Possibly Stupid Question

[timiscott]

I was wondering about Mustang pickups the other day. I know they sound different to Jaguars and Strats, but what's the reason for this? Is it in the pick up construction? Is that different to Strat or Jag pick ups? (I know they don't have a Jag-style claws.)

[Larry Mal]

My belief is that even for single coil Fenders, they are lightly wound, which is what was expressed to me when I went to have some vintage wind Mustang pickups made for a MIJ guitar I had.

I can't say that's accurate, though, I haven't really tested it ever.

Otherwise, the guitar itself has a different tremolo system and whatnot, probably the bulk of what makes that guitar sound the way it does is because of that.

[Danley]

Jaguars: The coil is usually a tiny bit narrower and taller than Strats, and the claw directs the magnetic field differently (more like a Lace Sensor - tighter to the bobbin.) Other that, they just sound like a Fender single coil and more of the differences are in the construction of the guitar.

Mustangs: It’s.a Strat pickup with bobbins even with the poles; no more, no less. Again more mechanical than electronic differences between the guitars.

[leokula]

Both pickups being slanted on a Mustang must also make some slight difference in tone, right?

[MechaBulletBill]

Both pickups being slanted on a Mustang must also make some slight difference in tone, right?

a little bit, yeah. things that definitely make a difference are the position of pickups relative to bridge/nut/12th fret/"node" positions/etc., flat stagger poles, the thick cover limiting how close you can get them to the strings*, tone control for bridge pickup.

in my mind, the mustang is like a "tele junior" in sound.


*some people run their strat pups almost touching the strings, you can't get close to that with normal mustang pickups

[Musjagjazz]

Mustang pickups are wound counter clockwise with a lower output, where as Strat pickups are wound clockwise.

Also, magnets don't extend out of the top, through the top of the bobbin, but on older pickups extended out the bottom, hence the covers.

[Jaguar018]

Pickup construction aside, the guitar's scale affects things as well along with the already-mentioned pickup location.

[Embenny]

Everyone here is correct. They were more lightly wound than other pickups at the time, which was probably measured in turns, but in terms of resistance, comes out to over 1k lower on average comparing my vintage jaguars and mustangs. The flat polepieces have an effect; based on experiments in the strat pickup community, it seems that flat-pole pickups have a bit more fullness than their staggered counterparts, because you're raising the body of the pickup closer to the strings (similar to the difference between raising a PAF or P90 vs lowering it and raising the polepieces).

Those are the differences in the pickups themslves. The scale length, bridge, and position of the pickups (both in terms of slant and distance to the bridge) are all different than any other Fender.

I personally find the Mustang's neck pickup tone to be the "most different" to the most comparable Fenders (the Jaguar, in terms of scale length, and the Strat in terms of pickup design).

I under-appreciated/misunderstood vintage Mustangs for about 15 years longer than the Jaguar and Jazzmaster. It took me time to take it seriously, though in retrospect I'm not really sure why.

[leokula]

I personally find the Mustang's neck pickup tone to be the "most different" to the most comparable Fenders (the Jaguar, in terms of scale length, and the Strat in terms of pickup design).

I totally agree with you, it's very unique and it's my favorite sound on the Mustang.

[Danley]

The Mustang is one of the only guitars I like/prefer ‘both on’ (not oop though.)

[Moo-Stang]

Sorry for the micro bump, but I found the info in this thread helpful. Just wanted to say thanks

[OV7]

I've got some Lindy Fralin Mustang pickups(high output/medium radius/split rail) that I'm not using at the moment. I didn't know they would fit in a Strat until I read this.

[jakeisjake]

can we just make this a "ask your stupid question here" thread?

Because I have a lot of them...sometimes they're stupid...sometimes they are just easy to answer, the answer being obvious to some people, but not to me.

Here's my first:

Fender bodies (not Squier) are made in the USA, Mexico, Japan...

Any where else?

[secretroutines]

The pickup question can be answered here:

https://youtu.be/he9EI_RE08w

[Larry Mal]

I watched that video and liked it a lot, at the end, he talks about how Fender designed those guitars around a specific ethos for the guitars. I always felt that way also, like just putting a bunch of Telecaster parts on a Jazzmaster body doesn't make it a new guitar or anything interesting. When they made those old Fenders, they designed the whole package around what they were going for.