The Fender Wide Range Humbucker is a humbucker guitar pickup , designed by Seth Lover for Fender in the early 1970s. This pickup was intended to break Fender's image as a " single coil guitar company," and to gain a foothold in the humbucker guitar market dominated by Gibson .
19-516: The pickups enjoyed some popularity, though Fender's single-coil pickups retained widespread popularity. Original Wide Range pickups were available from 1971 and subsequently installed in the Deluxe , Custom and Thinline Telecasters as well as the Starcaster , ceasing production successively in 1979 when these models were discontinued. Fender Japan was the first to introduce a reissue in 1983, followed by
38-471: A Gibson humbucker, feature a bar magnet underneath the bobbins that abuts six screw-type pole-pieces in each coil; they are conventional humbuckers placed in the larger "wide range" humbucker casing, and the gap is filled with wax. Although neither pickup precisely replicates the sound of the original, they are tonally similar. The Japanese reissue does, however, sound hotter, and the Mexican reissue sounds more like
57-582: A more choked and muddy sound, cutting high frequencies to ground. In 2020, Fender began producing Wide Range pickups with Cunife magnets for the first time since the 1970s. Original Wide Range pickups are described as sounding "fat" but with improved clarity and detail over Gibson humbuckers of the same period. Combined with a bridge single-coil pickup on a Telecaster, it produces a smooth, warm, yet biting sound. Famous users include Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones , Graham Coxon of Blur , Wes Borland of Limp Bizkit / Black Light Burns , Rich Robinson of
76-562: A standard Gibson humbucker. A more recent reissue, currently exclusive to the Lee Ranaldo signature Jazzmaster , has been "re-voiced" to Ranaldo's specifications but appears to be constructed similarly to the Mexican reissue. In the 1970s, the Fender Wide Range was wired using a 1M audio volume and tone pots. Using 1M pots resulted in an open and bright sound. Modern reissues are commonly wired using 250K volume and tone pots, resulting in
95-497: Is a solid-body electric guitar originally produced from 1972 to 1981, and re-issued by Fender multiple times starting in 2004. The popularity of heavy rock in the late 1960s led Fender to re-think its strategy of exclusively using single coil guitar pickups , as they were not perceived as being suitable for the thick sound and extended sustain favored by heavy rock guitarists using double-coil humbucking pickups. Consequently, Fender hired former Gibson employee Seth Lover ,
114-437: The "Micro-Tilt" angle adjustment device located in the heel of the neck, similar to other Fender models of the period. The body shape was similar to other Telecaster models of the era, with one minor difference – a "belly cut" contour similar to that featured on all Stratocasters was added to the back of the guitar. The Deluxe also had the same "glitch" in its shape as the other Telecasters – a slightly less-pronounced curve where
133-748: The Black Crowes , Ryan Adams , Win Butler of Arcade Fire , Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand , Lúcio Maia of Nação Zumbi , Roy Buchanan , Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top , Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead , Felix Rodriguez from The Sounds , singer-songwriter Kim Ralls, Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters , The Edge of U2 , Jonny Buckland of Coldplay , Leo Nocentelli of The Meters and Tab Benoit as well as Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth 's modified "Jazzblasters" which featured Wide Range pickups on modified Fender Jazzmaster guitars. Fender Telecaster Deluxe The Fender Telecaster Deluxe
152-583: The Made in Mexico version around 1998. The Wide Range Pickup found on American-made Fender guitars is the Mexican-made model introduced in 1998. All reissues differed from the original Seth Lover design in construction and sound until 2020, when Fender began manufacturing the pickup with the original materials again. The company also produced a variation of the pickup for bass guitar from 1971 to 1979. The Wide Range pickup
171-589: The Telecaster series, was the last of these to be released, in 1973. The "humbucker" Telecasters failed to draw potential customers away from competition like Gibson's Les Paul model, and the Telecaster Deluxe was discontinued in 1981. However, in 2004, Fender decided to re-issue the Deluxe, probably in response to the belated popularity of the original 1970s version. The Deluxe is unique amongst Telecasters in that
