When did Fender stop using brass covers for Telecaster neck pickups ?

[variantboy]

Does anyone know ? I've asked around before and no one seems to have the definitive answer.
Was it mid to late 70s? 80s? after?

 

[Wallaby]

I thought the cover material was case-by-case, depending on the pickup?

 

[dinomike77]

I tried to dive deeply in this topic a few years back and did not get a specific answer. I made a post here, wrote to Fender and a few different winders that make vintage spec pups, but no luck on nailing down a year or even era. I hope you have better luck and I will be watching this thread!

 

[variantboy]

I **am** surprised that with all the data that some sources provide with what methods/materials were used in certain years for other elements in the equation (number of turns, magnet types, bobbin material used, potting material).. that there isn't any definitive understanding (or even guesses) on this.

As I've mentioned on previous threads - I'm wondering if I might actually prefer the influence it has on a neck pickup.

 

[heffus]

Love me a brass cover on a lower wound tele neck pickup. Smoky and husky but with clarity. Nice treble rolloff. Pickup can't be too hot though or you could get some mud.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

Heavy covers over a bobbin make it harder for the magnetism to reach the strings. Magnetizing the strings is the only job of magnets in passive pickups. Covers that are grounded further reduce the amount of treble in the resulting induced signal from the vibrating strings. The sole reason Leo added a neck pickup to his Spanish Electric Guitar in 1950 (later that year named "Esquire") was to offer an alternative to the bands around town to drop the big double doghouse bass and offer a quasi baritone bass sound from his guitar. Those Esquires could have one or two pickups. When the two pickup guitar name changed to "Broadcaster", the single pickup guitar was left at "Esquire". But I digress. Using that heavy brass neck pickup cover, with its heavy chrome plating and added capacitor, was a fine way to kill treble. This two pickup Esquire/Broadcaster was offered as the sole guitar offering for country bands - lead, rhythm, and sorta-kinda-quasi bass. The next year (1951) Leo invented the bass guitar, but he kept using those heavy neck covers right up to selling out to CBS in January of 1965. Much later on the jazz guys, like Joe Pass, used those heavy cover Tele neck pickups for jazzy stuff. Somewhere along the line, winders started dropping the heavy brass/chrome covers for thinner nickel-silver covers, making the Tele neck pickup into a real guitar pickup.

 

[variantboy]

Heavy covers over a bobbin make it harder for the magnetism to reach the strings. Magnetizing the strings is the only job of magnets in passive pickups. Covers that are grounded further reduce the amount of treble in the resulting induced signal from the vibrating strings. The sole reason Leo added a neck pickup to his Spanish Electric Guitar in 1950 (later that year named "Esquire") was to offer an alternative to the bands around town to drop the big double doghouse bass and offer a quasi baritone bass sound from his guitar. Those Esquires could have one or two pickups. When the two pickup guitar name changed to "Broadcaster", the single pickup guitar was left at "Esquire". But I digress. Using that heavy brass neck pickup cover, with its heavy chrome plating and added capacitor, was a fine way to kill treble. This two pickup Esquire/Broadcaster was offered as the sole guitar offering for country bands - lead, rhythm, and sorta-kinda-quasi bass. The next year (1951) Leo invented the bass guitar, but he kept using those heavy neck covers right up to selling out to CBS in January of 1965. Much later on the jazz guys, like Joe Pass, used those heavy cover Tele neck pickups for jazzy stuff. Somewhere along the line, winders started dropping the heavy brass/chrome covers for thinner nickel-silver covers, making the Tele neck pickup into a real guitar pickup.

thanks for the input Rob. Now we can say we know that you don't think a tele neck pickup with a brass or chrome cover is a "real guitar pickup"... and we have on record your reasons for feeling that way. Good to know.

So - on the topic of the question posed ...
other than the statement that Leo kept using them "right up to selling out to CBS in January of 1965",
I'm still wondering if anyone can offer any knowledge as to how long they might have stayed as "stock" configuration on the production line ?

Like would a '70, or '71... or '75 be likely to have one if they'd remained unchanged?

 

[Rob DiStefano]

Call up FMIC, they should know .....

 

[Antoon]

Earlier I was under the impression that it became nickel silver when it changed to a material that was harder to deep draw in 1969 and I could not find the typical orange yellow brass color under the chrome plating anymore. But later I found out that it was still some kind of brass throughout the 1970s. Perhaps they became a little more clear sounding (hard to tell), while the DCR went up up a bit after the 60s. Fender also used some kind of heat treatment on the cover by then, I presume to harden the bent tabs of the cover. With regular brass I don't think this is possible.

 

[viking]

They didnt change the wiring untill 67....so the "dark circuit " remained for that long at least.

Im old enough to remember in the early 80s , when the first re-issues appeared , and none of us could read on the internet about how things ought to be , how people went " it must be defective " , LOL

Hendrix said about the Tele that it had two sounds , one good and one bad.. LOL...

The Strat didnt get the 5 way switch untill the 70´s , so Leo might have been a genius , but things kind of changed along the way.............Thank God.....

 

[dinomike77]

Call up FMIC, they should know .....

I emailed them a couple years ago asking just that. They told me they don’t know.

 

[dinomike77]

 

[dinomike77]

That statement sounds completely bass-ackwards to me.

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

The brass chrome plated cover does have it's fans...

 

[dinomike77]

I just mean that most info seems to indicate that brass was used earlier and that nickel silver is the more modern material. I had a Duncan with a brass cover and it was a great, smokey sound. Still, I’d rather have a bit more clarity and just use my tone control to darken it up.