Wide Range Humbucker thoughts

[BradHK]

I mostly play electrics and the vast majority of my guitars are vintage guilds but I have a few Fenders thrown in the mix. All of my Fenders are traditional single coil setups other than one. That one is a 2010 FSR American Vintage 72 Telecaster Custom. I have made some modifications such as installing an original wide range Humbucker dated 1975, custom Pete Biltoft wound bridge pickup, replacement bridge and compensated saddles, white pickguard (replacing the black) and Tele chrome knobs. I kept all of the original parts. I feel like it is a perfect “new” and “old“ combo for me as it has the better average build quality vs the 1970’s Fenders, nitro finish rather than the poly from the 1970’s and an original 1970’s wide range Humbucker. I still favor my vintage guilds but this is a fun guitar.

I have been playing it back to back over the last few days with some of my guilds just to try to determine the difference between the wide range Humbucker and the vintage Guild anti-hum and HB-1 pickups. I know it is not a “scientific“ test due to the differences in the woods, type of guitar (solid, semi, hollow), construction (bolt on neck vs set neck), longer scale on the Fender, hardware, etc... But it was fun and interesting

In summary, the WRH is clear and does not get muddy in a similar way to the Guilds. It can get a little more grit due to the higher output (over 10.5 ohms), is not as ”chimey“ as the anti-hum, and sounds closest to the HB-1 but it has more of a bell like tone to the individual notes. This could be due to the pole pieces being the magnets or the longer scale (or both). Maybe not as full sounding as the HB-1 but it is not thin sounding. What I like is that it sounds different than my Guilds but does not get muddy or dark. A nice option in the mix

 

[shihan]

I don’t have any experience with WR humbuckers; but I had to post to say that is one beautiful Tele.

 

[GGJaguar]

I had a 1981 Tele Custom with the CuNiFe humbucker. I loved it! The only reason I got rid of the guitar is that it weighed over 11 lb!! I've been wondering if the new US-made WR humbuckers really use CuNiFe magnets and if they sound the same as the originals. If they do, I might just have to look into a reissue Tele Custom or Tele Deluxe.

 

[BradHK]

Mine is ash and weighs 7 1/2 pounds. Fender says their new WRH pickups are indeed CuNiFe. For $219 each I would hope they are! They also make less expensive standard reissue WRH pickups and put them in the non USA Fenders. That’s what mine originally came with and I had a custom pickup made with a Fender WRH cover. It sounded great but it used standard bar magnets so it was not a ”real“ WRH. The sound just wasn’t the same as the original WRH. I would like to get the new CuNiFe pickup and compare with the original but not sure I want to buy one and do the swap just for a test.