Squire Classic Vibe 70's Thinline-Non adjustable pickup pole pieces?

  • Thread starter Michael Smith
  • Start date
  • This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links like Ebay, Amazon, and others.

Michael Smith

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
1,970
Location
SE Texas
I also just checked my screws. While the heads are not lined up, they seem very firm - as if they are glued in place as well.
It took a lot of pressure on my screwdriver to pry one loose. Clearly non-adjustable. I think the "threads" are just ridges in the pole pieces.
 

Boreas

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2019
Posts
20,703
Age
70
Location
Adirondack Coast, NY
Well prolly not wax then. Maybe they're just using various compounds depending on availability and whatnot?
Likely depends on who manufactured them. Fender/Squier has likely had more than one supplier over the years. They are likely all wax-potted, but poles probably glued (CA, epoxy, thread-lock) first for durability. Picks scraping over the poles would likely loosen wax over time. Plus wax (has some give) may give the end user the impression that these are adjustable, which it seems they are not. The CuNiFe versions ARE however threaded magnets. :)
 

Michael Smith

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
1,970
Location
SE Texas
I think the biggest issue with these Squire humbuckers is that the pole pieces do not line up with the strings. My raising that one pole piece about 2mm, made it closer to the high E string, even though the string barely passes over the very edge of it. Same thing with the B string, but I guess the greater mass of that string doesn't cause the volume to be low like the E string was.

Here's a better photo using a flashlight rather than the camera's flash to show how mis-aligned the pickups are. The lowest 3 stings line up pretty well with both pickup's pole pieces, but starting with the G string, the alignment gets progressively worse. All in all, after my fix, the pickups do sound decent enough.

P1060013.JPG
 

Boreas

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2019
Posts
20,703
Age
70
Location
Adirondack Coast, NY
Yeah, it seems when Fender spec'd out these pickups, they should have paid a little more attention to what bridge/saddle combinations would be used - and accuracy of pickguard routing/drilling/positioning. Even with perfect pickup placement, the string alignment will still be off - increasingly toward the edges. But at least if they are centered, a HB should be sensitive enough to balance the output with nothing more than a tweak in pickup height.

Maybe they are called "Wide Range" because they are too wide! ;)
 

Michael Smith

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
1,970
Location
SE Texas
I used a caliper to measure the distance between the high and low E strings in the center of the neck and bridge pickups. Neck = 49mm, Bridge = 52mm. So to be "perfect" the pole pieces on the neck pickup would have to be spaced closer together and away from the ends of the pickup compared to the bridge pickup. That's not going to happen on a budget guitar. As best I can tell, both pickups have the same pole placements. And as mentioned above, the bridge/saddle size used may vary over over time.
 

SylvesterFrost

Tele-Meister
Joined
Mar 21, 2024
Posts
134
Location
Ohio
The screws should be adjustable, however the pole pieces should not impact the output as much as the pickup height. In general. It does not also matter much if the strings are slightly off center.

Regarding the thread of the pole piece slipping - I have had similar issues with most pickup brands. I tend not to mess with such pile pieces much. You can melt some wax yo set in the pole piece again and just not touch it anymore. Or you can also dismantle the pickup, but it might be too much hassle for a small return.

These wide range humbuckers were made by G&B and sound great. G&B is also the company that makes pickups for PRS SE that people tend to really like and has made pickups for multiple other brands.
 

Michael Smith

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
1,970
Location
SE Texas
The screws should be adjustable, however the pole pieces should not impact the output as much as the pickup height. In general. It does not also matter much if the strings are slightly off center.

Regarding the thread of the pole piece slipping - I have had similar issues with most pickup brands. I tend not to mess with such pile pieces much. You can melt some wax yo set in the pole piece again and just not touch it anymore. Or you can also dismantle the pickup, but it might be too much hassle for a small return.

These wide range humbuckers were made by G&B and sound great. G&B is also the company that makes pickups for PRS SE that people tend to really like and has made pickups for multiple other brands.
Are you sure the Squire wide range humbuckers are made by G&B? The specs on the Fender vs. Squire differ considerably in the DC resistance.
 

