Experimenting with Fender plastic bobbin pickups

CasperCaster

Over the years Fender have produced quite a few Strat pickups built on plastic bobbins -  the ones with a '016730' part number moulded in the base of the bobbin (presumably different part numbers for the Tele equivalents). If my memory serves me correctly pickups built on these bobbins, but with varying specifications (e.g. number of windings/ d.c. resistance/ magnet type), have been fitted to many guitars including pre-2012 American Standards, 50's/ 60's/ 70's Mexican Classic Series guitars, instruments with TexMex pickups like the Jimmie Vaughan Strat and Mexican Roadworns, both versions of the Highway One guitars (hotter pickups with A3 magnets on the second generation HWY1's), and probably more instruments that I haven't thought of.

I am well aware that these are a long way from boutique pickups, but they generally do a reasonable job, are often inexpensive secondhand, and personally I quite like the TexMex ones. The only problem I experienced was that the vintage stagger on the TexMex pickups had some volume imbalance on my Strat which has a modern 9.5" modern radius. Clearly the solution was to change the stagger of the magnets!

On a Strat pickup built 'correctly' (magnets pressed into Forbon flatwork, windings directly around the magnets etc) it isn't really possible to change the magnet stagger, as attempting to do so will likely destroy the pickup. But the windings on Fenders plastic bobbin pickups do not come into contact with the magnets. With the plastic pickup cover carefully in place (to protect the coil windings from accidental damage) and with fingers carefully away from the connections to/ from the coil it is possible to push individual magnets in and out of the bobbin by pushing them against something hard - I pushed against the corner of a metal filing cabinet. The magnets initially resisted moving, but once they had been moved a little it was possible to push them backwards/ forwards at will to create the desired stagger - in my case I went for a flat stagger. My only concern was that the magnets might be too loose and cause microphony or move of their own accord. However, after a few days, the magnets again seem to resist moving when pushed, so presumably the wax is soft enough to adhere to the magnets again. If not, I would guess that gently warming with a hair dryer might soften the wax sufficiently to make everything solid again, once cool.

It will be a week or two before I get the opportunity to wire these into my guitar, but everything checks out ok on a meter, so hopefully no damage done. And as I have a set of the hot A3 Highway One pickups sitting around I am also considering mixing and matching magnets, as I think it will be as easy to completely remove the magnets as it is to change the stagger - perhaps A5 on the bass strings and A3 on the treble strings for example. If I determine the magnetic polarities, and mark the magnets with liquid paper or permanent marker prior to removing them, I should be able to keep track of everything whilst doing this. It also occurs to me that changing a stock pickup to RWRP should also be straightforward - Fender do not wind RWRP pickups any differently to stock pickups, they just connect the pickup hot and earth cables the opposite way around. The only real difference is the reverse magnetic polarity of RWRP pickups. With the plastic bobbin pickups it should be relatively easy to take each magnet out and flip it. If the pickup hot and earth are also swapped you essentially have an RWRP pickup.

ICBM

Yes, you're exactly right. I've done both the stagger and the RWRP mods to these pickups, and they work perfectly - there's no risk to the pickup. I haven't mixed magnets but there's no reason it won't work.

As you've said and for anyone else reading, DO NOT try this with a vintage-construction Fender pickup or any other pickup of unknown construction because you stand a very good chance of destroying the winding.

normula1

I did that too with the original pickups on my '85 Squier, I turned two of them into a humbucker mounted into a holeless cover with a load of candle wax. It actually didn't sound too bad and matched well with the Schaller super distortion clone I had in the bridge.