Fender Shawbucker 1 Pickup Zebra

I bought this pick-up to convert a 95 strat into an HSS strat. I bought the guitar new and change it around every few years. I wired it as suggested by fender to a 5 way. Sounds great to me but who cares?

I am really writing this because the first shawbucker delivered was defective. I was convinced that I messed up the installation and checked everything a few times. It took me a while (and a multimeter) to understand that one of the coils was dead. That is the only reason I took stars off the ratings. Accidents happen, but this is Fender's QC. Anyway, by the time I contacted Thomann, a few months had passed. They exchanged the pickup immediately, no BS and I think that is great. This isn't the first time Thomann has exchanged things for me without any trouble but I have never written anything to that effect. Thomann deserves all stars in this rating.

The first Shawbucker I got had a dead coil so Thomann exchanged it without hassle, good. The second one works, only I soldered it following Duncan's standard schematic, because they use the same wire colors. But the wires don't have the same role, so you have to look for conversion charts.

The wires are kinda thin but stripping and soldering them goes easily. The legs on the pickup's mount are pliable steel so you can bend them sideways a little to get the magnets centered with the strings. The screws are a tight fit in the frame, good, the spring strength is okay but I like the positive feel of stronger attachment so I added extra springs around the factory ones.

Having shielded the cavities with copper foil the pickup has the lowest possible noise, compared it with Duncan and Di Marzio humbuckers, also Fender and Duncan noiseless singles, it's the achievable minimum. The tone is surprisingly similar to Fender's finest shimmering single-coils, with great transparency that allows strong distortion and no mushiness.

I coupled it with a Di Marzio Norton at the neck, and was very much surprised that they seem to be a matched pair. No one would assume they are different models from different makers and eras, also because I painted the creme side with a black marker.

After setting up the overall height and individual magnets, the sound is even across the six strings and the twenty-two frets. The noiseless quality is the same with several amplifiers. After ordering it without having heard often about it, I found it is the standard bridge pickup in Fender top-of-the-line and very expensive HSS Strats.

Yes, it is trusted with that job but fortunately it is sold at a reasonable price. It has good sensitivity to pinch harmonics but most of all the sound is beautiful and not cold. It makes very good and controlled swells with the quality potentiometers I put on my electric, good sensitivity and good dynamics. Of course it had to take distortion very well, I am from the high gain crowd, and it does. Lots of sparks in direct and muted notes, strong volume in pull-offs and hammer-ons, which would lack attack with weak pickups.

Too bad it's not offered in all-black trim but painting it with a black sharpie works.