Grateful Dead Music Forum

Been watching some of Christopher Hazard’s 4k remasters of the Grateful Dead movie and from what it looks like, the stagger on Jerrys pickups is very flat.
Its hard to tell even in 1080p but thats what Im seeing, leading me to wonder if these were really taken out of a strat, or were they taken out of a Mustang? Or did Irwin or someone at Alembic just take some Strat bobbins and parts but custom wind a flat stagger pickup?

I recall reading from Waldo that he shielded the pickups themselves. Not sure if that was done on the top of the pickup itself or the interior of the pickup cover. The shielding essentially raised the cover so the so the staggers weren't as apparent.

The bigger question is were they mid-1950's pickups or early-1970's pickups? Waldo mentioned they have more of a mid-1950's stagger. Supposedly the Numbers Strat may have had mid1950's pickups and possible they could have been installed into the original Wolf. Or Irwin just put in stock Strat pickups that were available. Tough to say unless we hear something definitive from Irwin or the crew.

Slewfoot2000 wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 8:03 am I recall reading from Waldo that he shielded the pickups themselves. Not sure if that was done on the top of the pickup itself or the interior of the pickup cover. The shielding essentially raised the cover so the so the staggers weren't as apparent.

The bigger question is were they mid-1950's pickups or early-1970's pickups? Waldo mentioned they have more of a mid-1950's stagger. Supposedly the Numbers Strat may have had mid1950's pickups and possible they could have been installed into the original Wolf. Or Irwin just put in stock Strat pickups that were available. Tough to say unless we hear something definitive from Irwin or the crew.

With all due respect to Waldo, and not to turn this into a thread about him, but I have a hard time believing he would have access to the pickups that were removed from the guitar almost 50 years ago.

the shielding point I guess makes sense because the pickups look pretty high

Mid 50’s stagger as per Waldo.
Bareknuckle will make you Apaches with that flat stagger BTW. Sound amazing for gator/Wolf 1.0 tones

caspersvapors wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 9:29 am

Slewfoot2000 wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 8:03 am I recall reading from Waldo that he shielded the pickups themselves. Not sure if that was done on the top of the pickup itself or the interior of the pickup cover. The shielding essentially raised the cover so the so the staggers weren't as apparent.

The bigger question is were they mid-1950's pickups or early-1970's pickups? Waldo mentioned they have more of a mid-1950's stagger. Supposedly the Numbers Strat may have had mid1950's pickups and possible they could have been installed into the original Wolf. Or Irwin just put in stock Strat pickups that were available. Tough to say unless we hear something definitive from Irwin or the crew.

With all due respect to Waldo, and not to turn this into a thread about him, but I have a hard time believing he would have access to the pickups that were removed from the guitar almost 50 years ago.

the shielding point I guess makes sense because the pickups look pretty high

He was going by zoomed in photos...highly doubt anyone knows the current whereabouts of the original pickups.

NeilG1 wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 9:30 am Mid 50’s stagger as per Waldo.
Bareknuckle will make you Apaches with that flat stagger BTW. Sound amazing for gator/Wolf 1.0 tones

Ive always wanted to try the Apaches but Im pretty settled on the pickups in my 2 strats. Oddly enough Ive never been into flat stagger Strat pickups. They sound oddly vacant to me. Like em on a Tele though..

caspersvapors wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 10:00 am

NeilG1 wrote: ↑Fri May 26, 2023 9:30 am Mid 50’s stagger as per Waldo.
Bareknuckle will make you Apaches with that flat stagger BTW. Sound amazing for gator/Wolf 1.0 tones

Ive always wanted to try the Apaches but Im pretty settled on the pickups in my 2 strats. Oddly enough Ive never been into flat stagger Strat pickups. They sound oddly vacant to me. Like em on a Tele though..

I have them in my Suhr strat with a Waldo '72 buffer. They sound amazing to me. Bell clear, articulate, low output A3 tones. Really couldn't be happier with them. But it's not like I'd cycled through a whole bunch of others before.

I got:

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Strange. Works for me.
Waldo just posted another pic of wolf 1.0 pickups. In caption says Rick Turner had said they never played around with pole pieces. Something to that effect.
And that Irwin, Turner and Frank Fuller say they were Strat pickups

Sounds like Waldo caught wind of this thread! Glad he’s still around at times.

Do y’all have Instagram accounts? If yes, my issue is likely that I don’t (no worries regardless).

Here’s the post:

All my Wolfs are HHS. Id like to turn one into a S S S. Anyone know of anyone who makes a brass plate for a Wolf ? An S S S one.

Here you go! Just be sure to specify the exact size of your current plate as there are a few slight differences in sizes for some of these plates.

https://www.ebay.com/str/mrmachinst1?_t ... 561.l49544