What is the dark waxy material on my old Fender pickups?
Leo Fender used an industrial wax that included lamp-black. I believe using lamp black which is a form of carbon is conductive and might add to the sound of the older pickups. It s just a thought but it was also used to identify pickups that have been completed and to cover the lighter string used to wrap coils. The early Broadcaster, No-Caster, Telecaster, Esquire and single coil Precision Bass pickups all used the string and always didn t cover the enamel wire. The plain enamel was dark and the string was lighter being wrapped around the coil for protection. You could see dark areas so the black wax would fill in the voids between each turn of the string.
