The vintage Wide Range Humbucker sound in a Direct Drop-in Replacement

A true replacement for the modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker reissue pickups. Classic fat single coil tones - Great clarity and string definition with a bright warmth. Individual threaded pole magnets charged to around 2/3rds capacity allow you to dial in each string. A warmer mid-range than standard single coils and with a higher output, they're great for breaking up an amp.  With a great fat bridge tone sounding akin to a "doubled-up" Tele and a neck with a warm, sweet brightness. Handcrafted vintage nickel-silver baseplate, handcrafted ferrous reflector plate, full-size handmade bobbins with medium scatterwound coils - The Creamery Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker, a direct replacement for those modern reissues.

My vintage take on the original pickups have either 6 threaded magnets or a combination of 6 threaded magnets and 6 Alnico 2 rod magnets. With the threaded & Alnico 2 rod magnets the tone is ever so rounder, warmer with a few less highs - Great if you want to take a little 'spank' out of the bridge.

PLEASE NOTE: These pickups are a direct drop-in replacement to fit the modern reissue & original Wide Range Humbuckers.

Available in Nickel covers, Aged Nickel & the slightly more Yellowish Aged Bare Nickel.

Buy a calibrated Bridge & Neck set of my Classic '71 Wide Range Thinline / Tele Humbuckers here

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

The Wide Range sound in a standard Humbucker size

Classic fat single coil tones - Great clarity and string definition with a bright chime & warmth. Individual threaded pole magnets charged to around 2/3rds capacity allow you to dial in each string. A warmer mid-range than standard single coils and with a higher output, they're great for breaking up an amp. With a great fat bridge tone sounding akin to a "doubled-up" Tele and a neck with a warm, sweet brightness, these Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker style pickups are a great if you're looking for something more to replace a standard humbucker.

Slightly brighter with a tighter bass response that my full-size Classic '71 Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker repros due to the slightly narrower coil and lower output.

Available with either Vintage Braided or 4-Way wiring, the cover options are Chrome, Chrome H-Cover, Black, White, Cream or uncovered with black, zebra or B&W bobbins. You can also purchase the pickup with a Gold cover though please remember that the magnets will remain the same colour.

PLEASE NOTE: These pickups are a direct drop-in to fit a standard humbucker size cavity/scratchplate.

You can buy a calibrated Bridge & Neck set of my Baby '71 Wide Range Humbuckers - Standard Humbucker Sized here

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

Wide Range Tone for Jazzmaster

A true modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker to fit a standard Jazzmaster without any modifications to your guitar whatsoever. Classic fat single coil tones - Great clarity and string definition with a bright warmth. Individual threaded pole magnets charged to around 2/3rds capacity allow you to dial in each string and match the radius of your neck. A warmer mid-range than standard single coils and with a higher output they've more clarity and spank than a standard humbucker. They're great for breaking up an amp or played just on the edge of break-up for a great fat bridge tone sounding akin to a "doubled-up" Tele and a neck with a bright sweetness still with the warmth of an overwound pickup. Handcrafted flatwork baseplate to keep the higher frequencies, handcrafted ferrous reflector plate, my custom full-size Wide Range Humbucker bobbins with medium speed scatterwound coils - The Creamery Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker for Jazzmaster is a great crunchy pickup.

PLEASE NOTE: These pickups are a direct drop-in replacement for standard Jazzmaster Pickups.

You can buy a calibrated Bridge & Neck set of my Wide Range Humbuckers for Jazzmaster here

For more information on how I make my Wide Range Humbucker true to the original Seth Lover design, follow the link here

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

A great modern, crunchy pickup.

A true modern replacement for those Fender® Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker reissues. Classic fat single coil tones - Great clarity and string definition with a brighter warmth than my Classic '71 pickups. Individual threaded pole magnets fully charged allow you to dial in each string and match the radius of your neck, these modern versions of the Wide Range humbucker give a more attacking, punchier tone but still with a warmer mid-range than standard single coils with more clarity and spank than a standard humbucker. They're great for breaking up an amp or played just on the edge of break-up for a great fat bridge tone sounding akin to a "doubled-up" Tele and a neck with a bright sweetness still with the warmth of an overwound pickup.

I make these without the internal reflector plate to help keep more brightness with coils handwound around full-size Wide Range Humbucker bobbins  - The Creamery Modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker is a direct replacement for those modern muddy reissues with more edge than my vintage replacements.

