (likely late 1981s would have this instead of the original routing):

Image


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:59 pm
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Cheers John

OK, I'll try to link to some photos here (not great as they were quick snaps, but they do the job).

One photo is the whole guitar, one is the headstock (showing Lead I) and one is the pickup configuration. It's a really interesting instrument - like I say, with twin HBs, a solid brass bridge, tremolo arm, and, shall we say, eccentric switching.

Image

Image

http://s1346.photobucket.com/user/DJWro ... sort=3&o=1

Image

Really interested to hear any ideas. Like I say, I bought this guitar second hand in London in 1986, so it was only a few years old, whatever its story...


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 5:49 pm
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She's definitely modded - Leads only came with a hardtail bridge, and based on that extra smaller toggle switch I think that this is a Lead I with the neck pickup added (factory Lead IIIs only had 2 toggle switches).

As I say my Lead II is a '79 so it has the original single/hum rout; it looks like your Lead's serial number starts with an E1 so it's most likely a 1981. By the time the Lead III came out in 1982 they has switched to the hum/hum rout. It's entirely possible that Fender made that change-over sometime in 1981 in anticipation of bringing out the Lead III and your guitar has the factory routing under the pickguard. It's also possible it was re-routed to accept the neck humbucker when it was routed for the trem bridge.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:44 pm
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Dr Disco wrote:
Image


This solid brass bridge is common for a STRAT from that era.

Image

The locking Rockinger bridges from the same period were pretty similar.

Image

My guess is the previous owner had put a STRAT bridge on that guitar in addition to the aftermarket twin humbucking pickup mod.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:21 am
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Thanks for your assistance - it's of great help.

I also didn't realise, until I downloaded all three manuals from the Fender site, that the switching is rather odd - there's certainly at least one extra switch on my guitar.

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 2:11 pm
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Dr Disco wrote:
Thanks for your assistance - it's of great help.

I also didn't realise, until I downloaded all three manuals from the Fender site, that the switching is rather odd - there's certainly at least one extra switch on my guitar.

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?


That mini-toggle switch on your guitar is the aftermarket one, so the question is what kind of switches are the two large toggle switches?

On the Lead I and Lead II the upper large toggle switch is a 3-way, and the lower one is a two-way. On the Lead I the 3-way chooses which coil of the humbucker is active (front/both/back); on the Lead II the 3-way is a typical pickup selector (neck/both/bridge). The two-way is for in-phase and out-of-phase (when both coils of the Lead I humbucker or both pickups of the Lead II are selected).

On the Lead III both switches are 3-way toggle switches. The upper works like the 3-way on the Lead II (neck pickup/both pickups/bridge pickup) and the bottom one is a really odd coil splitter - in the front position it splits the neck pickup, in the middle position neither pickup is split, and in the back position it splits the bridge pickup.

If the two large switches on your guitar are 3-way switches then at least the original pickgard assembly (before the addition of the mini-toggle) may have come from a Lead III. Also if there are no aftermarket routs under the pickguard the body could have come from a Lead III (or at least it was a Lead I body made after Fender changed to the two humbucker rout from the single coil + humbucker rout). If the large switches are a 3-way and a 2-way then the original pickguard could have been from a Lead I. Of course the large toggle switches could have been changed as well.

The neck of course is from a Lead I - but it could be that the Lead I neck was put onto a modded Lead III body, or it could have started out as a Lead I that has been highly modded.


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:31 pm
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I remember these guitars! Never played one but they sure look cool! I wish Fender would bring them back!


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Post subject: Re: Fender Lead i with twin humbuckers
Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 9:17 pm
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Atlantic Beachboy wrote:
I remember these guitars! Never played one but they sure look cool! I wish Fender would bring them back!



Well, how about a Pawnshop Lead III with Enforcer humbuckers and Floyd Rose trem? 8)


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