Originally published at: The automobile industry killed a legendary guitar pickup. 40 years later, Fender just brought it back. | Boing Boing
…
12 Likes
“Killed” might not be the best word.
2 Likes
Got my click though.
1 Like
Always interesting to have a peek into the world of material science and the economics of supply and demand, and how (socio-economically) things actually get made. Also fun how much overlap in vocabulary the two entwined interests in this story have. Between “pickup,” “truck” and “fender” I was getting real “She’s a real beauty, what is she a 24 footer?” vibes…
ETA: found it…
11 Likes
I have humbuckers in a Les Paul, now I am tempted to replace with the bright new shiny!
2 Likes
I’m very curious to hear these, but ironically just moments ago I was discussing pickups with a friend, and we kind of agree that there’s no magic pickup that’s perfect, they all have their good and bad points.
1 Like
Watched the video Fender put out promoting these and started lusting after them. Had to remind myself that the guitar I dick around on won’t sound like that because I’ll be playing it.
8 Likes
While I find the materials science interesting, I cannot fathom spending $300 on a set of pickups. My Tele (a 1994 MIM “Standard”) was barely over $400 new.
1 Like
I just bought a new D’Angelico guitar with a six-way pickup selector (basically coil-splitting the two seymour duncan humbuckers, instead of using a push-pull pot). I’m very, very happy with my purchase for a number of reasons. But now the trick is figuring out when to switch guitars during our live shows — cuz the P90s on my Gibson LP Jr still do stuff that even the six-way-splitting Seymour Duncans can’t do.
To be fair, I’ve also had that P90 guitar for 20 years now, and really learned how to play on it, which means it taught me how to lean into the strengths of its pickups. There’s something kind of exciting about having to *un-*learn some of that, too, as I learn to lean into the strengths of the humbuckers or split singles on the D’Angelico. When I’m playing with my rock band, for instance, I almost always use the bridge pickup on the Gibson — but with the coil-splitting on the D’Angelico, I’m playing around a lot more in different pickup positions, too.
3 Likes
I’m trying to get Fender to send me a set, because I am really interested in trying them! But given the hefty price tag, I’m not sure if they’ll actually go along with it. (The PR person initially said yes, but we’ll see)
3 Likes
sweet, I put used Seymour Duncan split coils in my ES 335 Epiphone (body) / Gibson (neck) and they’re great; but there are TOO MAY OPTIONS and when I play live I can’t remember which setting is which, so I when I get it out I find I ended up just leaving on the neck pickup with the double coil all night.
Wouldn’t it be GREAT if Fender made some of these CUNIFE pickups for the Jazz Bass?
2 Likes
Coil-splitting was key for me in shopping for a new guitar. Probably because I’m so used to those P90s, that sonically fall right in between the single coils and humbuckers. So being limited to only one of those options felt silly to me.
(Now, if I could figure out how to coil-split a humbucker P90…)
1 Like
This is now going to be my go to if I ever need to write dialogue for a Star Trek The Next Generation engineering solution to a plot problem!
7 Likes
you’d be the Montgomery Scott of guitar techs
2 Likes
The automobile industry killed a legendary guitar pickup. 40 years later, Fender just brought it back.
So which manufacturer will be coming out soon with a pickup truck that has deluxe Fender fenders? 
4 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