Available in Nickel covers, Aged Nickel & the slightly more Yellowish Aged Bare Nickel. I'm currently re-designing the powder coat covers that come in either black or white and hope to have them ready soon.

A more modern, punchier take on my Classic '71 Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker - A great crunchy pickup.

PLEASE NOTE: These pickups are a direct drop-in replacement to fit the modern Fender® Wide Range / Humbucker reissues.

Buy a calibrated Bridge & Neck set of my Modern '71 Wide Range Thinline / Tele Humbuckers here

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

A great, overwound Wide Range pickup.

My overwound version & true modern replacement for those Fender® Wide Range / Thinline Tele Humbucker reissue Pickups. Still with the classic fat single coil tones - Great clarity and string definition with a bright warmth - the overwound nature of the coils gives the pickup more power to push an amp.
Custom Design baseplate to keep the higher frequencies, custom design ferrous reflector plate, full-size Wide Range Humbucker Pickup bobbins with medium speed scatterwound coils - The Creamery Modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker Pickup is a direct replacement for those modern muddy reissues with more edge than my vintage replacements.

PLEASE NOTE: These pickups are a direct drop-in replacement to fit the modern Fender® Wide Range / Humbucker reissue Pickups.

Available in Nickel covers, Aged Nickel & the slightly more Yellowish Aged Bare Nickel.

Buy a calibrated Bridge & Neck set of my 'Extra Width' Wide Range Humbucker replacements here

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

Designed for Coil-Splitting.

Not your standard humbucker tone but more of a fat "doubled-up" single coil tone. Another direct drop-in replacement for the modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker reissues. A larger version of my standard 12-Pole Humbucker, these pickups feature great string definition & clarity due to the 12 pole magnets that offer true single coil tones when split. A rich, biting attack with the warmth that comes from slightly longer, wider coils. With higher output you can enable a great tru single coil tone when coil split (tapped). The Vulcanised Fibre baseplate helps to keep the higher frequencies at this output.

PLEASE NOTE: These pickups are a direct drop-in replacement to fit the modern Wide Range / Humbuckers and the output can also be custom to your requirements.

I can stagger the magnets to follow your neck radius. Just let me know whether you have a 7.25", 9.5", 12" etc etc neck radius and I'll stagger the magnets accordingly. This way you can keep a good action on your setup.

Available open or in 12 pole White or Black powder coat covers similar to the Wide Range Humbuckers above

Buy a calibrated Bridge & Neck set of my Wide Range Humbucker replacements - 12 Pole Humbucker pickups here

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

As you can see from the picture, the modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker Telecaster Reissues are simply standard Humbucker sized coils encased in wax to fit the larger Wide Range Cover. As with standard Humbuckers they feature a bar magnet underneath, the difference being the use of threaded slugs to mimic the threaded magnets of the original late '60s-70s pickups. Having a bar magnet underneath the slugs means these pickups will have a different voice to the clarity, definition and fat brighter tone associated with the original, vintage versions.

If you'd like to upgrade these reissues you have in your guitar then now you can:

If you'd like to upgrade a set of Wide Range / Thinline Reissue Tele Humbuckers - Please click here for the set discount rates 

In all cases the pickup will look the same with your original Fender® logo cover & discounts are available for sets of pickups.

I can upgrde your Fender® reissue Wide Range / Thinline Tele, Custom & Deluxe Humbuckers to full vintage specifications. Choose from one of the three options below.

PLEASE NOTE: I'm unable to upgrade Option ONE & TWO with 4-way wire for coil-splits etc. The plastic bobbins have tiny lugs attacked to them on the underside where the coil wire is soldered to the hookup wire. The danger in replacing this wire with 4 way is that the coil can be easily damaged as the plastic surrounding the tiny lugs tends to melt and break the coil wire, rendering the pickup dead. I have successfully performed this wire switch in the past but its just a risk I don't like to take. Option THREE can have 4-way wire as I use my own larger, custom made bobbins.

