1969 Contour Sonic Blue Mustang - Pickups?

[doubleRdeaner]

As I’ve been setting up my wife’s 1969 Mustang. I was trying to figure out why the neck pickup wasn’t as loud as the bridge no matter how far from the strings either was sitting. I took off the pick guard and the first thing I noticed was that the the flat work on the neck pickup didn’t look the same as the bridge. They are both black, but the neck doesn’t have the triangular shape of the bridge. Also, the neck was quite visibly shorter in height than the bridge. It also was shielded with copper and had a red and white wire coming out of one side, as opposed to the white and black coming out of the middle of the bridge.

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What’s going on here? The flat work is black which should place these wither pre-CBS or sometime in the 70’s. It’s obvious that someone has done some work in there because the springs in the bridge are both mismatched from the neck springs. And the height adjustment screws are different on the left and right side of each pickup.

Any idea what I have here? The bridge pickup sounds great. The neck is weak. I’m wanting to know if these are original. And if not, does anyone know when they are from?

Thanks in advance

RR Deaner

[fuzzjunkie]

Most of that wire work doesn’t look original. At least on a vintage Jag or JM they’d be cloth wrap red/black and yellow/black.

I can’t say anything about the pickups as I don’t know much about Mustangs. Different height screws sounds really odd though. Not sure what they were trying to achieve with that other than, “Gosh, I don’t have a matching set of 4 screws here.”

Edit: looking at the wiring again, the red and black connecting to the switch looks original, but the rest looks like what I would buy from Radio Shack in the late ‘80s to early ‘90s to build DIY effects pedals.

[doubleRdeaner]

Perfect. Now I’ll have a clear conscience when I mess with it! Thanks!

[MattK]

Agreed, neither of those are 60s pickups and I doubt either is Fender USA. The way the leads connect isn’t the way they do on US pickups, Mustang or Strat. I’ve also never seen a Fender pickup with a copper foil shield but that could have been added I guess. The clean flatwork and poles suggest they’re less than 10 years old, but that’s just my opinion and not based on evidence.

[MattK]

Just saw the other thread so they’re clearly older than ten years! I just bought a set of Mustang pickups off eBay from China for a project, they were $40ish but have grey flatwork, cloth wires etc and look like fantastic quality. No idea how they sound but I was pretty amazed.

[Sdca7718]

I just ordered a Lollar neck pickup called mustang special which is supposed to be like late 60s-70s, they have a mustang(non-special) also for early sound. They have the plain cover in black and white that comes with it, it is pricey but looks quality. I have to wait for my build to see how it sounds. All real vintage pickups are priced high and haven’t seen any in good condition yet.