The Duchess Tele set is for the Telecaster player in need of that distinctive smooth Tele twang but with none of the ice pick cut. The neck pickup is warm and balanced with a full clarity and string separation. This a medium powered set that sits nicely in my range between the Silver Lady and Cruel Mistress.
The Duchess Tele Set
The Duchess Tele set will do just about everything from ‘vintage’ Tele twang to a platform for pedals.
The Duchess’ beginnings
The idea for this pickup started in 2021. I had some work at Roundhead recording studios in Auckland looking after the guitars of an American recording artist. During the process, the producer and engineer (working from the US) decided to send over their favorite ‘magic’ telecaster because they wanted that sound on the record.
The guitar arrived and it was an original ’61 Fender Esquire Custom, sunburst, double bound and just beautiful.
Although it was an Esquire it had a neck pickup that they told me had been added later. After taking the pick guard off it looked more like the neck pickup had been fitted in the factory so maybe it was a custom order.
My job was to check over this guitar and set it up for the recording.
I plugged it in and loved the sound immediately, now I understood why they’d shipped it over from the US for this session. So, I got my test meters out to analyze every aspect of the pickup. It was rather unusual for a Fender pickup of that time so maybe it had been re-wound at some stage. That didn’t matter, it sounded great, so I set out to make a Telecaster set in that style but with my own spin.
I made quite a few prototypes and did all the usual testing but didn’t quite get around to releasing the pickup.
The Duchess Tele is finally born
Then in 2022 I had the idea for my Pandora 3-way pickup. I used the design for The Duchess bridge pickup as the middle position for the Pandora. I knew all along the Pandora was never going to be for everyone but was pleasantly surprised when the idea caught on.
An order for a Pandora came in from an old friend of mine in the UK. He’s called Darren Driver and he’s in a well-established Springsteen tribute band – The Boss and the Beeston Street Band
Darren had been a customer of mine when I had a guitar shop in Leeds in the late 90’s. He was a Telecaster player back then. It’s always good to re-connect with people.
A couple of months later Darren got in touch saying how the mid position of the Pandora was his ideal Telecaster sound. Well, that was all it took. I got into the workshop and made a matching neck pickup for the Duchess. That week’s band practice I tested the set next to the drummer and was still really happy with it. So, I sent a set off to Yorkshire.
Darren said he was happy to make a demo of the pickups once he had got them into him number one Telecaster. That’s him in the video above.
And so The Duchess Tele set was born.
The Duchess – Tele set is great with either 250KOhm or 500KOhm volume pots. It’s really up to you – 500K will give more high-end Tele twang while the 250K will sound warmer. It really is a great pickup set either way.
I have made a couple of short videos to explain my thinking behind these two pickups:
I came across a blog I wrote in 2010 about a repair on an old Hofner pickup, thought you might be interested:
I had a visit from Paul Crowther the other day (always a pleasure to see him). He’s rather a legend for amongst other things his ‘Hotcake’ overdrive pedals and the ‘Prunes and Custard’ (my favorite for theremin).
He wanted to know if my coil winding machine was up and running – he had an interesting pickup for me to wind.
Its an old Hofner pickup which I guess is from the 50’s. The guitar has 3 of them and this one has a break in the windings so needs to be re-wound. This would normally be a straight forward job except for the design of this pickup.
This is the inside of it. The windings (around the outside) are not wrapped around a bobbin. They are just sitting in the pickup and have been wrapped in tape to protect them. In the middle you can see the magnets sitting in a hard putty. There are incidentally only 5 magnets. So the problem Paul left me with was how to wrap about 5000 turns of extremely thin wire into a coil and therefore make a pickup. After a long brainstorming session with Sheena we came up with a plan.
Very tricky re-wind, Hofner pickup
We figured that the wire had to be wound around a bobbin and then somehow the bobbin removed.
So I made this bobbin. The sides are plastic from a Strat pickguard (white) and the centre has been carved from candle wax.
The bobbin bolts together and is attached to another plastic plate which in turn fits to the winding machine. The idea is to wind the pickup on this and then warm the completed coil up and melt the wax. The wax should seep into the coil thus potting it as well. Then the sides can be unbolted and voila a copy of the original coil.
Winding the coil wasn’t any different from any other pickup – so now for the tricky bit.
