Vintage Fender® Style Single Coil Pickups


Hand Built in the USA using custom Tone Kraft flatware
and AZ AlNiCo and AlNiCu rod magnets.

       



Cavalier Pickups will be offline and
not accepting new orders until April 15th.

Thank you for your patronage and patience.



The Pickups

Lion Tele® & Esquire® Bridge

Lion King & Wolf Tele® Neck

Esquire® Stealth Neck

Phoenix Firebird®



Custom Tele® ~ Esquire® pickups are always available as any combination of 42AWG or 43AWG coil wire along with A5 or A3, or A5 and A3 rod magnets!


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NOTE: After you place an order, the email address attached to your PayPal account will receive important information about your order. Please be sure to check your Spam, Junk, Trash, etc, email folders as these crazy days servers and email apps are too often treating valid email as anything but good email.

NOTE: The default selection for coil wire wind direction and top magnetic polarity for all Cavalier Tele pickups is RWRP (Reverse Wind, Reverse Polarity) and that will insure a noiseless parallel humbucking mode when both pickups are selected.




Tele® & Esquire® Single Coil Bridge Pickups

50/51 Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 7500 turns of 43AWG over A3 rod magnets - that ubiquitous original classic Fender® vintage 1950/51 "stock" Leo Fender tone and output, uber twangy, exclusively used in his first "electric spanish guitar", and his one and two pickup 1950 Esquire®, and 1950 Broadcaster, and 1951 Nocaster - all these specific 1950/51 Fender® guitars used the same bridge pickup build, there were no other bridge pickup designs or types used. Twangy, clean, clear, and Trebly. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Bakersfield Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 8500 turns of 42AWG over A5 rod magnets, plenty o' twang, some mid-range and lotsa treble on tap, yer typical vintage mid-50's Tele® pup but without the shrill treble. LOTS of treble tone, some midrange pops out, some bass is recognized, serious twang on tap. This is pretty much a classic Tele® bridge pup where the tone pot can be used to rein in the treble on occasion. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Oildale Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 9100 turns of 42AWG over A3 rod magnets, plenty o' twang, a bit more mid-range than the Bakersfield, and lotsa treble on tap, yer typical vintage mid-50's Tele® pup but without the shrill treble. A classic 50's Tele® bridge pup where the tone pot can be used to rein in the treble on occasion. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Nocaster Holy Grail Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 9700 turns of 43AWG over A3 rod magnets. That original classic earliest vintage 1950/51 Fender® Esquire®, Broadcaster, Nocaster tone is back and fattened up with a higher coil wire turn count to squelch the shrill treble and thicken the midrange. This is the "mistake" pickup, the one where a pickup winder fell asleep at the wheel and added 2000 more coil wire turns. It has that fat vintage tone that we sought back in the day, but could never find ... but we did! It's the Holy Grail of the earliest Fender® bridge pickups. Twangy, thick, clean, clear, with no ice-pick-in-the-ear. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

51/52 Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 9500 turns pf 42AWG over A3 rod magnets, the "transitional" pickup. During 1951 and 1952 Leo Fender began phasing out the A3/43AWG Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup by using existing A3 rod magnets along with 42AWG coil wire. Sometime after 1952/53 that transition ended with the standarized use of A5 rod magnets and 42AWG coil wire. The 51/52 Lion has a bit more midrange than the Nocaster Lion, and plenty of twang. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Nashville Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 10000 42AWG over A5 rod magnets, lots of country twang with a hefty dose of mid-range, think "Broadcaster plus", this is the original Cavalier Lion that's quite at home for country, rock, pop and bluez - a classic higher turn count 50's Tele® bridge pickup. Smooth treble that's hardly shrill, good midrange and some bass end, good fat twang, arguably the most sought after Tele® bridge pup for country and lots of other genres. Black or ivory/parchment wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Fat Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 11300 42AWG over A5 rod magnets for a very bold tone with lots of mid-range, for serious rock and blues. Butter smooth treble that's never shrill, major midrange and good bass end, not best nor meant for twang tone. This is typically used for rock and bluez and pop, and Esquires® that need an increased range of tone. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Huge Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 13500 42AWG over A5 rod magnets with tons of mid-range and output for tone that's SO close to a P-90. Everything that applies to a Fat Lion applies to the Huge Lion, only taken up a significant Hefty amount. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

Humongous Lion - Tele®/Esquire® bridge pickup. 16000 42AWG over A5 rod magnets and mega tons of mid-range. Everything that applies to a Huge Lion applies to the Humongous Lion, only more, LOTS MORE. Black or ivory/parchment string wrapped, supplied with mounting screws and tubing.

