Fender Telecaster bass humbucker pickup?

[Straydogg]

Are they selling for $400 though?

Hah...not yet. One has been on there 5 months and the other 3 months....but they are hard to find.

 

[bigtone23]

Yeah, $400 is a steep asking price. $2XX is a fair and solid selling price. It's a unique pickup and the new ones are not like the old ones tonally.

 

[Straydogg]

Yeah, $400 is a steep asking price. $2XX is a fair and solid selling price. It's a unique pickup and the new ones are not like the old ones tonally.

That's what I found out bigtone23. It's tough to find an old one. Just got lucky with the eBay one. I thought for sure it would sell for more.

 

[matrok]

I found this body sticking out of a trash bin in my neighborhood last year. close to doing something with it

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Yeah, $400 is a steep asking price. $2XX is a fair and solid selling price. It's a unique pickup and the new ones are not like the old ones tonally.

Surely it must be possible to get a custom pickup builder to reproduce one? At the very least the coils, if not the cover?

 

[bigtone23]

I found this body sticking out of a trash bin in my neighborhood last year. close to doing something with it

Nice find! Lots of pickup options with those routs.

Surely it must be possible to get a custom pickup builder to reproduce one? At the very least the coils, if not the cover?

I would assume the easy part would be the coils and cover. The CuNiFe magnet is the secret sauce with the original Wide Range Humbucker. I'm not a tone snob, but a proper sized, drop-in 4-wire humbucker wound to a similar strength/resistance/inductance/resonant peak and chrome cover with offset poles would be just fine.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Nice find! Lots of pickup options with those routs.


I would assume the easy part would be the coils and cover. The CuNiFe magnet is the secret sauce with the original Wide Range Humbucker. I'm not a tone snob, but a proper sized, drop-in 4-wire humbucker wound to a similar strength/resistance/inductance/resonant peak and chrome cover with offset poles would be just fine.

I had a Squier VM version, but the pickup had already been replaced by a Model One, so I've never experienced the original tone as the Fender version is uncommon in the UK, and I never bothered to try an unmodified vintage modified (now there's a phrase).

 

[SunnModelT]

You can find original used Gibson EBO-EB3 "mudbuckers" on Ebay.

 

[craigfort]

Hello! I wanted to bump this up in case their is new information. I am currently looking for a wide range Neck humbucker pickup for a 70s style tele bass I’m building. I can only find 2 on eBay but they are both over 400. I’m not worried about looks as much as sound, but I’d prefer not to go over $250-300 or less if possible. Any suggestions appreciated!

 

[brashap]

Check with Curtis Novak.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

A Dimarzio Model One will have too-narrow pole piece spacing to work. A Will Power might be a better match, but the routing is different. A Model One is designed to sit in the route for a Gibson sidewinder/mudbucker pickup, which is a fairly square, deep route. The Model One is attached to the bass body at the four corners of the cover, which is wider than the pickup itself.

The Fender WRHB bass pickup is more like a giant PAF-style guitar humbucker with four mounting screws which either attach to the pickguard or to a trim ring (Starcaster bass for example). The baseplate of the pickup is wider than the pickup itself. A WRHB won't fit in a Gibson bass routed for a mudbucker without some serious re-routing. Conversely a Model One, mudbucker (etc) isn't quite as wide as the full footprint of a WRHB pickup.

The only WRHB replacement pickup I seriously considered was a Peavey T40 pickup.

I've sold two WRHB pickups before today. One was a reissue and one was a '70s original. I bought the '70s pickup for something like £40, cleaned it up and replaced the hookup cable, and sold it on for £80. From memory it sounded like a darker P bass pickup but was also slightly microphonic.

I had a Squier TB with the original pickup replaced with a Model One. The spacing is narrower, but the sound was fine. But if I was doing it from scratch I'd aim for the correct spacing, and I would have preferred the wide range pickup.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I've seen clones for well under $200.

 

[craigfort]

I've seen clones for well under $200.

Cool. Where??

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Cool. Where??

Unfortunately, no idea as it's not something I was that interested in after I sold that bass.

 

[wretch_like_me]

What pickup pairs well with the WRHB? i own a squier telecaster bass special that has a WRHB at the neck and a Jazz Duncan Designed at the bridge. I want to try a different configuration on my next bass project and i just bought two WRHBs. Any suggestions?

 

[craigfort]

Nice! Where’d you get those two at and how much were they? Finishing the body up on mine now

 

[wretch_like_me]

View attachment 3905909 View attachment 3905912 View attachment 3905913
Nice! Where’d you get those two at and how much were they? Finishing the body up on mine now

From a seller on Reverb, he was selling a disassembled Fender Modern Player Telecaster Bass. That model has 2 WRHBs. He agreed to sell me the pickups separately $90 a piece.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Sentell Pickups bass guitar pickups

$140, but you'd need a cover.

 

[Evanforbass]

View attachment 3905909 View attachment 3905912 View attachment 3905913
Nice! Where’d you get those two at and how much were they? Finishing the body up on mine now

did you finish this project? I'm considering a tele bass build with two WRHBs. though not sure where to source a body

 

[wretch_like_me]

did you finish this project? I'm considering a tele bass build with two WRHBs. though not sure where to source a body

You could contact Rosser Guitars, he has a eBay store and Facebook page. The guy

makes great quality guitar and bass bodies with custom pickup routing. Don't know if he routes WRHBs, but its worth a try. He recently did this ash body for me.