DIY Fender '51, help choosing the pickups.

G

GuitarDR

New member
I am intending to make myself something similar to the Fender Pawnshop '51 using off the shelf parts. A few weeks ago I tried one and I really liked it but thought I didn't want to spend £575 for one... (I did a review of it here on my site) Also the scratchplate/pickguard is a bit ugly. I've already bought the body, neck and bridge that will be used. I've found a wiring schematic for two pickups with one volume and one blend control, just like the Fender '51, so I'm all set with that.

The Fender version has a Texas Special neck pickup and an Enforcer humbucker. Here's the crunch - I don't want to fork out for those pickups, I'd like to spend £50 or less for the pair! The other thing I'm thinking about is while the '51 has two black exposed coil pickups I'd like mine in shiny chrome, just because I like that kind of thing...:) This means for the neck pickup I'm going to choose a Tele neck pickup and for the bridge pickup there's lots of PAF style humbuckers to choose in Chrome. What I need help with is choosing two pickups that will complement each other and sound nice blended. I hope someone has this kind of experience. Obviously for the £50 budget I've been looking at brands such as Wilkinson, Artec and IronGear but there might be others I am unaware of. If a few quid would make an awesome difference then I'd probably up the budget... Thanks in advance for your replies. Mark
 
I bought one of the squier 51's a few years ago when they were available. After a little work it's a pretty nice guitar. I wound my own pickups for it. 8.5k AlNiCo5 humbucker, and a A3 strat pickup wound to 6.5k at the neck. They balance really well. A vintage spec PAF type, and a proper tele neck pickup should sit well together. I didn't care for the '51 style pickguard either. I made a custom clear one for mine. I also upgraded the tuners, electronics, drilled the bridge, and strung it through the body. The Squier 51's were a neat idea. I wasn't surprised when the Fender version hit the shelves a few years later.
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Thanks, John for the considered reply. I had a hunch a lower power vintage style humbucker would be the best for balance, thanks for the details of the resistances etc too. Winding my own is a little bit too hands-on for my plans, there's so many other things need doing on a new build! You have improved your '51 a lot. It's good to see it wasn't routed behind the pickguard in the factory. One thing the guy at the shop asked me about the blend pot was if I wanted it to be 100/100% in the centre notch or 70/70. I could experiment, but can anybody confirm the blend pot type? Cheers, Mark
 
GuitarDR said:
Thanks, John for the considered reply. I had a hunch a lower power vintage style humbucker would be the best for balance, thanks for the details of the resistances etc too. Winding my own is a little bit too hands-on for my plans, there's so many other things need doing on a new build!
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y/w Mark, These are fun guitars, I'm anxious to see yours when it's complete.

You have improved your '51 a lot. It's good to see it wasn't routed behind the pickguard in the factory.
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I was happy that there was no rout behind the pickguard. I had originally planned to put a black guard on it. I think this looks much better. When I bought it they were quite popular as a platform for modification. I was taking on a new found interest in pickup winding, and the '51 was just what I needed to get my feet wet.

I chose to overwind the pickups a little because I didn't want them to be too bright. With no tone pot you have to get it right. Experiment with your tone capacitors! It really makes a difference. I'm using a .033uf polyester cap, and a 500k volume pot in mine. The highs roll off differently with the higher value volume pots.

One thing the guy at the shop asked me about the blend pot was if I wanted it to be 100/100% in the centre notch or 70/70. I could experiment, but can anybody confirm the blend pot type? Cheers, Mark
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That's not a blend pot. That's a three way rotary switch. There's also a push/pull on the volume that split's the humbucker. Your five way switching options are as follows; neck only, neck + full h/b, neck + split h/b, bridge only full h/b, bridge only split h/b.
 
Thanks for that extra info about the capacitors. They're cheap so I can test out various values.
I've been waiting nearly a month for the body and neck to be made and sent to me... When I've finished the guitar to my satisfaction I will post up a picture, I'd expect that to be in August at the current rate of speed! I'm really looking forward to getting started though. It won't look a lot like the '51 but will be sharing the electronics/pickup config mainly.
 
I've dusted off the old stock pickups that came with my '05 tobacco-burst '51, and put different magnets underneath them. A3 Firebird magnets under the single (more like a P-90 i suppose than a Fender pup). A2 bar under the humbucker. I'll let you know what I discover. It's being wired up so that I can present a completed mod to the forum!
 
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