Although much maligned compared to the pickups found on the '50s and early '60s Fender instruments, many of these late '60s pickups had a wonderful, sweet voice all of their own with bags of clarity and character, and that's what we've recreated here.
We use the distinctive and era-correct purple-coloured Plain Enamel coil wire and nitrocellulose lacquer potting rather than traditional wax potting. Lacquer isn't as effective as wax and only partially penetrates the coil, creating a hard and brittle outer coil with (what I call) a "fluffy" interior. This happy accident makes some vivacious "edge of microphonic" performance, which translates into a bright and sweet tone with the outstanding clarity so beloved by Jimi.
Most original examples are found with the grey bottom flatwork that Fender switched to when it became clear that the coil winding machine operators were struggling to see the dark enamel-coated wire against black flatwork (the Formvar wire, as used previously, is a brighter bronze/gold colour, so it can easily be seen). However, there are definitely examples out there with all-black flatwork, so I'm making this an option.
Available aged or unaged, and as a single pickup or set of three—please note: these are all wound in the same direction WITHOUT an RW/RP middle pickup (just like the originals).
DC: 5.7 – 6k approx.