Well, here is the put up or shut up moment. After six months
or more brewing away in my head as an idea, another couple months sourcing
parts and researching construction techniques and spec … here is the first Oil
City Buccaneer Wide Range replacement going into my business partner Tim’s
Japanese Tele Deluxe reissue.
The original Fender ‘reissue’ unit: problem? It sounded nothing like a proper 1971
Wide Range pickup as designed by Seth Lover.
Not an awful pickup, but muddy and a bit wimpish. The original Wide Range had a reputation for
string definition, and a big, fat, rounded tone: plenty of highs and lows.
Sadly Fender’s reissue only looks like the original on the outside … the guts
are not much different than a standard humbucker.
So out with the Fender reissue: an issue sprung up at once.
The reissues use bigger diameter metric mounting screws. Luckily I had a few of
the proper diameter and thread in my ‘junk’ box. Oops three nickel plated and
one gold plated. I used the old repairman’s dodge and ‘cleaned’ the gold screw head
with metal polish … gold is plated on top of nickel … so a couple of rubs had
stripped off the gold plating to reveal the nickel underneath (one reason I
hate gold hardware … it never stays gold long!)
Soldering in the Buccaneer was the work of a couple of
minutes. It’s four conductor – unlike either the original or the Fender
reissues, so the green and white wires are soldered together and tied back.
I
could have fitted a coil shunt on a push pull switch … but I was eager to hear
the results, and it’s … er … not my guitar, so I'd have to consult Tim first! I was a bit shocked how cheap and
weedy the original wiring was, but that will be taken care of later (for the
reason why read on).
The Buccaneer uses the same size jumbo coils as the real 70s item, but not the horribly expensive and almost impossibl to get CuNiFe magnets like the original. Instead I have opted for Alnico rod magnets with dummy screw heads ... I mean who actually needs to adjust a humbucker's magnets ... honestly? I have also included the 'reflector plate' left out in the fender so called reproductions.
Buccaneer in place with a sticky clear film hiding it's virgin shininess mmmmmmmm shiny! Just like the 70s original there is only one string spacing between the bridge and neck versions, so the poles go a little off ... but hey, that looks 'original' and really makes no difference to the output.
Well, back together, and sounding like a Wide Range equipped
guitar ought to. Gone is the smeary, slightly muddy grumble of the reissue
pickup. In its place round, fat, bell like tones that break up well into really musical
overdrive.
There is one issue that has to be addressed though; the power
and fatness of the Buccaneer WR has shown up the asthmatic and weedy output of
the bridge single coil. Worse than most Fender pickups I have tried, it is
truly scrawny. Mixed together both pickups sound good, but flicking to the
bridge is an exercise in disappointment. I’m judging the bridge resistance output to be about 6/6.5k and it’s not much
surprise that it is marmalised by the mahoosive 11k neck pickup. So … back into
Oily Towers winding dungeon I sidle … methinks an Oil City 'Diesel Tap' with dual
7.5k and 11k outputs should do the trick in the bridge position. Two push pull
pots, one to shunt one of the Buccaneer coils, and one to switch outputs on the
bridge PU. That’ll produce a versatile and punchy instrument from a bit of an ‘also
ran’.
As a footnote Buccaneers are available to buy to special order at
the moment. There is a month’s wait, but they are the least expensive WR
replacement on the market …e mail me at ash@oilcitypickups.co.uk for a price and expected delivery date.
Weasel Power!
