1966 Telecaster pickup torn down and rewound
Issue 199 September 12, 2013
Erick Coleman has a 50-year-old pickup that's nearly dead: It's making a little bit of sound, but not much. Erick opens it up to find the trouble, and we get a good view of the guts of this vintage Fender pickup before he rewinds it.
About the pickup in this video: This is a 1966 Fender Telecaster pickup, made during the years when the company wax-potted some pickups but not others. This one has no wax potting; so the string wrap and coil wire come off easily.
- Tap-testing the faulty pickup compared to a healthy one
- Visible damage revealed under the string wrap
- Unsoldering the leads and unspooling the bobbin
- Lacquer-dipping the bobbin before rewinding
- Rewinding with the same kind of wire Fender used in '66
