HB-Sized Wide Range Humbucker
My recreation of the classic Wide Range Humbucker in a standard humbucker-sized format for those that want the sound of a Wide Range Humbucker, but don't want to modify their guitar to get it.
In 1972 Fender introduced their take on the humbucker, a singularly unique design from Seth Lover, the inventor of the original "humbucking" pickup. Known for their clarity and top-end sparkle, they went out of production in 1979, until Fender reissued them in 1983 with a different design to the originals. These modern versions are a standard humbucker in a larger case, and don't display any of the characteristics that made the originals so unique and sought after.
Rather than try to make a direct copy of the original 70s Wide Range Humbucker, I've taken the basic design and made a couple of tweaks to produce my own take on it.
Using the same winding pattern on these as the full-sized version, but with thinner 43awg wire to get the same number of winds on the smaller format bobbins, they also have the custom-made ferrous reflector plate to increase the inductance of the pickup and shape the tone like the originals.
As far as I can tell, no-one produces threaded CuNiFe rod magnets suitable for pickups anymore, so I offer the choice of individual AlNiCo rod magnets, or threaded FeCrCo magents if you want the original "screw" look for each pole piece, rather than the bar magnet and steel pole-pieces of the reissues - AlNiCo/FeCrCo 2 in the bridge position and AlNiCo/FeCrCo 5 in the neck.
The reason for using FeCrCo for the threaded pole-piece option is that AlNiCo is too brittle to be threaded, so is impossible to machine into a threaded pole format, and as FeCrCo has extremely similar properties to AlNiCo it is an excellent alternative. Tonally, FeCrCo in the threaded rod format has just a touch more high-mid focus than AlNiCo
The neck pickup is slightly underwound to provide a better balance when switching between positions, and add a bit of sparkle back to the naturally darker neck position: 13.4k bridge, 12.8k neck.
When using the fixed AlNiCo rod magnets, I set the visible pole-pieces with my modern take on the classic single-coil vintage stagger for better balance across the strings on each pickup.
The pole spacings are 50mm for the neck and 52mm for the bridge.
Available in chrome covers with "spaghetti-style" signature logo, or plain covers.
DCR | Neck: 12.8k, Bridge: 13.4k |
Inductance | Neck: 6.2H, Bridge: 7.5H |
Wire | 43awg SPN |
Magnets | AlNiCo 2/5 or FeCrCo 2/5 |