Japanese WR Humbucker any good?

Trimac20 · April 27th, 2008, 11:58 PM

I plan to get a CIJ '72 Custom and repace the bridge pickup with a Broadcaster pickup - possibly a Kinman or something like that. I'm just wondering, if I have an awesome bridge pickup, will the stock Fender WR Pickup and I want to play in the middle position, will it take some of the gloss out of the sound? Should I get any of the other electronics replaced? Just wondering how the Japanese WR Humbucker compares to the Mexican and American ones.

jefrs · April 29th, 2008, 02:57 PM

Having a WR clone fitted to American Series '07 with its 'high output' bridge, an a Baja with the broadcaster bridge, do you know, I rather think it will.

Not wanting to get into some hot debate over whether new WR sound like original WR, I don't think it would be too controversial to say the Japanese are very, very good at copying, except when they get it horribly wrong.

For controls, the humbucker might like a 500k linear volume control. I left the humbucker coils in series and did not bother with a coil-tap. I did fit a TBX tone control but put a 104 cap in series with the 82k resistor to ground, otherwise, bog-standard. And a 4-way - three coils in series mate!

April 27th, 2008, 11:58 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trimac20 Tele-Meister Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Perth, WA, Australia Age: 22 Posts: 238	Japanese WR Humbucker any good? I plan to get a CIJ '72 Custom and repace the bridge pickup with a Broadcaster pickup - possibly a Kinman or something like that. I'm just wondering, if I have an awesome bridge pickup, will the stock Fender WR Pickup and I want to play in the middle position, will it take some of the gloss out of the sound? Should I get any of the other electronics replaced? Just wondering how the Japanese WR Humbucker compares to the Mexican and American ones.

April 29th, 2008, 02:57 PM	#2 (permalink)
jefrs Tele-Meister Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Newbury, England Age: 53 Posts: 464	Having a WR clone fitted to American Series '07 with its 'high output' bridge, an a Baja with the broadcaster bridge, do you know, I rather think it will. Not wanting to get into some hot debate over whether new WR sound like original WR, I don't think it would be too controversial to say the Japanese are very, very good at copying, except when they get it horribly wrong. For controls, the humbucker might like a 500k linear volume control. I left the humbucker coils in series and did not bother with a coil-tap. I did fit a TBX tone control but put a 104 cap in series with the 82k resistor to ground, otherwise, bog-standard. And a 4-way - three coils in series mate!