The 2004 reissue version of the pickup was redesigned by Fender employee Bill Turner in order to achieve a similar sound in the absence of cunife magnets. While looking almost identical to the original 1970s version it differs greatly in its construction, featuring an alnico bar magnet underneath non-magnetized pole-pieces. It is in fact an ordinary humbucker placed in the larger Wide Range Humbucker casing, and the gap is filled with wax. This is one important reason the reissue Deluxe sounds different from the original guitars. Another reason is the use of 250kΩ volume and tone pots, while the original used 1 MΩ pots. Using 250kΩ pots with very hot humbuckers results in a dark and muddy sound; a common remedy is to replace the controls with 500kΩ pots, which is generally agreed to improve the sound of the reissues. (These same reissue pickups are used for the current 1972 Custom and Thinline Telecaster Reissues.)

After testing the guitar I found the neck pickup too muddy, got 500k potis and made the mod just as so many people recommended here. after that the neck pickup sounded fine but the bridge pickup was ugly! much too harsh. So I wired the bridge back to 250k and now everything is fine. the bridge pickup is round and warm, the neck bites, and with both PUs on it gets rather funky.