Fender Bullet Pickup Query

p90fool

The neck on mine is still going strong, it's never been refretted or even had its truss rod adjusted and it's done a couple of 80 date European tours as well as countless other gigs since I bought it new. 

The body is in the attic somewhere, I routed it for three pickups and a Strat trem before abandoning it and putting the neck on my old Tele. It's still my favourite neck, but then I've had it since I was 17. 

http://i63.tinypic.com/16auxaw.jpg

JezWynd

Excellent photo @p90fool! Prog band? The neck is definitely one of its high points. This one has been re-fretted so it's obviously seen some use. Some of them have Tele necks I believe, though mine isn't one of them, but it's still incredibly comfortable to play. While I was looking into getting one I did a bit of research and it appears Fender bought out a range of them; single coils, humbuckers, Strat style and a bass before turning the range over to the Squier brand. The bridge/tailpiece combo is inspired thinking, I've never seen it on any other guitar, it's entirely functional and it works.

benecol

JezWynd said:

Some of them have Tele necks I believe, though mine isn't one of them.

What makes you so sure? I thought that all this style Bullets had NOS tele necks on them, just with a Bullet decal.

JezWynd

benecol said:

JezWynd said:

Some of them have Tele necks I believe, though mine isn't one of them.

What makes you so sure? I thought that all this style Bullets had NOS tele necks on them, just with a Bullet decal.

You may be right. When I was googling I came upon info that said they were put together with whatever they happened to have to hand. The Tele neck one's have a position marker dot at the last fret, the true Bullet necks do not.

So, this example has a Tele neck -


But this one doesn't -

ToneControl

benecol

WELL LIVE AND LEARN.

(mine had a tele neck then - was too skinny for me, mind. But didn't stop me doing one of my worst ever "trade this cow for some magic beans"-style trade-in with it).

ICBM

JezWynd said:

You may be right. When I was googling I came upon info that said they were put together with whatever they happened to have to hand. The Tele neck one's have a position marker dot at the last fret, the true Bullet necks do not.

A friend of mine once bought a “63 Tele” from a well-known US vintage dealer, and it didn’t have a dot at the last fret... guess what the neck actually was.

normula1

Funkfingers said:

normula1 said:

Does the neck pickup measure on a multimeter? It looks to me like the polepieces are like you would find on a modern cheap guitar but the magnet that should be stuck to the bottom has gone walkabout.

Without magnetism, the pickup will induce no signal. I suspect that the adhesive just secured insulation tape.

The pickup bobbin is plastic. This construction makes it possible to tap the rod magnet polepieces down until they are flush with the top surface of the bobbin. Consequently, the magnets now protrude from the underside of the bobbin. If the pickup had the staggered rod lengths of a vintage style Stratocaster pickup, the rods will now protrude from the underside of the bobbin by the exact same distance.

My brain was not plugged in.. I'd misread that the neck pickup was dead

suspiciousminds

I’ve had two of these tele shaped s1 bullets in the past - both were great little guitars.
Theres an owners club full of info over on the tdpri forum.
There is a dispute as to whether the necks were actually leftover tele necks though, but the pickups are the mustang type
Originally they were usa parts assembled in the far east but they had quality issues so they were made in thhe usa - some logos have “made in the usa” on them and some dont.
The bodies on mine were ply.
I always fancied the deluxe version with strung through body.
QC was a bit ropey though - i can remember mine had shonky string trees and the klusons were uneven.
Have to say though, the necks were awesome and they sounded great.

JezWynd

I scored an SD 101 pickup on eBay that I'll put in the neck position. I'm finding the bridge pu alone a bit too thin; turning down the tone improves it but I think that being so close to the saddles defines its personality - the way the string vibrates at that point.

@suspiciousminds, totally agree re the neck, it's really easy to play - if it doesn't work out as a guitar (and I think it will), I'll keep the neck and put it on a Tele. I'm currently debating with myself whether to put a Tele wiring loom in it. The present electrics look pretty cheap and beat but I'll wait and see how the pickup shapes up first. I'd really like a Deluxe too. And then there's the bass... They're not habit forming are they?

p90fool

My Bullet neck on my Tele;

http://i64.tinypic.com/2dbue1j.jpg

JezWynd

suspiciousminds said:

QC was a bit ropey though - i can remember mine had shonky string trees and the kludons were uneven.
Have to say though, the necks were awesome and they sounded great.

From eBay -

suspiciousminds

JezWynd said:

I scored an SD 101 pickup on eBay that I'll put in the neck position. I'm finding the bridge pu alone a bit too thin; turning down the tone improves it but I think that being so close to the saddles defines its personality - the way the string vibrates at that point.

@suspiciousminds, totally agree re the neck, it's really easy to play - if it doesn't work out as a guitar (and I think it will), I'll keep the neck and put it on a Tele. I'm currently debating with myself whether to put a Tele wiring loom in it. The present electrics look pretty cheap and beat but I'll wait and see how the pickup shapes up first. I'd really like a Deluxe too. And then there's the bass... They're not habit forming are they?

Tbh i really like the tele shaped version over the later strat type.
Pretty sure i’ll get another one tho ide like to hang on for the deluxe.
I didnt have an issue with the electrics on mine (pretty sure the pots were cts cause i was trying to date them if i remember right).
The problem i had for some time was that one of the threaded inserts in the high e string saddle had rusted solid so i couldnt adjust the height.
Took bloody ages to get hold of one.