190-481: The early Deluxes were very similar to those used on Fender's "Blackface"/"Silverface" range of amplifiers with a chromed "skirt" tip on the top, however in the late 1970s these were replaced with black knobs identical to those used on the Stratocaster. Na%C3%A7%C3%A3o Zumbi Nação Zumbi (formerly Chico Science & Nação Zumbi ) is a Brazilian band formed by Chico Science . They have been hailed as one of
209-481: The first couple of years of production a vibrato bridge could be ordered with the guitar – this was the same bridge used on most Stratocasters. As this was not a standard option, models with the vibrato bridge are quite rare. Fender reintroduced the Tele Deluxe with bent steel FENDER FENDER marked saddles, while the originals from the 70's until 1981 were made of cast Mazac. (a zinc alloy) The volume/tone knobs used on
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#1733105667877228-457: The inventor of the humbucker himself, to design a humbucking pickup for use in a number of Fender guitars. The result was a pickup known as the Wide Range humbucker, and it was used in a variety of different Fender models including the Deluxe, Custom, and Thinline Telecasters as well as a semi-hollowbody design called the Starcaster . The Deluxe, originally conceived as the top-of-the-line model in
247-427: The most important groups to come out of the manguebeat movement in the 1990s. The musicians of the group continued as Nação Zumbi after Science died in a car accident on February 2, 1997. In their songs they experiment with mixing of rock , punk , funk , hip hop , soul , Pernambuco 's regional rhythms and Brazilian traditional music , with heavy use of percussion instruments . They released two albums before
266-404: The neck has an enlarged headstock – a very similar 21-fret neck was used by Fender Stratocaster models manufactured in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. The main difference between the Telecaster Deluxe and Stratocaster necks from this period is that the Telecaster Deluxe neck used medium jumbo frets while the Stratocaster necks featured narrower fretwire. The Telecaster's neck also features
285-423: The place of pole-pieces. This design yielded a brighter and clearer sound more similar to that of single coil pickups. They were wound with approximately 6,800 turns of copper wire, yielding a DC resistance of approximately 10.6 kΩ (compared to a standard Gibson P.A.F. humbucker typical DC resistance of 9 kΩ). Most Deluxes produced have a "hard-tail" fixed bridge with Stratocaster-style string saddles, although for
304-661: The pole pieces. As a result, the Wide Range pickup has a DC resistance of around 10.6 kΩ. These extra winds mean the wide-range Humbucker needs a larger casing than standard Humbuckers. There are three reissues of the wide range pickup using two designs: one manufactured in Japan using ceramic magnets and one in Mexico using alnico. Despite an almost identical appearance to the original 1970s unit, both are regular Humbuckers in large cases, surrounded by wax to take up space and prevent resonant feedback. The current Mexican reissues, much like
323-405: The upper bout meets the neck joint, compared to earlier (and later) Telecasters. This was attributed to more modern routing machines installed in the production line at the time. The 2004 re-issue differs from the original in that it does not have the 1970s "notchless" body style. The Deluxe features 2 Seth Lover-designed Wide Range humbuckers with " CuNiFe " (Copper/Nickel/Ferrite) rod magnets in
342-529: The use of the more easily machinable CuNiFe (Copper/Nickel/Iron) rod magnets as pole pieces within the coil structures; functioning more like a regular single coil pickup than a Gibson humbucker. Because CuNiFe pole piece magnets produce less output than a standard humbucker's bar magnet and slugs, the wide-range Humbucker requires more winds of wire to produce an output compatible with Standard Humbuckers. The pickup bobbins were wound with approximately 6200 to 6800 turns of 42-awg poly-insulated copper wire around
361-531: Was conceived to be sonically closer to Fender's single coil pickups than Gibson humbuckers. Fender's single coils use six magnetized pole pieces sitting vertically, while Gibson's humbuckers use a long bar magnet at the pickup's base with six metal slug pole pieces screwed vertically into a base plate. Fender could not, however, replace the Humbucker's slugs with screws. Due to the difficulty of machining alnico magnets into screw-type pole pieces, this concept called for
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