Fender Custom Shop '59-62 Rel with shield' pickup - eh?

[facetsquared]

Hi everyone. I have a Fender Custom Shop Precision that carries the '59-62 Rel with shield' pickup. I have been having a bit of trouble with it (a static pop/click when playing the E a little too hard, despite lowering the pickup). While I hope I won't need to eventually replace the pickup, I'd like to know what it actually is. Any ideas?

 

[andare]

Wild guess:

It's a reliced pickup with brass plates under it that are connected to ground. AFAIK the plates do almost nothing besides grounding the pole pieces, if they indeed even do that. Grounding the pole pieces makes it so if you accidentally touch them while playing, they won't make noise.

So check if everything is grounded correctly. Use a multimeter in continuity mode. Black probe inside the jack, red probe to pots, screws, bridge, strings, string tree, tuners, ashtrays, pole pieces, etc. Everyhting should beep. If it doesn't, it's not grounded. Ungrounded parts make noise when touched.

I imagine the cavity and pickguard aren't shielded. If they aren't, you will hear noise when you don't touch the strings/bridge/jack/pots, and the noise will go away when you touch any grounded part (the opposite of what I described above).

If you hear a constant hum regardless of what you do, 9 times out of 10 the ground wire has slipped out from under the bridge.

The above should cover most noise occurrences. Hope it helps.

 

[facetsquared]

Thanks for this advice! My initial ask was clumsy - I was trying to ask what pickup model is in my bass, in case I need to replace it. Any ideas?

 

[andare]

Have you tried asking the Custom Shop? That would have been my first move

 

[uva]

I have the same question as the pickup in my CS 59 Precision has gone dead. The shop floor traveler says it is equipped with the '59-62 Rel with shield' pickup just like the bass of the original poster. I am wondering if it is the same as the Custom Shop 62 P-bass pickup which is offered by Fender. Any hints are very much appreciated.

 

[dmk]

I have the same question as the pickup in my CS 59 Precision has gone dead. The shop floor traveler says it is equipped with the '59-62 Rel with shield' pickup just like the bass of the original poster. I am wondering if it is the same as the Custom Shop 62 P-bass pickup which is offered by Fender. Any hints are very much appreciated.

Your '59-62 FCS pickups are most likely the non-handwound offering. FCS offers them either beveled or non-beveled. The Pino Palladino pickups are described exactly the same way as yours on the Shop Floor Traveler, with the difference being the relicing. Those pickups measure around 10.5K.

Fender's Pure Vintage '62, Fender Original, Pure Vintage '60, and the Custom Shop '62 all have the same 10.5K specs, so there shouldn't be much difference in sound. The only non-beveled offering in the above list is the Custom Shop '62. The Pure Vintage '60 has Formvar wire, while the others are Enamel.

 

[drums1977]

So, what is really the difference between the standard 62 PBASS, the ones described here 59-62 REL? Is there a chance the 59-62 are handwound? Does anyone have a photo of the back of those? Thanks