Stringmaster pickups in a Fender 1000?

[Tim Whitlock]

I am replacing the Jazzmaster pickups in my Fender 1000 with Stringmaster pickups, like Leon's 1000 shown below. So now each neck will have two pickups instead of one. Question: For each neck, do I simply run both hot leads to the same lug on the switch and both ground wires to the same lug?

[Stephen Cowell]

Not sure how Leon used his pickups... that's a very special prototype guitar that may not exist anymore!

I'd just wire them like a Deluxe... they have to be RWRP and in series... the blend pot shorts out the neck pickup. The combination is humbucking when both are in play... you can even adjust the blend pot for min hum. Any time I mess with just a single pickup the hum is annoying. For a suitable pair the bridge unit should be just a little hotter than the neck unit, your winder probably knows this.

[Tim Whitlock]

Thanks Stephen. I agree the hotter pickup should go in the bridge position. The pickups are labeled 8.8k and 9.2, so that part is easy.

I don't plan on having a blend pot. On the 1000 each pickup has the hot going to one side of the switch and the ground going to the other side of the switch. For two pickups in series, I believe each neck should look like this:

Bridge hot wire > Neck ground wire
Bridge ground wire > switch
Neck hot wire > other side of the switch

Yes?

[Dave Zirbel]

Contact Ben Franz through the forum. He installed a pair of Stringmaster pickups to his long scale 400. Somewhere on youtube is a video fit but I cannot find it.

[Tim Whitlock]

Thanks Dave. I did figure out that series wiring is needed, but I'm debating whether I really need two pickups per neck. I found your video demoing a single SM pickup in your 400. sounds great. Do you feel it was a big improvement over the original Jazzmaster 1000 pickup?

[Bob Carlucci]

I really don't know that much about SM pickups, but I dunno I doubt they are much different than other narrow Fender single coils of the day, except maybe a bit heavier wound.. The general consensus has been for a long time that the stock "jazzmaster style" pickup of the long scale 400 and 1000 pedal guitars was the best pickup for them.. I have a feeling the SM pickups individually might be kind of bright, depending on where they are placed in relation to the bridge.. If i were doing this swap[ I wouldn't!], I would use 2 SM pickups in each neck with a switch or blend pot.. Those old JM style pickups in early Fender pedal steels were marvelous sounding pickups, not really sure i would mess with them if it were my only 400/1000 guitar.. If I had a #2 or #3 guitar around then yes I would make the swap just "because"... bob

[Donny Hinson]

Thanks Stephen. I agree the hotter pickup should go in the bridge position. The pickups are labeled 8.8k and 9.2, so that part is easy.

No need to worry much about which goes where, as no ears could detect the winding difference with it being less than 5% of the total value.

[Dave Zirbel]

Thanks Dave. I did figure out that series wiring is needed, but I'm debating whether I really need two pickups per neck. I found your video demoing a single SM pickup in your 400. sounds great. Do you feel it was a big improvement over the original Jazzmaster 1000 pickup?

I never tried two SM pickups in my 400, but in my mind I would prefer two over one, but one sounds good though.
I had a pickup made with 1/4" alnico's wound to 13.5k. I like that pickup a lot.