Fender Hendrix Voodoo Tribute Strat Pickup Assembly

Fender Hendrix Voodoo Tribute Stratocaster Pickups

Here is a set of 68 RI American Reverse Strat pickups or Hendrix Tribute Strat, formerly called the Voodoo Strat, with a serial # of TN7xxxx. These pickups were designed to allow right hand guitar players to get the same vibe as Jimi Hendrix by having the same type purple plain enamel wire which was used in the mid to late 60s and what would have been in Jimi's 2 favorite 68 white and black Strats. Fender introduced the Custom Shop '69 Strat pickups to emulate the same but those are designed for right handed players so you really don't get the same or similar tone to Jimi's since the pole pieces are opposite what Jimi's were.

Sound: They really do have a unique sound. Typically, the pole pieces are taller on the 6th bass string and almost flat to the pickup surface on the high E. With the reverse pickups, the E-B-G poles are tall which gives the B string in particular a much smoother sound especially when bending it back and forth between the B & G poles. What Jimi did to compensate upon examining videos and pictures is he raised up the bass side close to spec of 7/64s height from bottom of the 6th bass string and he lowered the treble side to make the poles be similar to Fender 5/64s height specifications. So the main difference in tone is the B and the A string gets a bit more of a treble response, Another benefit is the high E string seems to be more powerful and last longer without needing changed, without sounding dead as happens on the vintage stagger pickups.

Here are some sound clips of these pickups here though they are not this exact set pictured, they are the same pickups. Click here to listen There are pics of the other set used in the sound clips here

Material: The material used is the black fiber bobbins with Alnico 5 magnets with reversed pole heights to left hand Strat specifications but the bobbins are made to fit right handed Strats. Plain enamel wire is used which is the dark purple looking stuff used in the mid to late 60s. While it is true that the CS 69s and period used the grey fiber bobbins, I've spoken to several pickup winders who said that the bobbin has absolutely no effect on the sound of the pickup whatsoever, even though Fender touts it as being partly responsible for it's thumping low end, they all said it is pure marketing. If it did have any effect on tone, I believe Fender would have used the grey bobbins especially on a Hendrix Voodoo Strat or Tribute Strat which are the 2 closest Strats to Jimi's they've ever made available to the public. Currently, a Voodoo Strat has been fetching upwards of $2500-$3000 on eBay if you can find one, so these are special pickups indeed.

Note: These pickups were also sold for a while at musiciansfriend as singles but no longer so don't bother looking. :-) Interesting thing is that the ones sold with the Fender Voodoo Strat had a red marker score at the edge of the black fiber bobbin on all 3 pickups while the ones sold at musiciansfriend did not. On Fender's calibrated sets, they will typically mark one in blue or red or put a yellow lead on a reverse wound middle but on these, just a red score. I will most likely reverse the polarity of the middle pickup when I install these into my next project Strat.

Measurements: 6.29k neck 6.11k middle 6.17k bridge

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Fender Pickup For Left-Handed '68 Strat