I warm the coil ever so gently with a heat gun. I put my free hand next to the work to judge the temperature – if it gets too hot the plastic will melt and I’ll be starting again.
When I see some wax oozing out I ever so gently remove the top plate.
With the wax exposed I can apply more heat and watch it flow into the coil and as it cools becomes solid.
Then I wrap tape around it to hold everything in place. I cannot emphasize enough how fiddly this is. There are a few stray wires and if any of them break I’m starting again.
It may not be much to look at but its taken hours of quiet patience. The slight curve is to match the shape of the pickup casing. I’ve tested it and I’m pleased with it at 5.5Kohms. In the background you can see the magnetic lugs – I had to dig them out of the putty.
I put the whole thing back together using ‘friendly plastic’ instead of putty then fill the casing with wax, solder the back on and its finished.
Its been quite a task fixing this old Hofner pickup but I’m happy with the result.
It was so satisfying breathing new life into this old Hofner pickup, it should be good for another 50 years.
Glyn
Hofner Pickup – an interesting repair
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Les Paul Jr P90 from 1955Integrity -vintage humbuckerGretsch Filtertron 1961
The Tūmatauenga bridge pickup is the signature pickup of Lewis De Jong from the band Alien Weaponry.
This is no ordinary pickup, it’s specifically designed around Lewis’ requirements on stage and in the studio.
This pickup is aggressive and immediate, the bass is tight and punchy, mids powerful and clear with clear highs. It has power but also clarity to bring out the complex chords in Lewis’ playing.
These samples of the Tūmatauenga Alien Weaponry pickup were recorded by Lewis using: a DBZ Bolero guitar, D’addario 11-56 Nickel Wounds tuned to drop C#, Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 50 heads x2, Marshall MF280 4×12 with V30s x2, Shure Wireless/tuner, Ibanez Weeping Demon, Line 6 M5, Boss HM6, Radial ABY box (all off/bypassed for this demo), mics used – Sennheiser ES906, Audio i5
Photo:Taylor Baron
The Story of the Tūmatauenga Alien Weaponry Pickup
I was contacted by Alien Weaponry in December 2021 on their way back from a US tour. They were wondering if it was possible to have a NZ pickup made for Lewis. I jumped at the chance.
I’d been working on a pickup for extreme metal for some time and thought this might be me chance to use it. I loaded a test guitar with this pickup and headed to Waipu to meet Lewis. The band are based about 2 1/2 hours from my home so it was a great opportunity to do everything in person and ,of course, meet one of New Zealand’s best bands..
We plugged my test guitar into Lewis’ Marshall at their rehearsal room and it was obvious from their reaction that this wasn’t the sound they wanted. Okay, so it was going to take some work.
I had a listen to the pickups he was using and we had a long chat about what he wanted. I took one of their pickups out of his No.2 guitar to take back to the workshop to analyze.
Back at the workshop I measured all the parameters of the pickup and made a plan. I didn’t want to clone his existing sound but I couldn’t go too far away from it. I wanted to increase the punch of the bass and add a little clarity to the mids. One thing that was important was that it still sounded like their last album – you can’t go out on tour with a completely different sound.
I made a couple of prototypes and the following week headed back to Waipu.
I had one of the prototypes in my LTD test guitar and although it wasn’t exactly right is was close. From now on all the testing would be in Lewis’ own guitars. Once you’re close you need to minimize the parameters. And that’s how it went, swapping pickups and testing until Lewis was happy.
Finally we had the sound but that wasn’t all, it needed to look right.
The design on the pickup
The design on the pickup came from the band – here is what they say about it:
Mangopare (Hammerhead shark) is a kaitiaki (guardian) and tohu āriki (sacred chiefly symbol) of our family.
It is a traditional design motif that appears throughout Māoridom but is particularly treasured by my tribal group (Te Arawa) It stands for strength, courage and power.
Name of the pickup – Tūmatauenga (Māori god of war)
The name was decided to be Tūmatauenga (pronounced “2 ma toe enga”) the Māori god of war.
The Cool 90 is a P90 based pickup available in both Dogear and Soapbar. Designed with Jazz and Blues players in mind it produces a clear, full, well balanced tone. Never harsh, always full and musical.
