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Main Description
Late 60s - A timeless formula
Loaded plate
This is a loaded plate, complete with pickups, controls, knobs, covers, tips - everything is wired up, and is ready to drop into a Squier Mini Strat with very little soldering, and absolutely no modification to the guitar.
The Pickups
Our Late 60s single coils are one of those pickups that are based on such a wide range of pickups, that, really, they could have been called the mid 60s, the 70s, most of the 80s and 90s – this spec was the “final” formula that answered all the questions the Stratocaster could ask.
Snapping, bright, raking, capable of playing cleaner then clean, crisper then crisp, but mainly, incredibly adept when driven, even at relatively high levels of gain! 60s Strats could do it all.
Wound using 42 AWG Plain enamel wire, wrapped drum tight around 3/16” Alnico 5 poles, the evolution of what would become “THE” Stratocaster pickup is actually driven a little more by cost cutting and stream lining then any sort of drive for tonal magic, but… whatever the root of the design, if worked, and with that in mind? Lets dig a little deeper.
Not quite Late 60s
So, right off the bat, we call these pickup the “Late” 60s, and that’s a little bit of an over simplification, purely because the original design started to appear in 1963, when Fender, in an effort to streamline production, changed from the wire they were using from 42 AWG Formvar (the bright orange, heavy build wire used on our late 50s singles) to the wire they’d been using to make Telecaster® pickups, 42 AWG, single build Plain enamel.
Some argue it was driven by cost, which would make sense (factoring in any quantity discount that may have existed on the wire, and the labour costs of swapping between wires etc) some argue that it was driven by a desire to decrease the failure rate of pickups (a 6K pickup wound with 42 Formvar is FULL thanks to that heavy build insulation taking up a lot of space – and the fuller you make a frame, the more likely it is that the coil will break!) some argue that it was driven by the never ending quest for tone (which I doubt, purely because VERY little in guitars is driven forward by “tone”, its cost first, sound second!)
Whatever the driving force behind the change, in 1963/64, we see the first plain enamel single coils turning up! Little brownie purplish coils.
And that highlighted a little flaw with the design (one which had been evident on the Telecaster® but never addressed!) – winding this brown wire onto a frame built with black fibre boards, was quite tricky! It was actually difficult to see the start and ends of the coils during termination, so, in 1965, we see Fender® switching over to grey fibre boards on the bottom of the frames (The Telecaster® and Jaguar® had the same treatment, whilst most other pickups changed both top and bottom boards to grey)
And that’s what were working with here – Grey base, Black top, Plain enamel wire – so, even though, electrically, a 1963 single coil is the same as a 1965, the boar colours differ. Nothing that really matters, but considering everything else about this build is historic, we might as well split hairs eh? (and Late 60s sounds miles catchier then “mid 60s” right?)
Tonal change
So, with that change from Heavy build, Formvar insulation to Single build plain enamel, the sound of the pickups changed ever so slightly. Strats became more “defined”, more “focused”, whilst not, strictly speaking, brighter, you’d be forgiven for perceiving them that way! They’d trimmed down a little bit of that “flab” that was present in the late 50s pickups, and honed the pickup into a razors edge.
Now, by modern standards, where we look upon the 1950s with some pretty hefty rose-tinted glasses, that seems like a terrible idea (idea is maybe the wrong word, because, remember, cost before tone!) – but at the time? It was timed to absolute perfection!
Guitar music had changed dramatically by 1965 – and it was being forced to, by the other component in the circuit we don’t really talk about – amplifiers!
In the early 60s, amplifiers “changed” – we see a big shift from relatively small amps designed to be played clean, to 100 watt amps designed to be pushed, and pushed hard.
Now, remember, this all happened by pure chance! Fender didn’t invent a more biting, snappy, defined pickup because amps were pencilled in for a big change, and Marshall didn’t design the JMT45 aiming to get the best out of a new pickup Fender were working on! It was just a perfect storm that worked, and it came together to make a genre of music that hasn’t ever really gone away! Rock! Pure, unadulterated, blistering, biting, aggressive, rock music!
Now, to understand why it works, we have to consider whats happening to a guitar signal when its hitting a “big” amp (or, even a small amp that’s being pushed to max volume) – so, I’ll keep this short and sweet, but, basically – the harder you push a valve amp (purely in terms of volume) the more likely it is to produce a square wave signal (clipping), and that signal is, by its very nature, causing compression. The transients between the bass frequencies and the treble, are shortened.
And in these situations? The best sounding guitars, are the ones that naturally have an absolute bucket load of definition, producing very little bass, and an insane amount of top of “ping”, because once its under compression at volume, once the wave form has been shortened to the point of clipping, you retain “most” of the character.
In simple terms, a late 50s Strat, didn’t benefit from being overly compressed/clipping because it was producing more bass and lacked a little of the definition in its highs, but the late 60s? Absolutely loved it.
