OffsetGuitars.com

I just noted that USA Fender has seemingly recently done another Factory Special Run on 72 Thinlines:

http://1484.bz/kawagoe/select.cgi?id=10254

There was one run in 2003 as well. Curiously enough, they seem to mostly live in Japan.

hmm.. does that mean USA wide range pu's then?

I heard somewhere that the newer RI WRHBs are American made. I have no idea though. There aren't any stamps or anything on mine.

Justin

i love sharin foo wrote: I heard somewhere that the newer RI WRHBs are American made.

Do you mean MIM, CIJ or USA ones? If all 3, that means there is very little difference in hardware between any of these models.

Maybe they just pair them with:
MIM - 250k pots
MIJ - 500k pots
USA - 1M pots
so they sound different, kind of like what Intel does with their CPUs?

When I heard the statement "they appear to be USA made", it wasn't in direct regard to any of the actualy guitars, just the pickups themselves. So I'm not really sure of any specifics. I do think it would be kind of strange for them to make the "same" pickups in 3 different places for these guitars. I could definitely be wrong though. I'd like to see some of the pickups that came out of the MIM, MIJ, and USA versions. In the long run though, It probably would be cheaper if all of the pickups were made in one place and just sent out to the different factories where they were assembling the guitars, whether it be Japan, Mexico, or the USA. I'd like to find out more about all this.

Justin

I have been doing a little digging:

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/just-pickups ... light=wrhp

Seems that the CIJ are closer to the original in construction to original than the MIM ones. No idea about the USA ones though.

cool.. thanks for the link!

so the CIJ's are quite hot compared to the MIM version and closer to the original in that regard but it sounds like the MIM's are voiced closer... hmm


interesting bit I just picked up the second time around on the Wikipedia description..

The Fender Wide Range is a humbucker guitar pickup, designed by Seth Lover for Fender in the early 1970s. This pickup was intended to break Fender's image as a "single coil guitar company", and to gain a foothold in the humbucker guitar market dominated by Gibson.  The pickups enjoyed some popularity, though they certainly were never as widespread as Fender's single-coil pickups. Original Wide Range pickups were available from 1971 and subsequentially installed in the Deluxe, Fender Telecaster Custom and Fender Thinline Telecaster, as well as the Fender Starcaster, ceasing production successively in 1979, when these models were discontinued. Fender Japan were the first to introduce a reissue around 1990, followed by the Made in Mexico version around 1998. The Wide Range Pickup found on American made Fander guitars is actually the Made in Mexico model introduced in 1998. All reissues differ in construction from the original Seth Lover design, and sound very different (see below).


here's a recently completed auction for a CIJ WRHP.. this comment explains the difference between CIJ and original version..

Q: Interesting PU. Definitely not an original 70s as it would have silver cloth wire and register 10.0-11.0 ohms. Also not a Mex as would have coil tapping option and register about 8.0 ohms.
Sep-17-06

A: Yes. The more research I do the more I'm convinced it's a Japanese edition, 80s/90s...


http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Wide-Range-h ... dZViewItem

I sold an 80's MIJ Thinline like this to fund my first JM purchase back xmas of '91.  I should get one of these again at some point but I don't know about the 4 foot thick poly finish on the new one. Accurate certianly but man... that's a lot of clearcoat.

Okay...  bad GAS at the moment.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1974-Fender-Telecas ... 0032766666

wow.. that's beautiful


"bop till ya drop" 

Oh my! That '74 Thinline is the bomb! I'm curious to see what the final price will be...

Jay wrote: Okay...  bad GAS at the moment.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1974-Fender-Telecas ... 0032766666

Now that's absolutely lust worthy!

Maybe through 4k?

scottme wrote: I just noted that USA Fender has seemingly recently done another Factory Special Run on 72 Thinlines:

http://1484.bz/kawagoe/select.cgi?id=10254

There was one run in 2003 as well. Curiously enough, they seem to mostly live in Japan.

GAH!  my eyes!  all the glossy natural finish and chrome send sme into a seizure!

aen wrote:

scottme wrote: I just noted that USA Fender has seemingly recently done another Factory Special Run on 72 Thinlines:

http://1484.bz/kawagoe/select.cgi?id=10254

There was one run in 2003 as well. Curiously enough, they seem to mostly live in Japan.

GAH!  my eyes!  all the glossy natural finish and chrome send sme into a seizure!

looks like it's entirely covered in plastic

I still can't see the reason why you would spend the extra cash on a USA model when all they appear to have are Mexican PUs, when the PUs were the biggest part of the sound of the originals. Let's see, $1000 for maybe slightly better tuners and a made in USA sticker. I bet the 70s ones didn't come with an extra pound of laquer.