The bridge pickup has an organic sound with a lower mid push ideally suited to dynamic lead lines and tight rhythm playing.
The neck pickup is clear and chiming with enough clarity to always be heard in the mix. It has that lovely woody tone especially in an archtop.
Like many of my pickups the this one started with a repair job. A customer sent be a faulty Gibson P90 out of a 1955 Les Paul Junior. Naturally, I took measurements and completely analyzed every detail of it. Unlike the information in the books (and internet) it had less windings and Alnico II magnets instead of Alnico V.
And what a great sounding pickup it was.
I decided to make my own version of it to compliment the ‘Sassy” P90 pickup I was already making. The Sassy has the classic “full fat” P90 tone, plenty of growl and cut through.
The idea was to make a lower powered version for the cleaner player. Still keeping the classic P90 character but with less grunt.
I experimented and tested and eventually came up with this design.
There is something so unbelievably cool about the Fender Telecaster Bass. The classic lines, that headstock, the pickguard, the association with great players and, of course, the tone. What ever it is we all love about this great instrument here’s a pickup to do it justice.
Whether you play with fingers or a pick this classic pickup will deliver. More present in the mix than the Precision split pair but with that distinctive punch and clarity.
This is the straight version of the P Bass pickup, often called the ’51 Bass Pickup so as not to confuse it with the split pair P bass pickup.
Over the years I’ve re-wound a lot of old Fender pickups. I like to make notes to record what I find in these old pickups, wire gauge, insulation types, d.c. resistance, magnetic gauss, dimensions. My notebook is getting pretty full. This is my constant reference when I’m designing a new pickup, that and my ears.
I’ve based these pickups on the best of the old Fenders I’ve come across over the years. Not all vintage pickups are great but when you see enough of the good ones patterns begin to form.
I still repair pickups and still add to my old notebook, always learning 😎.
You may have heard of Series Parallel wiring in guitars, here’s how to do it.
There are numerous ways to wire a humbucker. The standard way is in series, its the sound we all know, with that pushy lower mid tone.
Some players like to coil tap their humbucker to get the option of a thinner more Fender type tone. That is essentially switching one coil off.
A less well used way to thin the sound is with a series/parallel switch. A humbucker in parallel is more single coil like than in standard wiring, there’s less volume drop than coil tapping and it still hum cancels. I much prefer it.
So what is Series/Parallel all about?
The standard way of wiring a humbucker is in series. PAF’s are wired this way and it gives the traditional full sound with plenty of mids and bottom end. Its simply one coil following the other, the end of one coil connected to the beginning of the next.
Wiring a humbucker in parallel is quite a different sound. It’s much more similar to a single coil sound but the pickups is still hum cancelling. There is a drop in volume though not as much as with a coil tap (switching one coil off).
This humbucker wiring diagram shows how to do it with a push/pull switch. With the switch down and the humbucker is wired in series (normal), pull it up and it’s in parallel. The wiring colour code is for Mr Glyn’s Pickups (I use the same colours as Seymour Duncan).
Series Parallel diagram
Not such a hard diagram to follow is it. I’m not sure why this modification isn’t more popular. Maybe it’s a little harder to understand than coil tapping, maybe it’s because its a little more complicated to wire up. I certainly prefer it in my guitars to give an extra tonal option without taking anything away from the original sound.
It would be great if you could subscribe to this blog (below) so you don’t miss out on any other pickup related articles.
I’m going to be posting a few more wiring diagrams in the near future. Keep an eye on this blog or my social media:
Mr Glyns Pickups is a small business which means I can communicate with my customers one to one. I’m always happy to discuss your requirements, answer questions and give advice. I want to know about the guitars my pickups are going in, send me pictures, send me recordings.
It’s always interesting to see where my pickups end up, in this case Hamurana Guitars NZ.
Hamurana Guitars
Hamurana are world class combining looks, playability and tone. I’ve played a few – they are outstanding.
Hamurana have used my pickups in a few builds and it’s always great to see what he comes up with. This time he’s used a pair of my my Black Sand humbucker size P90’s.
You can get in touch with them and order your dream guitar here:
I always enjoy working alongside professional guitar makers to achieve what their customer needs. Feel free to get in touch if you are a pro luthier and we can talk.