The problem, however, is that you cant have your cake and eat it – a late 60s Strat® (and any pickup based off of it) is going to go great guns under gain (or fuzz, the overdrive of the day!) BUT its maybe not the best pickup for “warm and luxurious” cleans.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there hasn’t been a Stratocaster® invented that couldn’t clean up with the best of them – it’s a country instrument at heart, and the relatively minor changes made between 1954 and 1964 don’t really change that, but its worth bearing in mind that, in 1965? You weren’t hearing a lot of clean from a Strat®, so that slightly more brittle, snapping, dare I say, anaemic single coil tone, whilst perfectly usable, might be a little alien.
When you say “70s/80s/90s”… really?
Honestly, once Fender® had settled on the idea, and after a bit of teething problems with the board colours? They didn’t really change the design AT ALL until the 90s! It worked! (about the only thing that did change, was the hookup wire, changing from cloth covered wire to a plastic coated wire (cost over tone remember?!) – pretty much every Strat® produced, from 1963 until this morning, will have a pickup installed that’s 5.8-5.9K, plain enamel wire, with 3/16” Alnico 5 magnets. The grey boards disappear in the late 70s (because of the maligned X1 pickup turning up) but, on the whole? Yeah! The Late 60s design hasn’t ever really gone away!
There are exceptions, and that spec is unheard of on far eastern produced guitars, with an insistence on using 0.06mm wire rather then 42 AWG (and remember, not all American made guitars have American made pickups!) and there are times when preformed ABS bobbins are used rather then fibre boards to make the frames, and we’ve got account for “signature” models and vintage re-issues, but I’m not exaggerating when I say these are the exceptions. The “standard” remains, electrically, something very similar to the Late 60s.
How to use the late 60s
For me, these are a pickup that sound best when your playing them like you stole them! Hard, fast, aggressive, pushing the amp to the point of break up, and getting the guitar under as much compression as your comfortable with! They are an absolute dream in that regard.
Personally, I find them a little sterile and “over bright” when being played “cleaner then clean”, maybe that’s your thing, but if I was looking for that, I’d be seriously considering a 50s spec pickup myself, just to bump up the warmth a little – let the pickup give you a touch more compression because your amp isn’t.
So, bigger blues, big rock, blues rock… guitar music. If you’ve heard a Fender ®Stratocaster®, chances are, you’ve heard a pickup that was near identical to the Late 60s. They’ll do it all… but they wouldn’t be my first choice for cleans! I think that about sums it up eh?
Strat®, Squier®, Fender® and Stratocaster® are registered trademarks
of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and Gibson Musical Instruments Corporation. Axesrus® makes no claims to these marks.
A quick reality check
Now, far be it from me to tell anyone how to spend their money, but, if you'll indulge me a little before we get too far into this, please, let me cement my credentials as the worlds worst salesman!
This entire product, makes VERY little sense - its expensive, because its all made in house here in the UK, by hand, using the highest specification parts and materials, and, ultimately, its designed to fit into a guitar that costs, brand new, about £150.
I've absolutely no problems with anyone upgrading "cheap" guitars - when you boil them down to bare bones, a guitar is little more then 2 slabs of timber bolted together, and if your madly in love with you gutiar, and want to do a bit of an upgrade or mod? Be it an Encore, or a Harley Benton, or a Squier Mini or a Fender Custom shop... Thats absolutely fine! I dont care what they cost to start with, as long as you enjoy playing them.
But, i'll sleep a little better tonight having typed this out, so, here goes.
If your considering buying this loaded plate for your child, please, DONT!
I appreciate that your child might be a world class guitarist, i appreciate they're even, possiblly, asking for this upgrade (I remember being a kid and basing alot of my opinions on what strangers said on the internet... maybe this is no different eh?), i appreciate that you might want to spoil them rotten,and have them playing the best instrument on the planet, and this assembly will certainly tick those boxes - but,
go into this knowing the one unavoidable truth of kids playing 3/4 size guitars -they aren't forever.
3/4 size guitars are, on the whole, riddled with problems. Their shorter scale length means that, (when tuned to standard), they're prone to falling out of tune very quickly (tuning them higher then standard, with heavier gauge strings can help in the short to medium turn) and, ultimately, your childs going to, very quickly, outgrow the guitar.
And, without wanting to sound the miserable old man in this - lets assume your childs somewhere between 6 and 12? (my eldest daughter at time of writing, is 9, and she been playing a full size Telecaster since 7, if thats any indication of how fast they grow!) - trust me, they might be a great player, they might be the best in the world, but, lets be honest - thats a rarity, and if you kid (like mine!) is just a normal kid? Trust me, it isn't the pickups and electronics that are making them sound "less then stellar" - its the hard fact that, they're kids. They're still learning, they're still developing, they're still growing and they're still learning their craft. Its not going to be the end of the world if their Squier Mini doesn't sound like a 1962 Fender.
