Fender Player Series bass has the wrong pickup

[Nephilymbass]

So I was curious why my new Fender Ocean Turquoise Player Series bass that is advertised to have Alnico 5 pickups was only measuring 5,000 ohms DC resistance.

I decided to measure the pickups directly and when I pulled them out found that they are appear to be Ceramic magnets, not AlNiCo 5. I put my serial number in Fender's instrument registration and it does come up as a Player series bass...
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So why does it come with the older model pickups...
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I've emailed Fender customer support but my expectations are quite low.


EDIT: For the sake of those starting on this thread let me add some information that came in later from a online chat with Fender support...

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I think they had some funky stuff going on during the transition from standards to the player series. My "standard" jazz has a pau ferro fretboard like a player series but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the newer pickups.only thing not stock on this bass is the pickgaurd.

 

[EmaTheMirror]

(OT reply)

That's bad.

Had it happened to me and I liked the bass overally, considering the somewhat limited turquoise, I might have decided to swap that "thing" with the SPB-1 lying in my drawer - just because I happen to have a spare one.

Otherwise, you did the right thing, Alnico 5 one of Fender's selling points of the series boldly advertised everywhere, it shouldn't happen.

 

[Massan]

So the consensus is: don't buy the limited edition you can't check 100% before you pull the trigger.
Those LE basses appears to be the only case of ceramic pickups and random parts creeping in.

 

[Axstar]

The consensus is that people think magnets have a tone to them based on their composition (wrong!), ceramic magnets are harsher sounding (wrong!) and that alnico is always the superior choice (wrong!!!). These people are uninformed and blindly prejudiced. Their opinions can be swiftly and safely ignored.

 

[EmaTheMirror]

I wouldn't rule out great ceramic pickups at all and wouldn't be surprised about finding mediocre Alnico ones, but I think they should stick to the mentioned specs.

 

[Massan]

The consensus is that people think magnets have a tone to them based on their composition (wrong!), ceramic magnets are harsher sounding (wrong!) and that alnico is always the superior choice (wrong!!!). These people are uninformed and blindly prejudiced. Their opinions can be swiftly and safely ignored.

The instrument is not built to the advertised specs, that's enough to avoid it at all costs

Regarding the pickups, the updated alnico magnets are the part of their marketing pitch, so it better damn be in the bass I'm trying to buy

As for the quality of ceramic pickups - while its certainly true that there are great ceramic pickups around, the ones in the mex fenders are generally a lot cheaper to produce and are widely associated with low end instruments.
They sound different if you're going for the classic sounds. Its just a fact

Lastly, there is a very palpable difference in how the magnets sound, if you had enough experience recording DIs and shooting out various pickups in the studio, you would know that there is a clear difference and the tonal result of pickup swaps is predictable based on pickup magnets, materials and specs.

 

[Axstar]

The instrument is not built to the advertised specs, that's enough to avoid it at all costs

Regarding the pickups, the updated alnico magnets are the part of their marketing pitch, so it better damn be in the bass I'm trying to buy

As for the quality of ceramic pickups - while its certainly true that there are great ceramic pickups around, the ones in the mex fenders are generally a lot cheaper to produce and are widely associated with low end instruments.
They sound different if you're going for the classic sounds. Its just a fact

Lastly, there is a very palpable difference in how the magnets sound, if you had enough experience recording DIs and shooting out various pickups in the studio, you would know that there is a clear difference and the tonal result of pickup swaps is predictable based on pickup magnets, materials and specs.

All that matters is the strength of the magnet. Magnets don't have a tone intrinsic to the makeup of the magnet.

 

[ThingsAbove]

All that matters is the strength of the magnet. Magnets don't have a tone intrinsic to the makeup of the magnet.

The strength of the magnets is just one part of the pickup design. The pup with the bar magnets (whether they were ceramic or ALNiCo bar magnets I don't know) was such that the measured resistance was very different than the new MIM Player pup. That results in different interaction with the tone and volume pots and even differences in how it interacts with different instrument cable lengths due to the interaction of inductance. So the strength of the magnets, the way it's wound and probably pole piece positioning determines the characteristics of what we get tone wise.

There are plenty of other threads where people really like the sound of their OT with the bar magnets. So, it all just comes down to a matter of what we are looking for in our tone.

This thread is a few months old and I've had time to reflect. I got all bent out of shape when I saw that the pickup didn't match my expectations and that may have reinforced my dislike of its bright tone. No matter, I'm happy now with the Player that I now have in its place. Warm, wooly tone with very present low mids and a tone cut that bumps those low mids. That's what "I" wanted. Others are looking for a different tone and the Ocean Turquoise may just be their ticket.

I guess that's why Fender makes instruments that differ more than just the paint color. They are like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get until you bite into it... Mmmm, Crunchy Frog, with a hint of Lark's vomit.

 

[AlexanderB]

A few years back I was looking at a bone stock MIA Standard Jazz Fretless with a 2008 serial number. While this should have been built according to the "new" spec, it was actually a mix of parts and measures from -07 and -08. It was also not as well built as the other -08 and up American Standards I have seen. It seems Fender still apply the very same business model.

 

[PawleeP]

Those dual Bar magnet pups may sound pretty ok, they do to me in a MIM P I have. however the single bar magnet pups in another one of my MIM P basses seems like there kinda lame & weak-ish; and they look almost like the P pups in my squier P.

 

[Axstar]

Those dual Bar magnet pups may sound pretty ok, they do to me in a MIM P I have. however the single bar magnet pups in another one of my MIM P basses seems like there kinda lame & weak-ish; and they look almost like the P pups in my squier P.

The stock pickups in MIM basses are only there to stop dust getting into the routes. They are generic units that will be built by G&B, Artec, or one of those pickup houses. The humbuckers in my Blacktop Strat were wound by Belcat/BH. If I bought those pickups from Ebay they would be £30 a set, and that is with dealer markup!!

 

[Kro]

The stock pickups in MIM basses are only there to stop dust getting into the routes.

I actually thought that the stock pickups in the Player Precision I had early last year for a brief period of time were relatively decent.

For context, I was coming from a StingRay 5 and wound up trading in the Player for a 2012 American Standard Precision.

 

[Massan]

my alnico player pickups sound absolutely fantastic to me.

 

[DarkStar90]

The consensus is that people think magnets have a tone to them based on their composition (wrong!), ceramic magnets are harsher sounding (wrong!) and that alnico is always the superior choice (wrong!!!). These people are uninformed and blindly prejudiced. Their opinions can be swiftly and safely ignored.

Magnets have tone. Alnico 2 sounds and feels different than Alnico V, otherwise the choice wouldnt exist. Though I probably couldnt identify them in a mix.

The thing I've experienced with any pickup swap over the years: if you're bass doesn't ring out while playing unplugged, if the vibration against your ribs from the body is not strong, no pickups will improve its tone.

 

[ElectricBass72]

I have the exact same Limited Edition bass in the OP, 2018 model. The stock pickup in my P sounds good to me through all of my amps. I've never been the "mod" type.... always looked for stock basses with everything I needed. Same thing with bikes. I never understood why someone would buy a $700 Trek mountain bike and then buy a $500 fork to replace the stock fork. Just get the damn $1K bike with the adequate fork and save $200.