Fender Pickups

thaddeus

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Hi guys. Anyone have information on this ''USA vintage'' pickups found on MIJ fenders? I can't seem to find any information on this on the net. The closest I can find are the USA vintage noiseless pickups. So what pickups are these?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers! :))
 
i'am pretty sure the 990sgd tag is the price of the CIJ fender.
i think the vintage usa which fender was refering to is the 57/62 pickups.
 
i think the vintage usa which fender was refering to is the 57/62 pickups.

Uh... I don't think so. i'm quite doubtful that Fender Japan would put custom shop pickups into a CIJ strat. They probably duplicated the schematics, and wiring, and produced their own. Which isn't a bad thing either. Stock Texas Specials on the MIJs are nice.
 
Hijack a bit. Can any strat expert highlight which pup will give a nice woody tone at the neck position?
 
I emailed Ishibashi years ago and they said the pickups were 57/62s. I was a bit skeptical initially for the same reason as Whitestrat, but then if you think about it the cost to Fender to manufacture one pickup over another in bulk is probably negligible (different windings / magnets that's all - it's all machine wound anyway). The packaging when you buy it as an aftermarket warrants the massive price markup.

Weiht: I have no idea what a woody tone is, but for what it's worth the Suhr V60LPs are fantastic sounding pickups and I've got 2 guitars with those, I love how they sound on both.
 
I emailed Ishibashi years ago and they said the pickups were 57/62s. I was a bit skeptical initially for the same reason as Whitestrat, but then if you think about it the cost to Fender to manufacture one pickup over another in bulk is probably negligible (different windings / magnets that's all - it's all machine wound anyway). The packaging when you buy it as an aftermarket warrants the massive price markup.

Weiht: I have no idea what a woody tone is, but for what it's worth the Suhr V60LPs are fantastic sounding pickups and I've got 2 guitars with those, I love how they sound on both.

Wow. So they are really 57/62s.. I have another question. If I remembered correctly, you can remove the pickup cover of a strat pickup and replace it with another color right?

I'm quite bent on getting new pickups for my strat but these few days I just fell in love with the pickups. Except for the bridge position. I need a tone knob at the bridge position. I can re-wire the mid pickup's tone knob to the bridge position right?

Thanks for all the info guys.
 
I emailed Ishibashi years ago and they said the pickups were 57/62s. I was a bit skeptical initially for the same reason as Whitestrat, but then if you think about it the cost to Fender to manufacture one pickup over another in bulk is probably negligible (different windings / magnets that's all - it's all machine wound anyway). The packaging when you buy it as an aftermarket warrants the massive price markup.

But that's just it. Why wouldn't they brand the pups in the guitar as CS 57/62s? Doesn't that sound MUCH better?
 
thaddeus: yes on both counts! the wiring of the bridge pup to a tone control is a common mod, as is the one where all 3 pups are wired to one tone control, and the other tone control is used as a blend pot to blend in the neck pup when in the bridge position or bridge pup when in the neck position (and to activate all 3 pups in the in-betweens) - i like this mod a lot, as neck + bridge gives a nice thick tone which is great for rhythms and leads too.

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/BLENDER_WIRING_C138.cfm

Whitestrat: my theory is that the JP 57/62s could be MIJ but wound with the same specs as the US CS 57/62, or directly mass produced by US and imported by Fender JP for use in their guitars. Both seem feasible as the equipped with "US pickups" tag is a nice selling point especially considering the reputation of JP guitars has been tainted with the "cheap electronics" bugbear which still persists to this day. Plus with economies of scale, it might be cheaper to mass produce pickups in US than to devote a factory in JP to do so, and just ride on the lower costs of shipping in bulk to JP, since Fender US will be sending far more than just pups in each cargo shipment.

Either way, Fender JP is under license by Fender USA - they may be prevented under contract from marketing the JP pups as a CS 57/62 as it might somehow diminish the perception / value of the CS 57/62 if it was associated with what's put in a "cheaper" CIJ model, especially since only the CS Fenders come with that. Plus, Fender makes a healthy markup on aftermarket pickups market, so why mess with that by saying a stock JP guitar comes with pickups that's supposedly one of your higher end models (and which no doubt, a lot of buyers of Fender mexican guitars buy in the aftermarket, thus threatening their primary market with JP imports)?

If anyone has both sets, why not measure the pickup's output resistance/impedence for both the JP and CS pups, that might help clear the air once and for all!
 
thaddeus: yes on both counts! the wiring of the bridge pup to a tone control is a common mod, as is the one where all 3 pups are wired to one tone control, and the other tone control is used as a blend pot to blend in the neck pup when in the bridge position or bridge pup when in the neck position (and to activate all 3 pups in the in-betweens) - i like this mod a lot, as neck + bridge gives a nice thick tone which is great for rhythms and leads too.

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/BLENDER_WIRING_C138.cfm

Whitestrat: my theory is that the JP 57/62s could be MIJ but wound with the same specs as the US CS 57/62, or directly mass produced by US and imported by Fender JP for use in their guitars. Both seem feasible as the equipped with "US pickups" tag is a nice selling point especially considering the reputation of JP guitars has been tainted with the "cheap electronics" bugbear which still persists to this day. Plus with economies of scale, it might be cheaper to mass produce pickups in US than to devote a factory in JP to do so, and just ride on the lower costs of shipping in bulk to JP, since Fender US will be sending far more than just pups in each cargo shipment.

Either way, Fender JP is under license by Fender USA - they may be prevented under contract from marketing the JP pups as a CS 57/62 as it might somehow diminish the perception / value of the CS 57/62 if it was associated with what's put in a "cheaper" CIJ model, especially since only the CS Fenders come with that. Plus, Fender makes a healthy markup on aftermarket pickups market, so why mess with that by saying a stock JP guitar comes with pickups that's supposedly one of your higher end models (and which no doubt, a lot of buyers of Fender mexican guitars buy in the aftermarket, thus threatening their primary market with JP imports)?

If anyone has both sets, why not measure the pickup's output resistance/impedence for both the JP and CS pups, that might help clear the air once and for all!

Hmm. Makes sense. I guess a e-mail to fender japan should be able to clear things up a little and someone with both the CS 57/62 and Japan US vintage pickups should be able to clarify for us. But I have trouble finding the e-mail of fender japan the website is all Japanese. Anyone have the e-mail?

Thanks for all the replies.

Cheers :)
 
yo dudes 57/62 pickups arent CS they're just the ordinary line like the noiseless and i dont think they're 57/62 cos the 57/62's have bevelled poles while the USA vintage pups dont. i think they're supposedly made in the US and shipped to japan or something like that. hmm
 
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