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Nice pics Andy!

Cheers Rob

I do not think Fender made pickups with a g pole lowered back in the day as wound g strings were the norm back then. The idea of using a banjo string on the 1st string and moving the other strings up one was started in America notably by the likes of James Burton. As 343436 came from America I wondered if someone had done that mod to the pickups for thinner strings and plain g. It diss not make any sense at all that Fender would want to produce a set of pickups like that. Also I cannot understand why that would contribute to that sound by producing a quiet g.

Maybe Hank struggled with this and lowered his g and d strings to compensate. We are aware that the d sounds quite dead at times and the fag paper under the nut thing.

Hi Roger,

Fender had at times,trouble to keep up the demand so the factory and all the suppliers had to be on their toes to fulfil orders....
So it's not rare to find pu's with different magnet length then normal on their allocated place...they used what the had.
In '59 they made apparently quiet some strat pu's with on the G pole a magnet that was normally placed beneath the high E string...perhaps someone made some mistakes or they lacking the right magnets.
I encounter 3 time such a set, one in the 34346...on a genuine "59 slabboard and a set for sale in the early 80's which didn't buy because I thought they where dodgy ....watta mistaka da maka (cpt Burtorelli 'ello 'ello).

Hank didn't fiddle with the magnets for sure, because he lacked the knowledge and if he did tried, you wouldn't play a fiesta red strat now... because he had ruined the strat pu's!
When you push a magnet down in a pu that's build like the old ones, you destroy the pu's windings!
On cheap modern ones,with a plastic bobbin in one piece and the windings don't touches the magnets you have a change it works.
The original 34346 pu's have flush magnets at their bottom bobbin so no tampering there...
I know a member on one of the shad sites, who's 63 strat has the stagger on all 3 pu's diffrently...kinda all over the place!
Fender changed in the early 50's on the tele once and on the strat twice the stagger 54/ 55 and late 56 is different and in 74 they changed to all the same heights...

So Roger your assumption is just that

Cheers Rob

It is quite funny, Rob, but I stumbled onto a 2012 discussion here, where you snd I participated, on the same subject. It seems the pickups on 34346 are very similar to those on 1954-55 Strats. Which may explain the pickups on mine; I probably asked Fender to make me a ‘59 spec Strat. The subject of the thread was damage to 34346, started by Jim, but drifted off to pole pieces.

Very interesting and informative thread, that 2012 one. I had forgotten it!

Regards,

Andy

bor64 wrote:Hi Roger,

Fender had at times,trouble to keep up the demand so the factory and all the suppliers had to be on their toes to fulfil orders....
So it's not rare to find pu's with different magnet length then normal on their allocated place...they used what the had.
In '59 they made apparently quiet some strat pu's with on the G pole a magnet that was normally placed beneath the high E string...perhaps someone made some mistakes or they lacking the right magnets.
I encounter 3 time such a set, one in the 34346...on a genuine "59 slabboard and a set for sale in the early 80's which didn't buy because I thought they where dodgy ....watta mistaka da maka (cpt Burtorelli 'ello 'ello).

Hank didn't fiddle with the magnets for sure, because he lacked the knowledge and if he did tried, you wouldn't play a fiesta red strat now... because he had ruined the strat pu's!
When you push a magnet down in a pu that's build like the old ones, you destroy the pu's windings!
On cheap modern ones,with a plastic bobbin in one piece and the windings don't touches the magnets you have a change it works.
The original 34346 pu's have flush magnets at their bottom bobbin so no tampering there...
I know a member on one of the shad sites, who's 63 strat has the stagger on all 3 pu's diffrently...kinda all over the place!
Fender changed in the early 50's on the tele once and on the strat twice the stagger 54/ 55 and late 56 is different and in 74 they changed to all the same heights...

So Roger your assumption is just that

Cheers Rob

Well if there are other examples of the lower g pickups Rob I guess you are absolutely correct and I am glad you have evidence to this fact.

I know about ruining vintage pu's by pushing the poles down as the windings are in direct contact with the poles. I have altered poles on an American Pro Strat with no issues as they usually have sleeves around pole pieces on modern pu's and therefore no problem. I did this because the vintage stagger did not really suit the compound radius fretboard. The sound is more balanced as a result which I prefer.

abstamaria wrote:It is quite funny, Rob, but I stumbled onto a 2012 discussion here, where you snd I participated, on the same subject. It seems the pickups on 34346 are very similar to those on 1954-55 Strats. Which may explain the pickups on mine; I probably asked Fender to make me a ‘59 spec Strat. The subject of the thread was damage to 34346, started by Jim, but drifted off to pole pieces.

Very interesting thread, that 3012 one. I had forgotten it!

Regards,

Andy

That's interesting Andy, if they are from 54 - 55 then they could be alnico 3 magnets instead of alnico 5 ?

CS 54's anybody !

Possible, Roger. It’s all a mystery why those pickups would be on 34346, but perhaps Fender had ‘54_’55 pickups in the parts room.

By the way, you were the one who derailed Jim’s “Damage to 34346” thread with your question “Remind me again someone... why was the G pole lowered on the pickups ... was it on all the PUs ? was it a self mod by HBM ? ... most of all why did he need to do it ... was it becuase he had tried using plain 3rd strings ?”

It’s a good thing you did. Much information was contributed.

Regards,

Andy

Boys... in this way all assumptions and dis info starts on the web...
The magnets on the 34346 are alnico V and North orientated!
What would be more plausible, a bunch of pu's laying in a (never existed) parts room/warehouse...and 4 or 5 years and 6000+ strats later they used them?
They barley could keep up production, so it's not so difficult to imagine parts like bars of magnets would be in the production line asap.
Raw materials, weren't piled-up in a large warehouse , but in a kinda shed...
Or someone made some mistakes or a apprentice made some few dozens of pu's with the wrong stagger....hence a 63 strat with the stagger all over the place.
On the picture you see a genuine 54 and the G pole is way higher then the high E and curtain on the 34346....
So can we debunk this for good?

Cheers Rob

How do we know pickuos in 343436 were alnico 5 and north ?

Rob, look af the old 2012 thread. There are photos of ‘54/55 pickups.

Andy