Your Questions, My Answers

Feel Free to Contact me at jobejude@miemusic.com or use the contact form . You can also send your reviews and I can enter them into the MIE Music review Tab . Thanks.

For a low cost upgrade of $320.00 you get a loaded 5-way pickguard of the early CBS grey bottom pickups. These are the pickups Jimi used live for his last 3 shows. Sometimes nicknamed the Jimi 69's. Comes with full sized CTS pots, CRL 5-way, 047 orange drop cap and comes with a new Switchcraft guitar jack. Your Choice of 5 stock pickguard covers, Mint Green, BlacK, White, Red Tortoise and Vintage Brown Tortoise. Comes with a Complete Fender Aged White Accessory kit which includes all pickup covers and knobs, 5-way tip, Tremolo tip, Tremolo cover. Returning customers receive a loyalty discount of 10% off for $288.00 with free shipping to the lower 48. Demo at the bottom. Due to the huge price increase on the Plain enamel wire, prices will be increasing $20.00 dollars here soon or I will be forced to just stop making them.  I am so sorry but so far Formvar has stayed the same. Locals have been begging me to build my PAFs which I have on my own guitar from a 1958 set of pickups that came off a broken headstock 40 years ago. So not much is different from 58-61. But the prices on wire as also pushed that back now. 

• Listing Title
• Stratocaster CBS Vintage 65-70 loaded 5-way Pickguard with Gray Bottom Boutique Hand Wound Pickups
• Listing State LIVE
• OHIO
• Brand
• M.I.E. Music Boutique
• Model
• Stratocaster Vintage Pickups
• Year
• 2026
• Finish
• Black Top / Grey Bottom
• Manufacturer's Country
• United States
• Category
• Parts
• Subcategory
• Guitar Pickups
• Handmade?
• Yes

M.I.E. Music “Music is Everything “                                         

 Grey Bottom Early 64/65-1970 CBS Loaded 5-Way

Loaded Early CBS-5-Way, with a Set of 3 Custom Boutique Hand/Scatter Wound Vintage Single Coil Early CBS 1964/65-1970 Pickups with a RWRP middle pickup with beveled and staggered magnets. Wound with USA Remington AWG 42-gauge Plain Enamel wire. These pickups come with a complete Fender PN# 0991368000 Aged White accessory kit which includes Pickup covers, All 3 knobs, 5-way tip, Tremolo arm tip and Tremolo back cover. CRL 5-way ,Fender /CTS. 047 Orange drop Cap with Vintage push back cloth wiring and comes with a new guitar Jack. My stock pickguard colors are: White, Black, Mint Green, Red Tortoise or Vintage Tortoise Brown. Pickup Demo included at the end of the photos

The Early CBS Vintage (Gray bottom bobbin) pickups have those Vintage Fender tones which was "JIMI'S" Favorite for LIVE performance and has focused presence, very detailed, the mid’s bite in all the right places and has a tight low end with creamy highs without being harsh.

These pickups are Hand Wound by me one at a time, in my USA shop. I use the top USA suppliers, using the highest quality parts while still making a low-cost affordable Vintage tone upgrade for your beloved instrument. It takes about 2 weeks to reverse engineer a guitar pickup by taking videos and notes and playing back in super slow motion. I have spent my most time studying the woek of my favorite famous winders, Abigal Ybarra, Virgil Arlo, David White and Alan Hamel just to name a few. So I knew I had a very high bar to climb.

I specialize only in Vintage Stratocaster Pickups and for years now my Hand Wound Vintage tone pickups, magnifies the harmonics, the incidentals, the upper octaves, the fifths and the relationship of the pick to index finger strikes while maintaining strong sustained fundamental tone and real clarity. Most of my favorite Vintage Fender pickups have a little bulge in the middle and not the flat sides you see in CNC machined pickups. I added the bulge to replicate my Vintage pickups. All of my pickups are BETA tested for 6 months by professional Musicians who work the road and recording studios.

Specs: Averages

Tested at 77 degrees and 42% humidity, +/- 5% on a DER EE LCR DE-5000 meter, this meter has a USB output that you can save your specs on your PC/Mac in Microsoft. This gives me a record of every pickup I have made and sold. My Early CBS pickup sets test at or under 6k ohms. Built the true old school way.

