MIM WRHB...really?

[fender4life]

I just bought a MIM '72 thinline RI. Luckily used, so i won't lose if i sell it, which i think i'm going to do. Can anyone tell me this....are the WRHB pickups in these really as bad as what i'm hearing, or is the guitar itself likely a dud? I've had guitars in the past where the wood was just bad sounding and no pickups would fix that. But with this guitar i have to have a custom made guard to put single coils in it and see if it's worth keeping or not. I'm not prepared to go to that length if theres a good chance it's th wood or even design.

So whats the lowdown on these? is it the pups or the wood? All i know is i've had an endless stream of fenders over several decades, and this is one of the most lifeless sounding ever. The lows turn to mud when you turn down to clean up, and thats AFTER i put a 500pf treble bleed cap in it. I know the pups are partly to blame to be sure, but are they bad enough to be the whole reason?

[tpaul]

You might want to try changing the pots. I believe those come with 250K pots, but nearly everyone changes them to 500K. The difference in tone is supposed to be huge. If it has 250K pots now, try changing those before giving up on the pickups and/or guitar.

[fender4life]

Thanks. I never found that to be a huge difference, but it may well be with these pickups. I'll give it a shot right now and let you know how it goes. Thanks 4 the tip.

[indiobravo]

i don't really like them. not too bad when i plunk around by myself, but get lost in the mx when i play with the band. i have already bought a replacement guard from wd with regular hb cut outs.

[Tele60x]

I didn't care for the RI WRHB it's a shame because the original is my favorite pickup of all time. Oh well...

[Texas Jimmy]

I just checked on EBay to see what the going rate is for an original Seth Lover CuNiFe WRHB. YIKES!

[fender4life]

Well, the 500k helped, but they are still about the worse pickups i have ever heard. Seriously ! I cannot recall ever having anything as bad. Problem is, i can't be sure how much of what i'm hearing is the guitar itself. But i do think theres a lot of it that is going to be there no matter what pickups i put in it. So instead of spending a lot of time and/or money on it i'm just gonna sell it. Drag...

On a side note, my CV thinline was a MUCH better sounding tele ! I'd probably go back there if i try and revisit thinline territory again.

[Albionic]

The poor wrhb's are a well known issue. There's a company that mods them but it's not cheap . http://www.at-the-creamery.co.uk/blo...amery-pickups/

[fender4life]

Yeah, i know about all that. problem is i gotta spend money to find out and i think the guitar is a pretty good part of what i don't like about the tone. So it's going bye bye. Too bad too, as it's a beautiful tele. Not crazy about the neck either tho, so it's probably for the best.

[tpaul]

Contact Telenator from this forum. He offers several different services to improve these pickups.

Here's his website:

http://www.telenator.com/

His work gets rave reviews.

[indiobravo]

Originally Posted by fender4life

Yeah, i know about all that. problem is i gotta spend money to find out and i think the guitar is a pretty good part of what i don't like about the tone. So it's going bye bye. Too bad too, as it's a beautiful tele. Not crazy about the neck either tho, so it's probably for the best.

thats cool. i dont blame you - you have to have a good feeling about it no matter what.

i will say that i am keeping mine - it feels fantastic

[e-merlin]

I think it takes a while to set the pickups up to get the tone you want. You gotta play with 'em. You're not going to get a traditional Tele tone with these pickups.

[fender4life]

It's not a matter of TYPE of tone. If it had seymour HB's i could appriciate it for what it was. The tone iself just plain sucks. Very harsh and muddy when turned down even with 500k pot and tone control unhooked and treble bleed.

[adjason]

I agree with you. I have an ash tele I built and they just do not do it for me. I am contemplating the Lollars but $200 each is hard to justify.............its the pickups. changing the pots will help but only a tiny bit

[hongaku]

It ain't the guitar dude, it's you (and the crappy reissue wrhb's)

Seriously, these are fine guitars held back by really awful (imo) pickups.

But you already know this as this isn't the first thread where I've seen you asking these same kind of questions...and receiving the same kinds of responses...

[flyingbanana]

A friend had me build him a thinline and he wanted the same pups in it. I told him no. He's only been mildly happy with them. We'll probably be swapping them out soon. The guitar can be fantastic...but these pickups are an aquired taste I think. Keep playing with the heights and caps etc...maybe you'll find a setup you like with em.

By the way...you remind me of another person who posted the very exact same questions about his thinline...even asking about the wood.

hmmmmm

[Toto'sDad]

If you mess with them long enough, you can get 'em to sound passable. I took the pickguard off and backed out the hidden screws 2.5 turns, thought I'd found the answer, then I got a lot of pick noise. So pulled the guard again, put everything back like it was, only I turned ALL the screws IN a half turn from where they were. Put it back together, and darned if it's not better than ever, and no pick noise, or no more than normal with a standard Tele. Tinkered around with the heights on the pickups themselves, and have it sounding pretty good. If I CAN, I'm gonna leave it alone, it's sounding the best it ever has. Good luck with yours, I hope you can either fix it to your satisfaction, or can sell it.

[Shepherd]

Another option http://www.curtisnovak.com/pickups/wrhb.shtml

[fender4life]

thanks for all the replies. But replacement HB's isn't the answer for me. Just after i last posted i took the bridge pup out and rigged a halfass thing to put a SAC in there and played it with a duncan SSL-5 in the bridge. Much better, and now i know exactly how much of what i was hearing was the WRHB and how much the wood. Put it this way...the pups were most of the problem but i still feel the wood isn't great. maybe in a few years, as i've always found new fenders tend to often sound mediocre and get far better after about 7-8 years. This one being a year old ain't there yet, so it may get there. But i don't have that kinda time so i'll likely sell it. But now i'm at least considering the possibility of keeping it. Not likely,. but maybe. I'll likely know in a few days or a week, after i put a SC in the neck too so i can full evaluate it.

[flyingbanana]

Yeah I hear you. I buy all my Fenders new and store em for 8 years before I'll even touch em. That poly needs to age a bit.