METEORIC SUCCESS

When we tested Fender's radically offset Player Plus Meteora HH recently, we were impressed by its biting yet expressive Fireball humbuckers - an instant favourite at Guitarist. Intrigued, we caught up with Fender's Allen Abbassi to talk pickups...

-  Jamie Dickson

When it comes to pickups, it sometimes seems like Fender's Custom Shop gets all the adoration - and with some justification, because the pickups coming out of there (such as the Ancho Poblano Strat set), have been seriously impressive. But Fender's main production guitars are far from being slouches in the tone department and the R&D effort behind them is just as serious, if not more so, as these pickups are being designed for guitars that will sell in their tens of thousands and represent the Fender name and sound around the world.

Keen to learn more about how Fender's main-production pickups are devised, designed and made, we caught up with Allen Abbassi, Director of Product Management for guitars and bass, to find out how the magnetic appeal of mainline production pickups is kept strong at Fender...

Tell us about the development of the Fireball pickups for the Player Plus Meteora HH. What was the aim in terms of tone and performance?

"Great question! First, an overview... When we began the spec process for the Player Plus series, we were excited to create all-new pickup sets. Sometimes pickup sets are an evolution of existing designs, but in this case, we wanted a new and different result.

"Player Plus was conceived as an advanced player's platform with a modern attitude, so the pickups had to have a bit of variety - enough punch and swagger to serve rock and heavy sounds, but they had to have enough range to deliver clean sounds with enough sparkle for today's pop radio, recording sessions, live gigs and more. In essence, the pickups had to cover a lot of ground and do it with extraordinary tone and feel.