MIM vs CIJ wide range humbucker

elektrikdke · February 15th, 2006, 10:33 AM

Hello people,

I've been lurking for a while so I thought that a useful post is long overdue.

I saw a lot of talks about the new wide range humbuckers lately and I thought I would share some info here.

I happen to own both a CIJ reissue wrhp and a MIM wrhp
and although the MIM version is well documented I feel that the CIJ version is not as well known.

Upon disassembling both pickups I found out the following:

- The MIM is wax potted, the CIJ is not wax potted.

- The MIM reads 8.2k on my mutimeter while the CIJ reads 13.5k ( hence the dark and muddy sound reported by some ). I could however achieve a satisfying balance
between the CIJ wrhp and a GFS alnico 62 ( the GFS reads 10.3k on my meter ).

- The CIJ magnet is shorter and maybe a little thicker than the MIM. The CIJ magnet is made of a material slightly lighter in colour.

- The CIJ has a two conductor wire as opposed to the complex set of wires found on the MIM.

- The CIJ polepieces are nearly twice as long as the MIM
and maybe a tiny bit wider in diameter although I could screw them inside the MIM bobbins.

- The CIJ cover is heavier than the MIM and underneath the chrome plating I can see a metal similar to brass or copper maybe (???).

I had both pickups installed in my Tele and the MIM definitely had a brighter sound easier to balance with a "regular" Tele pickup. My guess would be that the CIJ is similar to the original WRHP in terms of materials used and output if not for the polepieces as opposed to the MIM being voiced to sound like an original WRHP.

I thought I'll share this info with you guys although my only Tele is a really punky snarling beast ( it's the same guitar than the one played by Futoshi Abe from Thee Michelle gun Elephant and weight 3.2 kg, never seen such a resonant Fender in 20 years of playing - an ash 72 Custom limited edition ) so I'm going to install my favourite Tele pickup, an SD broadcaster. In the neck position, I plan to use a P90 which I salvaged from a Japanese Hohner Gold Top Les Paul copy which reads at 6k so it should balance nicely with the broadcaster. However I need to find a red tortoise shell 72 Custom pickguard with a P90 route in the neck pickup position.

Thanks

Fabrice

teleboi · February 15th, 2006, 03:41 PM

Well from my understanding the CIJ WRHP had ceramic magnets, while the MIM ones have alnico magnets, I have also heard that the CIJ ones were a bit more desirable than the MIM ones, especially in the bridge? although I've never tried a CIJ one.

However I did borrow a MIM '72 Custom a while ago and did not like the neck WRHP at all, it was totally stock and it sounded rather muddy and lifeless to my ears. But since then I have heard that you really need to change the pots to 1k to have it really open up and let some treble through. So either way, if I ever get one of these thats the first mod I'm gonna do ;)

elektrikdke · February 16th, 2006, 06:26 AM

The CIJ magnet had a red mark on it so if Fender Japan uses the same kind of color codes than SD does it has to
be a ceramic magnet indeed.

My 72 only has two volumes and a single tone pot and
I've replaced the volumes with 500k and the tone with a 250k.

As I said I much preferred the MIM wrhp but I guess that the CIJ would make a perfect hot bridge pickup on a Deluxe.

In fact the MIM/CIJ combination would give you something similar to the classic hard rock set from Gibson, i.e. 490R/498T in terms of output.

February 15th, 2006, 10:33 AM	#1 (permalink)
elektrikdke TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 29	MIM vs CIJ wide range humbucker Hello people, I've been lurking for a while so I thought that a useful post is long overdue. I saw a lot of talks about the new wide range humbuckers lately and I thought I would share some info here. I happen to own both a CIJ reissue wrhp and a MIM wrhp and although the MIM version is well documented I feel that the CIJ version is not as well known. Upon disassembling both pickups I found out the following: - The MIM is wax potted, the CIJ is not wax potted. - The MIM reads 8.2k on my mutimeter while the CIJ reads 13.5k ( hence the dark and muddy sound reported by some ). I could however achieve a satisfying balance between the CIJ wrhp and a GFS alnico 62 ( the GFS reads 10.3k on my meter ). - The CIJ magnet is shorter and maybe a little thicker than the MIM. The CIJ magnet is made of a material slightly lighter in colour. - The CIJ has a two conductor wire as opposed to the complex set of wires found on the MIM. - The CIJ polepieces are nearly twice as long as the MIM and maybe a tiny bit wider in diameter although I could screw them inside the MIM bobbins. - The CIJ cover is heavier than the MIM and underneath the chrome plating I can see a metal similar to brass or copper maybe (???). I had both pickups installed in my Tele and the MIM definitely had a brighter sound easier to balance with a "regular" Tele pickup. My guess would be that the CIJ is similar to the original WRHP in terms of materials used and output if not for the polepieces as opposed to the MIM being voiced to sound like an original WRHP. I thought I'll share this info with you guys although my only Tele is a really punky snarling beast ( it's the same guitar than the one played by Futoshi Abe from Thee Michelle gun Elephant and weight 3.2 kg, never seen such a resonant Fender in 20 years of playing - an ash 72 Custom limited edition ) so I'm going to install my favourite Tele pickup, an SD broadcaster. In the neck position, I plan to use a P90 which I salvaged from a Japanese Hohner Gold Top Les Paul copy which reads at 6k so it should balance nicely with the broadcaster. However I need to find a red tortoise shell 72 Custom pickguard with a P90 route in the neck pickup position. Thanks Fabrice

February 15th, 2006, 03:41 PM	#2 (permalink)
teleboi TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 93	Well from my understanding the CIJ WRHP had ceramic magnets, while the MIM ones have alnico magnets, I have also heard that the CIJ ones were a bit more desirable than the MIM ones, especially in the bridge? although I've never tried a CIJ one. However I did borrow a MIM '72 Custom a while ago and did not like the neck WRHP at all, it was totally stock and it sounded rather muddy and lifeless to my ears. But since then I have heard that you really need to change the pots to 1k to have it really open up and let some treble through. So either way, if I ever get one of these thats the first mod I'm gonna do ;)

February 16th, 2006, 06:26 AM	#3 (permalink)
elektrikdke TDPRI Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 29	The CIJ magnet had a red mark on it so if Fender Japan uses the same kind of color codes than SD does it has to be a ceramic magnet indeed. My 72 only has two volumes and a single tone pot and I've replaced the volumes with 500k and the tone with a 250k. As I said I much preferred the MIM wrhp but I guess that the CIJ would make a perfect hot bridge pickup on a Deluxe. In fact the MIM/CIJ combination would give you something similar to the classic hard rock set from Gibson, i.e. 490R/498T in terms of output.