Mr Glyns Pickups Jazzmaster vintage set is intended for the clean player needing a low powered Jazzmaster set with full tone, warmth and clarity.
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These pickups have smooth a jangly treble , always present, never harsh and distinctively Jazzmaster. The bass is clean, clear, woody and full of character and with the warmth of the original Jazzmaster pickups. The mid range is smooth and well balanced. Alnico II magnets give these pickups a clear, very musical quality.
Wound RWRP they hum cancel when both pickups are on.
Their clarity makes these pickups suitable for many musical styles and lend themselves well to pedals with the personality of the pickups shining through. Drenched in reverb and delay, grinding fat fuzz tones or even clean Jazz.
Jazzmaster vintage design
This pickup set was designed around the standard 1MegOhm pots though work equally well with 500KOhm or 250KOhm. It’s really up to you which tone you prefer.
I’ve always had a fondness for offset guitars and Jazzmasters in particular. Is it the look? The smooth, clear treble? The versatile electronics? Probably all of those things. Jazzmasters are not like anything else, you either get it or you don’t.
I hope you enjoy these pickups, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed designing, and especially testing them. This time the rigorous testing that I put all my pickups through re-kindled my love of Jazzmasters. The sound of a pickup and the way it reacts to pedals and your amp change the way you play. I really like the direction these pickups have steered me in. I wish it was possible to demo the feel of a pickup not just the sound because the feel is a huge part of it.
Sound Samples
The sound samples are a CIJ Jazzmaster into a NZ made old Jansen amp – ECC83, 6L6. With a Celestion Hot 100 12″ and using an SM57.
Each riff goes from neck pickup to middle to bridge using the treble circuit. The 4th riff compares the neck pickup on the treble circuit to the neck on the rhythm circuit, then the middle, then bridge.
The ‘Mini’ is inspired by the Gibson mini humbuckers of the 70’s used in the Les Paul Deluxe.
The ‘Mini’ is a clean clear sounding mini humbucker with the warmth and clarity from an alnico II magnet combined with low winding strength. This gives them a full, smooth, chiming bass, clear mids and an almost jangly treble, present but never harsh.
Great for jazz, funk, blues, pop or any genre that requires a clean, low powered humbucker set.
Mini humbuckers are great pickups, lower in power than their full size sisters their clarity comes from less windings around a smaller bobbin. The smaller size of the pickup means they ‘hear’ less of the string length than a full size humbucker. The result is a clearer tone with less of the lower mid range push that you get from a PAF.
The neck pickup has a clear voice ideal for funk or jazz. The neck and bridge pickups together have a perfect balance when used together, ideal for clean rhythm playing. The bridge pickup alone has a cheeky ‘cut through’ quality pushing you to the front of any mix.
Although he Les Paul Deluxe was a short lived guitar in the Gibson range the mini humbucker has lived on. It is a very popular pickup in custom guitars particularly the neck pickup and is a great match for Mr Glyn’s ‘Cruel Mistress’ telecaster bridge pickup.
mini humbucker
If you’re looking for a pickup that is clearer than a PAF, has a less prominent lower mid spike with an even balanced tone then the mini humbucker could be the pickup for you.
Been having some fun making a pickup demo using a P90 skateboard lap steel.
It’s a fun instrument and pretty easy to make. Skateboards are surprisingly resonant.
P90 skateboard lap steel
The Mr Glyn’s “Sassy” P90 is a pickup set influenced by the Gibson P90’s of the late 50’s. The “Sassy” have a distinctive woody aggressive tone, full of character. The highs are smooth yet punchy, there’s a chiming bottom end and a very obvious mid range that pushes through the mix. If you tickle the strings they’re clean and clear but dig in and there’s no shortage of power to drive the front end of your amp.
I’ve grown to love P90’s over the years, it’s the sound of those early Gibson Les Paul Juniors. It’s a pickup that needs no extras, just straight into a good amp. They’re happy to power pedals but there’s a fullness and balance that seems to need nothing else.
I wanted the “Sassy” P90 set to live up to its name and have the dynamic range that I love about P90’s. The wide flat coil of a P90 gives a richer, less percussive tone than other single coil pickups and this is where the full tone comes from. I’ve sat both neck and bridge pickups on top of a pair of Alnico V magnets to give the power this pickup needs and help add that bit of grit when played hard.