Viewing it as a whole - this is a loaded plate to upgrade a guitar thats probably not being played all that well, that wont hold tune at standard tuning, and is probably going to be outgrown in the next year or two.
So, without being incrediblly down on this - think long and hard if your here shopping for a treat for you kid. If it was me? I'd be putting the money toward the inevitable full sized guitar personally.
Electronics
This assembly is built using the highest quality components that the guitar design itself will allow, so heres a brief rundown of what and why.
Sound Clips
Should be just below!
What is an Assembly?
This is something I’ve been a little lax with over the years, because the photos were a little self explanatory, but because we’re putting out more and more information on the products nowadays, it’s a nice opportunity to actually explain what an Assembly is.
In short, its all of the electronics, all wired up and working, mounted onto a pickguard, and ready to drop into a guitar. It’s a VERY easy way to completely overhaul your guitar, without having to do an awful lot of soldering, or, frankly, really understanding what’s going on.
And that’s about it really – the pickups are complete pickups, they’re wired to the switch, which is then wired into the volume and tone pots, all the had works been done, and its just a case of dropping it into a guitar, getting some strings over it, and getting back to playing!
Now, with our assemblies, we cut no corners. Its CTS pots throughout, Cornell Dubilier caps, 22 AWG cloth covered wire and a Switchcraft mono socket. Theres some variation in the switch we use, purely because certain switches don’t fit certain guitars, but we always use the best switch available to us for any given job (so, with Strat assemblies, its always an Oak Grigsby, and with guitars designed to take a shallower switch, its always a Pat Pending PBC switch)
We don’t connect the mono socket to the assemblies, but this is because on 99% of guitars, you’d only have to remove it to thread the wires through a hole into the sockets cavity, and, we obviously cant connect the ground wire to your bridge/trem claw to earth the strings.
so, whilst no completely solder free, what soldering you do need to do, is pretty minimal (and we’ll even throw in a little solder and heat shrink to do the job – purely to save you any extra expense)
You will need a soldering iron I’m afraid, that’s unavoidable, because of the way most guitars are designed, but beyond that? It’s a dream job installing assemblies frankly. Very little to go wrong, very little to actually learn, and it opens the door to making a huge modification to your instrument.
Warranty & Returns
In an ideal world, I wouldn’t have to write this section up, and, I really wish I didn’t have to, but, if I’m being honest and transparent about how pickups work, for better or worse, it’s probably worth being honest and open your rights as a consumer too, and maybe give a little insight into how we actually build pickups.
How we do it
Pickups, at our end of things – are “Custom made” – I cannot stress this enough. When you click the “Add To Cart” button, there is no pickup on the shelf, no bucket of pre-terminated bobbins or half complete pickups. It is made, entirely, from scratch using the parts we have available.
This means, if you order a Bourbon city, or a Hot Iron, or a Texas Blue, it is wound FOR YOU. It is being built to the specifications you have stipulated in the drop-down menus, even the most “normal” design, is still, essentially, built to order.
That entails our pickers collecting the parts from stores, delivering them to the winders, who then get the copper on there, and then the wound coils going to the techs to solder, terminate, test, polish, wax pot, clean, retest… you get the idea.
This is all done “in house” and, obviously, there is a queue, which is first in first out, so pickups will NEVER be shipped same day. Realistically, it takes about 2 weeks, but we do get busier at the beginning/end and middle of the month, so that can have a knock on effect.
And this is all being done, by hand, on a VERY small scale. At maximum, we can produce about 6 pickups a day.
It works wonderfully frankly, because we can make, pretty much, anything you can dream up, and keeping it small scale, means we have an exceptionally high attention to detail with each pickup sold.
Returns
So we have an item, when all is said and done, that didn’t exist until you purchased it, that has cost a lot of man hours to actually manufacture, and has been manufactured to your exact specifications.
As such, pickups come under the remit of “custom work” as laid out under the our terms and conditions, and as outlined in the UK governments distance selling regulations.
This means, in short, pickups are none returnable, and none refundable.
I understand, in this day and age, that may seem quite the hard-nosed approach, but, sadly, there’s no wiggle room in this. Once a pickup is wound, there’s no going back. It belongs to you. There is no “I’ll test it to see if I like it” or “I’ll return it if I don’t like the colour!”.
Warranty
All Axesrus pickups come with a “relaxed lifetime” warranty as far as I’m concerned. I’m never going to ask you to register the purchase, stop offering support 12 months after purchase or limit support to the initial customer in the case of second-hand stuff. We are incredibly proud of the pickups we produce, and I’ll help out wherever I can.
However, its worth laying out what I’d consider “realistic” expectations as to what we will cover as part of a warranty.
