Originally posted by Macphistfly:[..]
is that a P90 and a Humbucker or do my eyes deceive me?
Your eyes deceive you. That is a Fender 'Wide-Range' humbucker. That is not a P-90.
The Fender Telecaster Custom, first introduced in 1972, had a humbucker in the neck position and a single coil in the bridge position.
The pickup itself was Fender's first humbucker and was designed by Seth Lover, who designed humbuckers for Gibson previously. He and Fender both agreed the idea wasn't to re-make a pickups that sounded like the Gibson but to make something that sounded different. Out of that came the Fender 'Wide Range' humbucker, which Lover designed.
Lover's Fender humbucker is felt by many to be brighter with more bottom end than his Gibson versions, and a better match for the classic Fender bridge pickup.
These guitars were in production for only 8 years, it was the perfect combination of fender gibson sound with its single coil pickup in the bridge. The humbucker used was the same type used in the Thinline range of fender telecasters produced in 1968.
They were only made for 8 years but there is a reissue. That said, and like many reissues, there can be differences to the original.
Differences: The re-issues and road worn copies featured a different bridge to the original 72 custom, and the re-issues bodies produced are not supplied in natural finish, unlike the originals once were but in black or sunburst only designs. The headstock logo (decal) font is also different, as the originals were not produced in italic in respect of the wording "Custom".
Both versions feature a reissued version of the Fender Wide Range humbucking pickup, which differs fundamentally in construction from the original. The original WRH used magnetized CuNiFe (copper, nickel and iron) polepieces (slugs) with a copper wiring around the slugs, while the reissue has a standard non-magnetized set of slugs with an AlNiCo (aluminum, nickel, Cobalt) magnetized bar underneath. This standard humbucker is fitted in the larger casing of the original pickup, using wax to fill the void. The original WRH measured an average of 10.6 kΩ and used a 1 MΩ volume pot and a 250 kΩ tone pot, while the reissue measures a fairly standard 8 kΩ and uses 250 kΩ volume and tone pots. This results in a much darker sounding reissue wide range pickup.
http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0137502306