I’ve made the neck pickup smooth and fat but with clarity and chime enough for jazz. The bridge pickup has the dynamics, pushy mids and aggressive highs when pushed but cleans up when you ask it to.
This is a pickup set that would be happy in almost any situation, blues, rock, punk, reggae… If it’s a full bodied, dynamic P90 you’re after look no further.
I’ve named this set the “Sassy” P90 set to reflect these pickup’s attitude, they’re bold, spicy, disrespectful and a bit cheeky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJtZkIbaCZU
Take a Squire Affinity, give it to luthier Ramsay Phillips, add some Mr Glyn’s pickups Clear View humbucker set and see what you get? Superb demo from Jason Herbert – all 3 of him.
The Clear View humbucker set is something different. It’s a humbucker for players that don’t like humbuckers.
This pickup set is all about pure clarity. There are no pushy lower mids that make your clean sound a mush. The highs are clean and clear but not harsh, the bottom end is clear but with none of that humbucker woof.
If single coils are too harsh and unforgiving, conventional humbuckers too powerful and muddy then here’s the solution. The “Clear View” humbucker is low powered and balanced, designed for the textural player, great with reverbs and modulation, sits its the mix without getting in the way.
I repair quite a few old pickups and thought you might be interested this ‘68 Telecaster bridge pickup repair.
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’68 Tele Bridge Pickup
Assessing the damage
As you can see it’s looking pretty tired. I quite like seeing pickups like this – it’s clearly given great service for decades. This is just wear and tear and the sign of a happy life, and although it isn’t working now there’s no reason why it can’t be made good for a few more decades.
One of the first things I noticed is the black tape. Underneath it is the original waxed protective string. I’m not sure why someone added that.
The plate underneath has aged fantastically but as you can see the earth wire is missing from it. I re-solder the connections just in case there is a dry joint but the pickup is still dead.
I suspect this is the fault- the top plate has warped over time and the corrosion has got in and damaged the windings. That top plate looks like a skateboard deck – it should be flat! This ’68 telecaster bridge pickup is going to need a re-wind.
Removing the windings
With the back plate off you can clearly see the date.
And here it is, this is the problem. With the windings cut away you can clearly see that the corrosion on the pole piece has spread into the winding. There’s a bit of wax in there too from when it was potted originally.
So here’s the plan. I need to flatten that top plate back. Then clean up the pole pieces. I need to do something about the corrosion. And finally re-wind the pickup to original spec. And most importantly make it look like nothing ever happened.
Repairing this 68 Telecaster bridge pickup
Cleaning the poles is easy, then I flatten the top plate and glue it in place with super glue. Originally it was just a push fit. Then I treat the rust with some anti rust stuff. Here you can see it masked off so I can give the poles a couple of coats of lacquer.
Next I wrap the poles with thin tape. I want to protect the windings from future corrosion. I want this pickup to play hard for another 50 years.
Then it’s re-winding and wax potting and finally replacing the original string.
Of course, I forget to take a photo of it with the string on.
If you want a Telecaster pickup set similar to an old 68 Telecaster bridge pickup take a look at my “Silver Lady” set. The Silver Lady is wound to very similar spec to the old Fenders.
The Tron pickup set is based around the legendary Gretsch Filtertron pickups Of the 50’s and 60’s. To say The Tron has character is an understatement. The Tron is full and rounded with a well balanced mid range but with that distinctive ‘Clank’ that separates it from other pickups. The neck pickup is clear and fat and the bridge stands out from the mix without ever sounding harsh.
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The Tron demos
Here’s the full demo from Brett:
Development of The Tron
Over the years I’ve repaired a fair few old Gretsch pickups and noticed the best sounding ones are at the upper range for ohms. I’ve taken that design and tweaked it until I got the fullness I was looking for but without loosing clarity or clank.
Most of my pickups are made in collaboration with a professional player, but not TheTron. I started playing guitar at the age of 16 when I first heard Malcolm Young – a Filtertron through an almost clean valve amp. I didn’t feel I needed another set of ears for this one, I knew exactly what I wanted.