All Lion pickups come with a separate base plate ground wire that allows the coil wires to be reversed for use in any standard or custom circuit, ready to be used with any 3-way, 4-way, 5-way, or mega switches.




Tele® Single Coil Neck Pickups

The Lion King - The Lion King offers unfettered vintage tone for those wishing the aesthetic look of the Tele® covered neck pickup, with more treble on tap than a typical Tele neck pickup. The thin nickel-silver mirror chrome cover is independently grounded from the coil leads, allowing phase reversal and easy hook up with ANY type of pickup select switch: 3-way, 4-way, 5-way, mega, etc. A5 rod magnets under 8500 turns of 43AWG coil wire. Supplied with body or pickguard mounting screws and height tubing.

The Fat Lion King - The Fat Lion King offers more output and more midrange that its Lion King brother, for those wishing a bolder Tele® neck pickup tone and output. The thin nickel-silver mirror chrome cover is independently grounded from the coil leads, allowing phase reversal and easy hook up with ANY type of pickup select switch: 3-way, 4-way, 5-way, mega, etc. A5 rod magnets under 10500 turns of 43AWG coil wire. SupplWolf (nickel-silver chrome cover)ied with body or pickguard mounting screws and height tubing.

The Wolf - The Wolf is a covered Tele® neck pickup that's wound with 9000 turns of 42AWG coil wire (instead of the normal 43AWG Tele® neck coil wire) over A5 rod magnets and offers a more Strat® type of treble tone. The thin nickel-silver mirror chrome cover is independently grounded from the coil leads, allowing phase reversal and easy hook up with ANY type of pickup select switch: 3-way, 4-way, 5-way, mega, etc. Supplied with body or pickguard mounting screws and height tubing.

All Lion King and Wolf pickups come with a separate cover ground wire that allows the coil wires to be reversed for use in any standard or custom circuit, ready to be used with any 3-way, 4-way, 5-way, or mega switches. Chromed or raw nickel-silver covers are held in place by wax potting.





The Lioness - The original Tele® neck pickup was metal covered to attenuate the high end, reduce treble, and offer a more mid-range or baritone sound for rhythm playing and to offer an alternative to lugging around an upright string double bass. Within short order, Fender® invented the Precision Bass, yet still built the Tele® neck pickup with a tone blanketing thick metal cover. The Lioness frees up that great, natural single coil tone that's long been hidden under cold metal. A5 rod magnets under 8500 turns of 43AWG coil wire. The coil wire is string wrapped in either black or ivory/parchment, supplied with body or pickguard mounting screws and tubing.

The Fat Lioness - The Fat Lioness offers more output and more midrange that its Lioness sister, for those wishing a bolder Tele® neck pickup tone and output. A5 rod magnets under 10500 turns of 43AWG coil wire. The coil wire is string wrapped in either black or ivory/parchment, supplied with body or pickguard mounting screws and tubing.

The She Wolf - The She Wolf is an uncovered, Tele® neck pickup that's wound with 9000 turns of 42AWG coil wire (instead of the normal 43AWG Tele® neck coil wire) over A5 rod magnets and offers yet a bit more Strat® type of treble tone because there is no ground shield cover. The coil wire is string wrapped in either black or ivory/parchment, supplied with body or pickguard mounting screws and tubing.

The Lion King, Fat Lion King, Lioness, Fat Lioness, Wolf and She Wolf Tele® neck pickups have a default South top polarity - the North needle of a magnetic compass will point to the top of these pickups. Reverse polarity (North top) is an option at no charge. AlNiCo rod magnets are either flush or slightly above the top, never staggered. Lioness pickups are black or ivory/parchment string wound, both Lion King pickups are covered. The Wolf pickup can be similarly covered or uncovered. Leads are black, yellow or ivory cloth covered "push up" stranded wire. Body mount wood screws or 6-32 pickguard machine screws and height rubber tubing included.

Payment accepted via PayPal for both cash and credit cards - email for money order or check payments.





