Texas Special Pickups

[Blackmore Fan]

All pickups are machine wound.
The only difference is hand guided, which is more labour intensive, hence the higher cost and exclusivity.
I have several so-called "hand wound" Strat pickups.
Other than the appearance of the coil stack, there isn't any discernable difference in tone.

I wish more people understood this.

 

[sjtalon]

I wish more people understood this.

and believed it.

You could buy 5 sets of the SAME pup set, and one by one put them in the SAME geetar.

Have 3 people do a true A/B blind test.

And still, end up with 3 subjective results on the whole pile of 'em.

Noted differences aside, how in the end could you label one of the, THE BEST?

 

[chezdeluxe]

We’re there two sorts of Texas Special pickups…….Yes there were for a time.
When the American Special Telecaster was introduced around 2010 the pickups were specified by Fender marketing in their wisdom as Texas Specials but they differed from Custom Shop Texas Specials in a couple of important respects.
Flat not staggered pole pieces on the bridge pu
Bridge pu dcr around 14-15 compared to 10 on the CSTS
Plastic coated hookup wires and only 2 wires on the neck pu

I understand the pickups on the American Special were changed later around 2013 but I don’t know the details.

 

[sjtalon]

Yes mis-identifed or whatever the deal was then. They were actually Hwy. 1 Texas Tele pickups.

Then in Fall 2013 there were actually CS Texas Special pickups in them.