I needed this pickup set to be crystal clear with a clean amplifier but to come into its own when pushing an amp to clip. The neck pickup needed to be clear, full and chiming in both a big archtop and in the neck position of a Telecaster. The bridge pickup needed to have no shortage of character, a clean almost jangly tone when played gently but with enough go in it to push the front end of a valve amp to clip when you dig in.
Who is it for?
The Tron is the perfect pickup as a Gretsch upgrade, for the modern player wanting something other than Gibson style humbuckers, rockabilly players after that traditional tone, jazz players or, like me, Malcolm Young fans. There’s so much you can to with The Tron.
For the modern player with one foot in the past.
Sound Sample
This sound sample is using an Epiphone Sheraton straight in to an early 70’s Jansen Bassman 50 through a Celestion G12T-100 speaker recorded through an SM57 straight into Audacity. Clean, no eq nothing added. There are 2 riffs, neck pickup, both pickups then bridge for each riff.
And as for the name “TheTron”? – I think you have to be a Kiwi…
A big thanks to Jonathan Ho for this great New Cruel Mistress Hot Tele Demo showing us Tele’s are for more than just country.
In this Hot Tele Demo he works his way through a raft of musical styles with an emphasis on ROCK.
Mr Glyns Cruel Mistress hot Telecaster Pickups are designed for the Tele player who wants more than the traditional country twang. They have a full bottom end, cut through mids and a top end that is strong but never harsh. They’ll push you amp that bit harder without loosing that Telecaster character.
In Ep#11 Mr Glyn Meets Your Maker I get to catch up with an old mate. Tim Stark is head luthier at Manson Guitars in the UK.
Back in the late 90’s I used to teach guitar making and repair at a college in the UK and Tim was one of my students. He’s a smart guy and has gone way further than I ever did. He went on to work for Manson Guitars and has made some of the most interesting custom guitars there are.
The “Clear View” humbucker is something different. It’s a humbucker for players that don’t like humbuckers.
This pickup set is all about pure clarity. There are no pushy lower mids that make your clean sound a mush. The highs are clean and clear but not harsh, the bottom end is clear but with none of that humbucker woof.
If single coils are too harsh and unforgiving, conventional humbuckers too powerful and muddy then here’s the solution. The “Clear View” humbucker is low powered and balanced, designed for the textural player, great with reverbs and modulation, sits its the mix without getting in the way.
If you want a low powered ‘Vintage’ humbucker with all the character of a PAF get a MrGlyn’s ‘Integrity’ humbucker. If humbuckers sound too thick and you crave extra clarity then the ‘Clear View’ is for you.
And, of course, it’s hum cancelling.
This is not a pickup born to rock, it’s more than that.
Here’s a short video, clean with no effects, to show the clarity and balance of the “clear View” Pickups.
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The Clear View humbucker Story
It started with a phone call from luthier Ramsay Phillips.
I’ve got huge respect for Ramsay, he’s worked all over the world and has a great client list (including Steve Vai). He knows guitars, knows tone and he’s a thinker. So when he calls to talk about a new pickup idea I listen.
He was interested in having a humbucker for people that didn’t like humbuckers (his phrase). A pickup with clear tone and low powered but not like a PAF, clearer than that. He wanted a midrange more like a single coil than a traditional humbucker. At first I thought my ‘Black Sand’ humbucker size P90 would suit him but as he talked I realised he didn’t want the grit of a P90. He’s very well practised at describing sound so I felt I understood what he meant. He assured me he had customers asking about such a pickup.
He wasn’t in a rush which meant I could have a good ponder over what he’d said before making anything. It’s often best just to let a project sit rather than wade in and make a load of prototypes that don’t quite do it. Thinking time is important.
Then one morning about a week later I was out on the beach with the dogs. There was quite a big swell (the sea is never calm at Muriwai) and I was listening to the sea. When there’s a big swell the sea produced the full range of frequencies, it is pretty much pink noise. I was trying to figure out which frequencies in that sound I would need to remove to make Ramsay’s pickup. I often ponder problems this way and for me it often works. By the time I got home there was a plan.
I made a set of pickups, sent them to him and a few days later he called to say they were spot on. It isn’t usually that easy.
And the Clear View humbucker set was born.
Clear View humbucker
Here are some cover options for the Clear View humbucker set.
