Beautiful sunny day so I thought I’d spend it over the bench and stripped an early 1960’s Fender Strat pickup that’s been dead to the world for some time, despite my best efforts and customer’s lucre.
Being the curious type I thought it was time to dig deep and look for that mysterious Mojo hidden inside.
My labours revealed some interesting points –
The pickup wasn’t potted, just a meagre rub of wax around the outer windings & base plate. A 1961 inspected recently revealed no wax too.
Once in the dusty depths (literally) I attempted to unwind & recover the precious wire but realised there was more to life and the sun wouldn’t be out forever.
Flatwork certainly wasn’t, clearly a trades description issue there. “Warpedwork” would be more accurate. Pole pieces did not sit true, hard to say if badly fitted or ravaged by time. The former I suspect. Magnets were varying diameters, some perfect & shiny, some pitted & some with a flaking coat of varnish. Bit of rust creeping in top side just to add to the mix.
……Oh ! and a little piece of paper wrapped around a withered shrimp stating said pickup was assembled by Gert on the afternoon of Friday…..
So !! There’s the answer – cobble together some parts, cheap as you like, wrap them together in a slapdash fashion & get that sought after vintage sound…….
… and don’t forget the shrimp, I think it was a brown one.
