Fender Fat 50 pickups - need help identifying which is which...

StefB

I've just taken delivery of a set of Fat 50s that were lifted from a recent American Standard Strat, but how do I identify which pickup is which?!

I'll only be using the neck and middle (in my HSS EBMM Silo Special) and am aware that the Fat 50 bridge pickup is wound slightly hotter than the other two, so need to avoid that one.

Two of the pickups I've received still have the black & white wires soldered together and one of them has a blue felt tip dot on the underside of one of the pole pieces, and I'm guessing these may be middle & neck.  The loose pickup has a red felt tip dot on the underside of one pole piece.

The (eBay) seller had his local shop remove the pickups, so hasn't been able to help me with this, and I'll be having a local tech do the fitting for me.

Any ideas?

Teyeplayer

This should help, 3 or 4th post down:
https://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php?t=31220

ICBM

The length of the wires will tell you. Fender cut them neatly to length so there's only one correct order they can go in for the wires to reach the switch and volume pot.

thegummy

StefB said:

I've just taken delivery of a set of Fat 50s that were lifted from a recent American Standard Strat, but how do I identify which pickup is which?!

I'll only be using the neck and middle (in my HSS EBMM Silo Special) and am aware that the Fat 50 bridge pickup is wound slightly hotter than the other two, so need to avoid that one.

Two of the pickups I've received still have the black & white wires soldered together and one of them has a blue felt tip dot on the underside of one of the pole pieces, and I'm guessing these may be middle & neck.  The loose pickup has a red felt tip dot on the underside of one pole piece.

The (eBay) seller had his local shop remove the pickups, so hasn't been able to help me with this, and I'll be having a local tech do the fitting for me.

Any ideas?

I was looking through all my photos hoping to find one of the back of my Strat scratchplate but couldn't find one unfortunately.

I think you're right that the red dot is the bridge. The middle pickup is the one with yellow wires and no dot.

If you have no luck by tonight I'll open it up and double check the dot colours for you. It's the Fat 50s I have.

guitars4you

both comments above from @ICBM ;; and @thegummy are correct and should help you - middle with yellow wire means reverse wound/reverse polarity RWRP - so effectively noise cancellation on position 2+ 4 on the 5 way switch

StefB

Thanks all, useful replies that answer the question for me.  No need to go opening your Strat up @thegummy!

bazxkr

I have a pic of the back of a 2015 FSR FAT50s wired pickguard if it helps at all. If you need it drop me an email addy & I'll send it over. Not been able to get pics up on here for over a year so given up trying