I’ve been repairing a few pickups recently and I thought I’d share this one with you. It’s a Fender Lead I Pickup that was sent to me by guitar repairer Jeff Baker from Oamaru.
The Fender Lead I was one of those obscure models that never really caught on and the pickup reflects that. It’s a little unusual and that’s what makes it interesting.
It even looks different with those square topped bobbins.
Not only is it unusual looking from the top but turn it over and it shows what it’s really all about. Those are 12 big adjustable poles screwed into substantial steel blocks and coupled to a powerful ceramic magnet.
This is clearly not a typical Fender pickup, this was designed to ROCK.
Inside a Fender Lead I Pickup
So what were Fender thinking? Well, this was 1979, the DiMarzio Super Distortion had been around for 5 years and was becoming very successful. Fender had nothing to compete with it. Looking at the spec of the Fender Lead I Pickup it is remarkably similar to the Super Distortion. Fender were making a Superstrat and it wasn’t even the 80’s yet.
Back to the repair – it came to me because it wasn’t working and typical for faulty humbuckers one coil was showing ‘open circuit’ on the test meter. In these cases I can use the good coil as a reference to what the faulty coil should be. It had a dc resistance of 7.61 KOhms. Wiki told me the final dc resistance of the whole pickup is approx. 13KOhms so that gave me a pretty good indication of how I should wind it. That’s a powerful set of coils to go with that magnet.
A bit of maths, plenty of experience and some intuition and I had a plan for winding it. Detailed information just isn’t available for the Fender Lead I Pickup.
I stripped the bobbin and wound the coil.
I potted it very lightly because these bobbins are made of butyrate that has a lower melting point than most modern ABS bobbins – I didn’t want it to deform with the heat, I wasn’t going to be able to get another bobbin.
Here you can see the chunky pole pieces, they’ll guide a fair bit of that ceramic magnet’s strength up to the strings.
If you have a faulty pickup or are interested in my range of handmade pickups have a look at the website.
I had this Fender Telecaster bridge pickup repair in the other day and thought I’d show you it. It’s from an ’87/8 Fender Telecaster USA Standard.
Tele bridge pickups are the essence of Rock’n’Roll. For those of us that love our Teles there’s just nothing like it. So how come they sound so different from Strat bridge pickups? The magnets are usually the same, the windings are about the same so what makes Telecasters so distinctive?
There are 2 factors:
1) The Tele has a steel baseplate. This base plate increases the pickup’s inductance (by about 7%) giving it a bit more power. It also changes the shape of the magnetic field a little, broadening the magnetic window so the pickup ‘hears’ a bit more of the string. I use this principle on my ‘Tui’ Strat pickups. https://mrglynspickups.com/2020/03/29/tui-hot-strat-set/
2)The pickup is mounted to the steel bridge plate. Put a Tele bridge pickup in a Strat and you’re only half way to a true Tele sound. It really does make a big difference.
Telecaster Bridge Pickup Repair
So, back to the repair – this pickup was completely dead showing ‘open circuit’ on the test meter. As with every one of these repair jobs I start by checking for dry solder joints – always worth ago. The solder joints were fine so time to look further.
As you can see from the picture there’s a lot of corrosion on the pole pieces. My suspicion is the corrosion has spread to the inside of the pickup and caused a break in the windings. I need to get in there and investigate.
Once the windings are cut out it’s pretty obvious the corrosion has caused the problem. Fender pickups are wound directly on to the pole pieces so a bit of rust and they’ve had it.
I clean the rust off and treat it with an anti rust product . Then I glue the poles to the fibreboard using superglue to make them secure.
After that it’s a few coats of shellac to seal everything and finally I wrap the pole pieces with tape. I know it seems a bit extreme but I want to keep the windings from touching the pole pieces so this doesn’t happen again. The tape is so thin it won’t make any difference to the sound. I want this Telecaster bridge pickup repair to last.
It’s all about preventing this problem from occurring again.
Then finally I re-wind the pickup to the original spec.
After the pickup is wax potted and the protective string replaced and waxed the Telecaster Bridge Pickup Repair is done and it’s ready to go back to its owner.
It’s really satisfying saving old pickups.
If you have a pickup problem get in touch – mrglynspickups@gmail.com
For new pickups visit the website, I make 2 flavours of Telecaster sets.
