Converting Maton Mastersound Pickups to Wide Range Humbuckers

The Creamery Maton Mastersound Pickups upgrade to Wide Range Humbuckers

This was an interesting upgrade. The customer got in touch saying he wanted something different from his stock pickups so after a wee chat about the kind of tones & versatility he was after, we settled on a Wide Range Humbucker style pickup for the bridge & more of a higher output, balanced single coil for the neck.

The bridge would give him more versatility, a pickup responsive to the volume & tone controls that would give him a range of sounds. The neck pickup would be balanced in output and provide a sweeter tone to the current pickup.

The Creamery Maton Mastersound Pickup upgrade to Wide Range Humbucker

The first thing to notice when the covers are taken off, is the sheer amount of wax surrounding the coils. Wax potting needn't be so full-on, just enough to hold everything in place. Some would argue that to fully wax-pot pickups in this style gives the pickup more of a sterile tone. I'm inclined to agree that too much wax like this can choke the pickup somewhat but I can appreciate why manufacturers do it this way.

The Creamery Maton Mastersound Pickup upgrade to Wide Range Humbucker

The first task was to work on the bridge pickup, essentially using just the unique cover, shape & chrome casing to create a whole new pickup underneath.

The Creamery Maton Mastersound Pickup upgrade to Wide Range Humbucker - Bridge Pickup

One of the differences between these particular pickups and the Wide Range Humbuckers is the baseplate underneath. In the Maton Mastersounds, there's is an internal brass baseplate that holds the coil(s) within the cover. In the Wide Range Humbucker the internal baseplate as ferrous, meaning it has a whole different effect on both the magnetic field & tone of the pickup. Somewhat akin to the ferrous baseplate underneath a standard Telecaster bridge pickup, the internal reflector plate of the Wide Range Humbucker increases the perceived output and gives the pickup that 'spank'. In pure terms, the ferrous internal plate offers Ferromagnetic & Electrodynamic functions whilst also offering an extra layer of shielding.

The Creamery Mastersound Pickup to Wide Range Humbucker Upgrade - Bridge Pickup

The Mastersound bridge pickup here is a twin pole humbucker with 4-way wiring for a true single coil split but the customer found it lacking somewhat. What provided the challenge for this pickup upgrade is the dimensions. Maton Mastersound pickups are slimmer than a standard humbucker and longer, somewhat similar in size to a standard P90 pickup. The challenge was to make new coils to fit the unique dimensions. In this case I made new pickup bobbins to take the new coils and fit the custom threaded magnets.