Cavalier Pickups Build - Cavalier Tele®, Esquire®, AR90 (P90®)and '51 P-Bass® pickups are all built to respective vintage footprint specifications and all will properly fit into Fender® guitars and basses, or any guitars/basses built to Fender® pickup footprint specifications. I hand build all Cavalier bobbins with vulcanized fiber board flatware, AlNiCo V or III rod magnets, hand guided 42AWG or 43AWG coil wire using a custom coil winding machine of my own build, with Red Lion infrared trigger and digital counter. The Lion bridge pickup has a steel base plate and its wire coil is wound with cotton string. The Lioness and Fat Lioness Tele® neck pickup wire coil is covered with black or ivory/parchment string. All Cavalier non-tapped pickups have cloth covered lead wire. Light wax potting (which is the default for all Cavalier Pickups) will suppress feedback and microphonics well enough for the vast majority of guitarists and will allow pickups to render "lively" and "resonant" sounds with increased harmonics. Vacuum wax potting is an option full saturates the coil and will greatly help those who play at really high full tilt boogie volumes with gobs of gain. In doing so, some of the "liveliness" of the overall sound is somewhat suppressed. Wiring - black cloth covered leads are the coil ground and white or yellow cloth covered leads are the coil hot side.


Pickup Polarity and Wind Direction - Unless customer specified, all Lion bridge pickups are wound counter-clockwise and are top North poled (a magnetic compass South needle will point to the pickup's top), the Lion King, Fat Lion King, Lioness, and Fat Lioness Tele® neck pickups are wound clockwise and are top South poled (reverse polarity, or RWRP, from bridge pickups to allow noiseless parallel humbucking mode when both pickups are selected).

Using a simple magnetic compass to check single coil pickup polarity ...

In the image below, the North needle of the compass points to the top of the Cavalier Lioness Tele neck pickup, showing that pickup as SOUTH top poled ...



In the image below, the South needle of the compass points to the top of the Cavalier Lion Tele bridge pickup, showing that pickup as NORTH top poled ...





As with most vintage style single coil pickups, the pickup height distance between the top of the pickup and the guitar strings is critical to tone - closer to the string for more volume and punch, further away for less volume and more acoustic sweetness.

Special Lion Info - There is no ground lead base plate strap with all Lion bridge pickups. Included with all Lions is a wired ground washer that slips over any one of the Lion's mounting screws and is soldered to the back of any pot. After putting a Lion mounting screw in the Tele/Esquire® bridge, slip on the wired washer over the screw, then slip on the rubber height adjustment. Without pickup ground strapping, the leads for all Lions can be swapped within the control cavity to fix any possible phasing issue. ....


Lion Tele/Esquire® bridge pickups may have unusually high coil wire turn counts, therefore their tall bobbins are packed full. Take care installing a Lion into its bridge mount, insuring the string wrap and wire beneath it aren't crushed.


WARRANTY - Cavalier Pickups warrants that its products are free from defects in materials and workmanship for LIFE (the original owner), and will repair or replace any part which (under normal installation and use) discloses such build defects, if the product is returned to Cavalier Pickups, and provided that the product, upon examination by Cavalier Pickups, discloses that it is build defective. This warranty does not extend beyond the original purchaser, nor to any Cavalier Pickups product which has been damaged by misuse, accident, incorrect wiring, improper installation, use in violation of the instructions, tampering, alteration or repair outside of our domain.

RETURNS & EXCHANGES - The Cavalier return & exchange policy is simple - there is NO return or exchange policy, unless there is a verified build defect (see Warranty). DO NOT RETURN MERCHANDISE WITHOUT FIRST CONTACTING CAVALIER PICKUPS. Communication is everything.


(Note - "Fender", "Tele", "Esquire", "Strat", "P-Bass", "J-Bass" are all copyrights of FMIC, "Firebird" and "P90" are copyrights of Gibson, Inc.


Cavalier Pickups
Rob DiStefano
58 Linden Avenue
Park Ridge, NJ 07656
201-573-0080
[email protected]


The real Cavalier pups!

Missy 1/16/2022



Bubba 11/27/2008 ~ 10/19/2021
Rosie 11/27/2008 ~ 4/17/2021


Rosco 12/27/96 ~ 11/18/2008