(Vid #2- Reaction/Tips/Solder) Fender CuNiFe vs Vintera Squier & MIM Wide Range Humbucker Coil Split 

I got squire CV, with the wide range. I watched a video by accident on this Australian guy removed the steel poles and installed magnets. This got rid of the dead darkness of these squire version pups, and made them at least ok. In my opinion. I haven’t taken the pups apart but I believe I remember seeing a video where’s they used a standard size bobbin just staggered them and filled them with wax. Dillion talks tone here on YT. I believe is where I saw that.

Man, I love the way you describe everything. I track with you 100% and appreciate how you highlight the differences between playing and then listening back. That’s gotta be one of the most difficult things to distinguish in RU-vid gear videos - it may sound great but your personal playing experience in person may sound totally different because our ears kinda hear differently when we play and when we listen. Great stuff! I’m currently deciding on a WRHB hunt for a project I’m putting together and out of all the WRHB demos on RU-vid yours are my favorite because of the detail of explanation as well as the variety of different pickups. Great stuff!!

Thanks for doing all these tests for the rest of us! I’ve been surprised how much I love the pickups in my Vintera Tele Deluxe even with the stock 250k pots. I recently received the CuNiFe’s I’d jumped on and I want to try them out but I think you can be very happy with the Vintera “fake” WRHB’s.

Thank you so much for the comparisons and for sharing your thoughts. I just put a set of 2020 CuNiFes in a Chris Shifflet Tele with 1 meg pots. I find the openness of the sound really appealing and find myself drawn to this guitar setup. It stands out. appreciate your ideas about raising/lowering WRHB pickups to find the sweet spots. I intend to do more experimenting.

My 2021 (75th Anniversary) Tele Deluxe came stock with 500k pots. I thought they were supposed to be 250k, so I ordered 1M pots while I waited for delivery of the Tele, only to find out it had 500k pots, and are just perfect.

Your vids are always great, Scott. I still think the Vintera, even though constructed differently sounds a lot like an old CuNiFe mellowed with age. On a second listening the new CuNiFe do have a little more WRHB high end clarity than the Vinteras but I'm not sure it's $350 difference (The last Vintera set I see sold on Ebay for $148, the last New CuNiFe set just under $500. I may be biased toward the vintage sound, but if I were going all in on an American Vintage II and could sell the 2022 PUPs for 500 bucks, I'd be happy to chip in the $300-400 for a couple vintage on Reverb.

Thanks for keeping the great content coming. Fender has made so many versions of the wrhb and they all sound a little different. I've got the same Korean made G&B labelled WRHB's in my Fender Modern Player Starcaster (even labelled on top as Fenders). I prefer the wrhb in my Fender AVRI 72 thinline but I'm not sure how close those are to your mexican examples. I did ask Fender at one point and they said the pickups were different in the AVRI version as they used 22 guage wire and Alnico V magnets vs 24 guage wire and Alnico IV found in the MIM version. So many versions, who can keep them all straight?

Have you ever tried the Lindy Fralin Wide Range? If so, what was your opinion compared to your favorites? Thanks!

My 2020 Squier Starcaster had 250k tone pots and 500k volume pots. Which was weird. After replacing all the wiring and putting in 500k pots all around, they sound better, but I definitely noticed the dynamics thing you were noticing!

Hay Scott! Nice video. I have Squier Classic Vibe 70s Tele Deluxe, made in Indonesia, with WRHB (actually Alnico Humbucker). There is a mark on the back of the pickup PTP6075 WIDERANGE HUMB - NIP - F (neck) and PTP6075 WIDERANGE HUMB - NIP - R (bridge) They are not made by G&B Pickup Co. Ltd. Stock volume and tone pots are 250K. So, sound is very interesting. Maybe a comparison can be made with that magnet as well.

I’ve been trying to decide whether to replace the WRHBs in my Squier Starcaster, and if so with what kind. It still has the stock pots and wiring. I’m holding out for the end of you know what so I can play it with the guys and see how it sounds in the band context. It’s definitely muddy at home. Thanks for your demos.

5:37 - it might be a good idea for you to do a video showing how best to set up these rather unusual pick up types?

Hey Scott, I’ve been hunting for a Vintera neck. How can you tell when searching what is a Vintera neck or not, any idea?

Hey, really enjoyed this video and it helped me decide to upgrade the vintera neck in my custom to a 2020 cunife. Electrics are fine but it seems muddy compared to your sound clips and I wondered if you had any tips on setting it up. I've been playing with height but think I've gone 'ear blind'. Any tips for setting up a cunife appreciated. Thanks

Hi. From 5:30 You started an interesting subject - the distance between strings and pickups. So what exactly you suggest? How many millimetres will be good? In fender spec is info 1.6mm for standard humbucker. How do you like to set?

When you wire up the MIM humbuckers for coil splitting does it cause any issues with the staggered 6 pole pieces. Meaning does three of them get really quiet or stop working at all if they were coil split?

For the vintera's is there a way to visually distinguish them from the other MIM pickups?

I have accumulated three sets of the 2020 CuNiFe WRHB for a build and two upgrades. What I'd love to do, though, is to tap into the pickup so I can do some alternate wiring configurations. Is it possible to hack a Fender CuNiFe the same way one would re-wire a PAF-style two-lead humbucker to 4 leads?

I like the MIM the most

Has someone tried to make the CuNiFes splittable? I am thinking of giving them a try. But I like the potential of modding the non-CuNiFes.

Everybody thinks 500K pots are the go-to for humbuckers, and they did get to be later. Almost all Gibsons - before the current new management - had 300K linear volume pots, after about '63.

I’ve a 2009 Fender ‘72 Custom and I’d like to put in a real Fender CuNiFe WR in it.

Hi Scott! I’m currently working with a set of ‘73 reissues and i was wondering if i could email you some questions?

What Deluxe is that?

Pararel or series..? Or split coil single coil

Vintera pickups were too bright compared to what - other Wide Range, other Humbuckers or pickups in general?

I put a 500K volume pot and a no-load tone pot on my Squier and it opens the pups up beautifully. I really don’t know why Fender insist on putting 250K pots on a humbucking pup, crazy.

22 minutes of talking and talking for something what can be clearly said in 5 minutes.