New Fender CuNiFe & Cobalt Pickups (Jazzmaster, Tele, Strat)

[madlovepickups]

I think these are at least - interesting - but I don't currently have a need for CuNiFe pickups for a strat or tele, or for a regular jazzmaster route. Or for the Cobalt pups either. If fender wants to sell these - they will have to put them in a run of guitars and get them out in players hands.

RE: CuNiFe WRHB's - I think the sound freaking fantastic with one caveat - the are super sensitive to set up height and strings choice. There is a lot of time spent f&cking around with height, comparing string signal, carefully and slightly adjusting the pole pieces, then doing the same with the other pickup. and then if you change string brand.... do it all again. Its not the usual set the bass side at 5/64 and treble at 3/64 and walk away kind of thing. When i hear a muddy sounding WRHB - a real one - I can just tell that the shop or the player hasn't really invested the time to tweak the pickups.

It is true that CuNiFe wrhbs are VERY sensitive to pickup height IME. I tend to start pretty close when adjusting heights.

Another big component of the wrhb sound which doesn’t get talked about much is the steel plate which the magnets pass through. It concentrates more of the field within the coils, increasing inductance.

I’ve been making JM sized CuNiFe wrhbs for about a year now, they are much more affordable than fenders new offering.

[redchapterjubilee]

The Starcaster was pretty popular in '00s indie rock (The Killers' guy and Chris Walla played them during that time) too.

Yes, those two guys and NO ONE ELSE FROM THAT TIME!!!

Just the two that immediately came to mind, obvs not a definitive list.


I’d forgotten Jonny greenwood played one too.

[PapaB]

This conversation has died a bit. But to my point before & admiration of the man himself and his contributions to the sound of an electric guitar, this article came out this morning, on Guitar.com:

The Genius of Seth Lover
(The man who gave the world the humbucker might be one of the most important innovators in the history of guitar music.)
by Justin Beckner

WRHBs are beautifully sounding pickups. Not necessarily the traditional JM tone, .... But a fine addition to a JM guitar.
Peace!

[mcbrandt]

There was a thought these would be out today, but doesn't look like it. I don't see any videos on youtube, and sweetwater page states they expect them to arrive in a few months.

[sugarandopium]

Yeah must be delayed now, Amazon pulled their preorder offering completely, didn’t even adjust the date…

[TheCappy]

Bummer. I was looking forward to hearing them. I have a project I want to finish and wanted to hear these before I made a choice for pickups.

[PapaB]

I placed an order a few days back for these, and I've not heard from my guy that it's been cancelled. He's pretty good about keeping me in the loop. As far as I remember he said ETA was later in the month.
I'll post if he cancels on me.

[PapaB]

Well, pickup shipment is indeed delayed. Retailer is expecting them ....
But for the time being, here's a very good resource for those of you interested in WRHBs. It's a scientific look at them, 3 parts. The last compares sound samples of various pickups in controlled environments.
The graphs presented are particularly good and clear, relating impedance to frequencies.

This is the title:

Wide-Range"!? - Pt. 1: The Fender Wide-Range Humbucker - History, Build & Measurements
September 2019
DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.25295.71843
Project: Electric Guitar: Physics, Amplification, Sound & Perception
Authors:
Tilmann Zwicker
GITEC Forum fuer E-Gitarrentechnik

[PapaB]

It is said patience is the mother of all virtue. Lol. It's one I'm still working at ....
News from the retailer, my order is expected to ship on May! But he's an offset afficionado also, and was able to play a jazzmaster with the pickups (a company benefit) and said they were great. He assured me I would like them.
BTW, I did see two videos of these Brandonwound pickups. Those looked and sounded fantastic too. Might put on the bridge. They do sound like Jazzmaster pups. To the fellas who suggested it, thanks.

[gishuk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7kXqkWjEY8

Fender released a video about these today, with some (as always amazing) playing from Lemmo

[mcbrandt]

Fender page says both sets of JM pups are in stock currently.

[TheCappy]

I like them both. Going to need to hear them each on their own before I pull the trigger.

[superficial]

That video makes them all sound great. Suspect that's more to do with amazing playing and great amps / mics etc but it's definitely making me want the SC Jazzmaster pickups. Will look forward to seeing some Youtube reviews / comparisons.

[sugarandopium]

Wow they sound great.

And sounds like (if you watch the JM narration towards the end) that he really put some thought into the typical jazzmaster bridge pickup issue.

strange to hear that he didn’t like Cunife in the bridge position with the single coils…..
A Cunife wrhb in the bridge of a blaster is quite possibly my favorite (in bridge only position) JM bridge pickup sound, thought it would sound nice as a single as well.

[Embenny]

I wish he didn't talk over so much of Lemmo's playing. I also wish he didn't perpetuate myths, like when he was talking about the magnets' properties and said, "you also get a scoop in the upper mids," because that type of thing is 100% under the control of the winder and where they place the resonant peak. Magnets don't contain tones within them, it only seems that way if you swap between them on an identical pickup, because you're not controlling any of the electrical variables. But he is controlling those variables, so the only reason for it to have a midrange scoop is if he deliberately wound it with one.

I'm also surprised at how hot he wound these pickups. The FeCrCro bridge pickup is over 6H. That's nearly 2x a vintage JM pickup, and hotter than a PAF.