Repairs and replacements
Whilst we will not accept pickups as return for refund under any circumstances, we reserve the right to repair or replace any pickup that develops a manufacturing fault within a reasonable time frame.
I won’t put a scale on that time frame, but I will say, its at our discretion. If you’re lucky enough to have some of the VERY early hand wound stuff we made, and we (stupidly) thought we could do it at £20 a pickup, and the coil wires snapped after 10 years? I’m probably not in a position to repair or replace it free of charge, you know? You’ve had your fun; you’ve got your money’s worth!
On the flip side of that – if you’ve bought a £200 humbucker 2 years ago, and it’s developed a fault? You’d better believe Axes is bending over backwards to get it repaired and get you up and running again.
I’ll say this too, we won’t hang you out to dry – if that £20 pickup can be repaired, even if we’re not doing it as part of the warranty, we will offer to repair it at a reasonable price.
Damage vs. Fault
Pickups are delicate creatures I’m afraid. Nature of the beast I suppose, they were never designed, all those years ago, to be “presented” outside of a guitar, so go in knowing this, pickups can be damaged. Either in transit, whilst in storage, or during install.
It is VERY difficult to know how a pickup has developed a fault, so most of the time, we will go into all warranty claims with the mindset that “it’s a manufacturing fault”, frankly, because it keeps everyone happy, avoids any awkward conversations as to “who’s done what” and, normally, repairing damage done during install is the same work as repairing a manufacturing fault either way. Worst case, we might have a delicate email exchange about who’s covering the postage, but that’s about as bad as it gets.
However, we will take this approach only when a pickup, which is showing damage, is only showing minimal damage. I appreciate everyone makes mistakes.
Pickups that have been heavily damaged, have seen heavy wear and tear, or have been intentionally broken in an effort to raise a warranty claim, will see not be repaired, or replaced. Neither free of charge or “for a fee”
Lead times and cancellations
We do publish the lead times on all of our custom build work, and there is very little we can do to decrease the time it takes to actually manufacture this stuff I’m afraid, short of jumping you to the front of the queue (which is never fair, and we won’t do it)
Be aware that once an order is placed, work beings on your build, and as such, you’ve entered into the contract, and there is no backing out. Coils can often be wound within the hour or the order being placed, but they will sit in the work queue due to a back log at terminating/testing/cleaning.
Modifications
There are, occasionally, situations where someone buys a pickup or a wiring loom, installs it, plays it for a while, and then might want something a little different down the line. Maybe a different magnet, or a cover fitting, or a new hookup wire fitting.
I am happy to carry out this work, and, normally, regardless of the “time since purchase”, this will be done simply for the cost of parts and postage.
However, the “depth” of these modifications, and if we’re willing/capable of carrying them out, is at the discretion of Axesrus. We’re happy to discuss this on a case-to-case basis, but go in eyes open, that its unlikely to be part of the warranty.
“Warranty with initial purchase”
I’m not a stickler when it comes to this stuff, but I will say, we do have to draw the line somewhere, so, strictly speaking, this “relaxed warranty” is, officially, limited to the original purchaser of the product.
That said, I’m not a robot, nor am I a fool. I’m aware that sometimes, a pickup is moved on relatively quickly, or is bought by a 3rd party for someone else, so, in these cases, lets just be sensible about it. I’ll carry forward a “true” warranty on a pickup for 12 months after the initial purchase, regardless of who is contacting me in regards to any issue.
However, I will need to know who the initial customer was. Even if it’s just their name and a rough date of purchase.
This goes for technical support too – I’ve no problems offering support on Axesrus products, regardless of “time since purchase”, but I will ask for some proof that they are in fact, Axesrus products.
Modifications to second hand parts, will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis too.
Changes in specification/tolerances
Over the years, we’ve had a few “interesting” conversations regarding pickup specifications, especially when it comes to returns and warranty.
The published specs of our pickups, are published with a “within tolerance” subtext, based off of the readings from our testing equipment.
There will, always, be variation between one pickup and the next, and whilst we endeavor to keep those readings within the tolerances stated, they do occasionally wander outside of the 10% we stipulate as “acceptable” – this is usually due to temperature fluctuation, or specification changes outside of our control (wire diameter, alloy composition etc.) – any resulting change in readings based on these factors, will result in an updated technical spec on the website, but, as you can imagine, the first we know about an unforeseen spec change, is when the pickups come off the winder.
We do not consider these “out of spec” accidents to be cause for a warranty claim I’m afraid, and we endeavor to keep on top of them so the information we’re giving you at point of purchase, is as accurate as possible.
Warranty postage
Repairs or replacement postage cost, outside of an initial 14 day period, is at your cost. I appreciate, in some situations, that this is prohibitive (especially when shipping outside of the UK).
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