Read my blog post which runs through the Option Three Wide Range Humbucker Reissue Upgrade here

Option Three Tele Custom / Deluxe Neck Upgrade - Video Demo

by Sami Saarinen

Video Demo

OPTION ONE

I'll carefully replace the bar magnet and slugs, replacing them with a full set of threaded magnets as found in my humbucker sized WR Humbuckers above. While not recreating the tone of the originals, this modification will open up the sound, giving more clarity, bloom, better string definition and a bright warmth with tighter bass response. A great upgrade if you're looking to breathe some life into your pickups for more of a "doubled-up" single coil tone. I can also reccomend potentimeter sizes & capacitors to work with, my personal. Once the work is done the pickup will be wax-potted if requested. This option is non-destructive, the original set-up can be re-instated at a later date should you require it

£40 per pickup / £70 per set

OPTION TWO

Similar to OPTION ONE except that the three hidden threaded pole magnets on either side will be replaced by custom Alnico 2 rod magnets giving a little more warmth & mid-range to the pickup. I carefully take the pickup apart, protecting the coils whilst I ream away the thread on the hidden poles to accomodate the new Alnico 2 Pole Rod Magnets. As with OPTION ONE, I can also reccomend potentimeter sizes & capacitors to work with based on your guitar configuration. Once the work is done the pickup will be wax-potted if requested. This option is destructive only in the sense that the three hidden polepiece holes on each bobbin are widened slightly to accomodate the Alnico 2 magnets. Should you require the pickup to be re-worked to its original state at a later date, this can be achieved with simple dowels to plug the wider holes, then drilled & threaded for the original slugs.

Both these options can be mixed to create a set of Bridge & Neck Upgrades.

£45 per pickup / £80 per set

OPTION THREE

Here I'd take your exiting pickup, remove the existing coils, magnet & slugs and replace them with two full size handwound coils (see pic) wrapped around my handmade bobbins with threaded magnets and custom handmade reflector plate. Essentially a true Wide Range Humbucker pickup with the great warmth and tone similar to that of the original. I wind the coils to a slight variation on the original spec to account for the modern version of the threaded magnets.

I wind the bridge coils to the same output as the original, reducing the neck slightly for better calibration of volume & tone between pickups. A true replacement for the modern Wide Range / Thinline Humbucker replacements. Classic fat single coil tones - Great clarity and string definition with a bright warmth. The Individual threaded pole magnets allow you to dial in each string. A warmer mid-range than standard single coils and with a higher output, they're great for breaking up an amp. With a great fat bridge tone sounding akin to a "doubled-up" Tele and a neck with a warm, sweet brightness. If the original baseplate is snagging the magnets as they line up with the cover I'll replace it with one of my handmade nicker silver ones

£100 per pickup /  £190 per set

> Back to full range of Wide Range Humbuckers

Original Threaded Pole Magnets

Like the original, the pickup has threaded adjustable magnets just like the original. CuNiFe is prohibitively expensive now so these new Wide Range/Thinline humbucker style pickups use FeCrCo which is very similar to Alnico but with more stable magnetic properties, threaded to enable adjustment of the poles. The individual magnets and custom scatterwound coils give great clarity and string definition, with a ‘fat’ brightness unique to this design of pickup. The adjustable pole magnets allow you to emphasise certain strings.

As the FeCrCo threaded magnets could be more aligned with Alnico 5 in terms of 'colouring the sound' I'm offering two options on the direct drop-in replacements. One version with 12 threaded poles which keeps the brighter attack and another version with six adjustable threaded poles and six corresponding Alnico 2 rod magnets to give a slightly warmer tone.

Calibrated Outputs

Whereas the original Seth Lover designed Wide Range/Thinline Humbuckers had roughly the same output in both bridge & neck, I’ve voiced these new designs with differing outputs for better calibration, volume and tone. The bridge has an output of around 10.4-10.7k depending on version with the neck slightly lower at around 9.6-9.8k. Of course, if you’d like to keep output to the original specs, I can happily custom wind a set for you.

For the standard humbucker sized version I tap & thread my classic humbucker bobbins & baseplate to create the pickup whilst crafting the reflector plate by hand. With the full-sized Wide Range/Thinline Humbucker replacements the full-size bobbins, ferrous reflector plate and nickel silver baseplate are all made by hand here in my workshop.

So if you’ve a modern day Telecaster Thinline, Custom or Deluxe then you can purchase a direct Wide Range/Thinline Humbucker replacement with dynamics true to the original pickup.

If you’d simply like a true Wide Range/Thinline Humbucker style pickup for your guitar to replace a standard humbucker, then now you can.

You can read my blog piece about them here. 

You can go straight to my Wide Range Tele Humbucker Upgrade options here

Reviews of my Custom Wide Range / Thinline Tele Humbucker Replacements / Upgrades