SylvesterFrost

Tele-Meister
Joined
Mar 21, 2024
Posts
134
Location
Ohio
Yes, I have serviced many of them and still have one. Maybe they changed them in the new models? The ones that I have the G&b stamps on them.
 

Boreas

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2019
Posts
20,703
Age
70
Location
Adirondack Coast, NY
Yes, I have serviced many of them and still have one. Maybe they changed them in the new models? The ones that I have the G&b stamps on them.
Supposedly some WRHBs are manufactured in Mexico, others in Indonesia. I don't know - does G&B have facilities in both areas?
 

Michael Smith

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
1,970
Location
SE Texas
Yes, I have serviced many of them and still have one. Maybe they changed them in the new models? The ones that I have the G&b stamps on them.
I didn't notice any markings on the pickups when I had the pickguard detached, but I wasn't really looking. Next time I will take a closer look.

Edit: earlier today I played the guitar thru a silverface Vibrochamp with 2 x 10 speakers cranked to 10. Both sounded pretty good. Tomorrow I will play a Les Paul thru the same setup and see how the Squire wide range humbuckers stack up.P1050605.JPG
 
Last edited:

Michael Smith

Tele-Afflicted
Joined
Mar 3, 2023
Posts
1,970
Location
SE Texas
Today I played the Fender Squire with the wide range pickups and a Les Paul with standard humbuckers thru an over driven amp (Vibro Champ) and then thru a clean amp (Deluxe Reverb normal channel). Thru the overdriven amp, both sets of pickups sounded similar. Thru the clean amp, the Squire's pickups were a little brighter and the Les Paul was warmer. I did adjust the height of the pickups on both guitars to get similar volume, and used an A/B box to be able to quickly switch between guitars. I had one guitar strapped to my body and the other on my thighs, so I could switch back and forth in about one second. By turning down the tone pot on the Squire, I was able to get them to sound very similar. The strings on the Les Paul are quite old, to that could have contributed to the guitar sounding warmer.

DC resistance: Squire Neck 7.78K, Squire Bridge 8.12K, LP Neck 8.23K, LP Bridge 8.73K

Conclusion: The Squire's wide range humbuckers are decent pickups to my ears, despite the pole pieces not being adjustable and not quite aligned with all of the strings.
P1060016.JPG
 

SylvesterFrost

Tele-Meister
Joined
Mar 21, 2024
Posts
134
Location
Ohio
Supposedly some WRHBs are manufactured in Mexico, others in Indonesia. I don't know - does G&B have facilities in both areas?
Well in that case they would be different pickups. In any case i can speak on the g&b ones - they are great and tonally they are very similar to classic PAF.
 

zook

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Posts
3,129
Location
Cochise, AZ
I have one of the VM models. I converted the neck pickups magnets using FeCrCo trreaded magnets and alnico rod magnets. I had to use wax to get them to stay in place since they were slightly smaller than the original parts. They worked out okay, but I still found them to be too dark. Using a capacitor in series helped some, but ultimately I got another pickguard and put a set of American made Epiphine Humbuckers I had in it. The guitar sounds much more to my liking now.
 
Last edited:

Boreas

Telefied
Ad Free Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2019
Posts
20,703
Age
70
Location
Adirondack Coast, NY
I have one of the VM models. I converted the neck pickups magnets using FeCrCo trreaded magnets and alnico rod magnets. I had to use wax to get them to stay in place since they were slightly smaller than the original parts. They worked out okay, but I still found them to be too dark. Using a capacitor in series helped some, but ultimately I got another pickguard and put a set of American made Epiphine Humbuckers I had in it. The guitar sounds much more to my liking now.
So were the VM OEM pole pieces glued in place, or wax-potted?
 

zook

Friend of Leo's
Joined
Aug 6, 2003
Posts
3,129
Location
Cochise, AZ
So were the VM OEM pole pieces glued in place, or wax-potted?
The original pole pieces were screwed in. I had to use wax because the FeCrCo magnets have a slightly smaller diameter, as do the AlNiCo rods.
 
Top