under the hood
What lies within the Vintage Custom models
t here are plenty of ways to wire up a Stratocaster, but both our Vintage Custom Strats here stick to vintage with the exception of the five-way pickup selector switch. No surprises, then, just very clean and elegant with 250kohm CTS pots, CRL five-way lever and a large .1 microfarads Fender tone cap. There’s just a small shielded plate under these components on the ’57; it’s larger on the ’62. As ever, you’ll find numerous ID marks under the scratchplate from the usual stamped-in ‘Relic’, and the large and highly visible stamped ’57 or ’62 NOS in the neck pickup cavity, to the ‘FC’ (presumably for Flash Coat) in the bridge pickup cavity and, again, a deeply stamped serial number that’s found in the middle pickup cavity.
In keeping with its 1958 reference date, the control circuit of the Telecaster we have on review follows the 1953 to ’67 style giving us bridge (position 1), neck (position 2) and neck with preset bass (position 3). Again, the pots are 250k CTS, the tone cap drops down to .05 microfards and that preset bass sound is achieved with the same .1 microfarads capacitor used on the Strats. The tone control works obviously in positions 1 and 2 and is active in position 3, although with the treble already rolled off the effect is virtually zero.
Once again, the Jazzmaster’s circuit illustrates the biggest departure for Fender with the 1 meg-ohm pots for the lead circuit and .03 microfarad (303 code) ceramic disc tone cap. The lead circuit’s mini-pots are 1 meg for the volume and 50kohms for the tone with a .02 microfarads (203 code and a larger size disc type). It’s the only guitar that’s hum-cancelling in its combined pickup mode and is extensively shielded – there’s a full screening plate under the anodised aluminium scratchplate then thin metal dishes in the cavities and plates under the pickups, which mount directly to the body. By design, the Jazzmaster was, and remains, a very different beast.