AY Strat Pickups identification help please

Hey everyone,

I am kindly asking for your expertise to help me identify a set of pickups, as I am going crazy finding random but non concluding information.
Hopefully I came to the right place to ask this.

I recently purchased a second hand Fender Custom Shop Ltd. 69 Stratocaster Relic, a 2011 Roadshow Limited edition, in arctic white. The seller had installed a Lindy Fralin Blues Special loaded pickguard and pickups, which sound beautiful, but is also offering me the original loaded pickguard and pickups, which he claims have been hand wound by Abigail Ybarra. As you can see in the attached pictures, the pickups are initialled AY, not signed Abby, and as far as I know, Fender did release a 1969 CS Limited Edition Relic Stratocaster in 2012, but was Olympic white, had a reverse headstock, unlike mine, and in the description on the Fender website, it specifically says that the PUPs were hand wound by Mrs. Ybarra.
My guitar has two CS certificates, but it doesn't say anything about the PUPs (only that they are '69 Strat Pickups w/ Rev Wound Rev Pol Mid.

LINK TO PHOTOS: https://imgur.com/a/NjbkfV7

I am waiting for the Fender Customer Relations to answer my email, but I was wondering if this lovely forum could shed some light on the truth.

The seller is asking for 500€ for the extra loaded pickguard since he is positive they were wound by Abby, but I'm having serious doubts and it's driving me crazy.

Thank you for your help!!

Looks legit to me. There are lots of Fender pickups that are marked "AY" rather than a full sig or even just "Abigail". The middle pickup isn't marked at all, but still, Fenders have lots of anomalies like that. Someone might have more details

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cogs

Looks legit to me. There are lots of Fender pickups that are marked "AY" rather than a full sig or even just "Abigail". The middle pickup isn't marked at all, but still, Fenders have lots of anomalies like that. Someone might have more details

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+1

The pickups in my Custom Shop '60 "Closet Classic" Strat (all three of them) are marked in similar fashion.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cogs

Looks legit to me. There are lots of Fender pickups that are marked "AY" rather than a full sig or even just "Abigail". The middle pickup isn't marked at all, but still, Fenders have lots of anomalies like that. Someone might have more details

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Thank you for your answer and observation. This is why I'm waiting for Fender to reply my email with an official answer. The price the seller is asking is right between the "Abby" signed pickups and the AY initialled, and 99% of the answers I'm receiving are that the ones initialled AY are only supervised by Mrs. Ybarra. Therefore, for the price the seller is asking, I am no collector, so I would rather save the money and buy J.M Rolph, Rocketfire or Don Mare PUPs.

If I would have bought the guitar new and it came with AY PUPs, my questions would be only out of curiosity. But since the seller's price is influenced by WHO wound the PUPs, I want to hear more opinions about it as I'm not really convinced about the deal, and from the comments I see around, not only here on this forum, I might be making the right move turning them down at that price.

I can't say whether the original loaded pickguard (with the "AY" pickups) is worth an additional five-hundred euros but I can tell you unequivocally that those Fralin Blues Special's are some mighty sweet-sounding coils.