My Assembly Steps: watch on youtube

Mie Music Jobe

click on the like and notification: I have interviews and demo's

1- I install the Alnico 5 Rod Magnets into the Flatwork, using a pickup jig on a hand Arbor press.

2- I dip the finished bobbin in Lacquer. This does 2 things; #1 it keeps the coil wire from shorting out directly onto the Rod Magnets. This is where 90% of Vintage Fender Pickups Fail. The Coil Wire rubbing against the magnets. #2 This glues the Flatware to the magnets, eliminating the use of super glue. Dry time varies. 24 hours average.

3- Pickup winding- I use a Mojo Tone Pickup Winder. Varying my patterns and wire tension and my proprietary way that I developed, coming from years of hand on research and beta testing.

4- I install Lead Vintage push back cloth wires directly to the pickups.

5- Perform the initial testing: K ohms, Henries, nf capacitance and rp @ 1k

6- WAXING- I use 80% Paraffin and 20% Bees wax. Heated to 140-150 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Perfect for response and Clarity.

7- I wrap the coil with fabric tape for four reasons. # 1 it cuts down the chances of damaging the coil when changing pickup covers. #2 Helps stop high gain feedback. #3 Keeps out moisture, just an added protection and expense of building a long-lasting reliable pickup. #4 some guitarists while recording will sit in the control room with the amp in the ISO room, while others like to sit or stand by their amp. I started to notice that most Gibson guitars did not have that high squeal and after checking those guitars found they had fabric tape on the pickups. So, I put some fabric tape on a few of my Strat’s and was floored how well this worked. Back in the 50’s there was really no need for it because the amps were not as high powered as today’s. Leo was also known as a tight wad and maybe he didn’t want to add to the time and expense.

8- Perform second round of testing, confirming the correct specifications are met.

9- Charging Magnets: I use a Mojo tone N/S Vise charger. I FULLY charge all pickup rod magnets once sold. I test the Gauss on a Tesla meter making sure of a smooth even charge on each magnet. Then I put the lead wires through the Flatware hole. I retest the polarity of the pickups which are North for the Neck and Bridge and South for the RWRP middle pickup with a small handheld tester

10- I install the pickups on the Pickguard you choose from my ready to go fully soldered Templates.                        

I have been playing Strats for over 50 years and have a pretty good idea of how a Vintage Strat should sound, I am pretty sure many of you also know. Polls show 80% of the Strat players are happy with their tone. I am after that 20% of the very picky players. I would love to have orders from those 80% who may have never heard or played VINTAGE Hand Wound pickups to show them what they are missing and what a low-cost pickup upgrade can do for their guitar and the enjoyment these pickups can bring.

Early CBS Black bottom bobbin average:  Alnico 5 magnets 42awg gauge Vintage Plain Enamel wiring: Neck:5.70k 2.45h/ RWRP Middle 5.75k 2.40h/ Bridge 5.80k 2.42h.... So, they can spec in sets at 5.65k to 5.9k.

My pickups are made to last and come from a result of listening to my vintage guitar collection and taking apart a bucket full of DEAD Fender pickups, studying them, painstakingly un-winding them, videotaping and taking very detailed notes. This is how I came up with my proprietary way of hand winding my pickups. After BETA testing on every kind of neck and body woods made. Plus tested on tube and solid-state amps, pedals, digital devices, and software in my recording studio Mie Music, that I opened in 1999, with fantastic results.

I have built numerous part casters, and upgraded American and MIM Strat’s and installed my pickups, and they are highly comparable to my Vintage collection. I am receiving great 5 Star reviews and 100% great feedback from all the guitar players currently using my pickups on all 3 of my selling sites. Guitarists like that they can contact the owner/winder with any questions.

 “Enjoy peace of mind with your new gear. “ I sell on my website and have a drop down box so you can chose what color of pickguard you would like from my stock colors. I only ship ship to the lower 48 as I also do on REVERB. ALL International shipping I do only on eBay. I also accept PayPal on all my selling sites. 

The work has been done, so install, and you will find complete nirvana for recording and playing live.

Thanks for Looking. Jobe Jude Mie Music