Fender hot noiseless pickups

[StratMan]

These pickups are stacked humbuckers that still give a "single coil" sound. They are the ones currently used in the Jeff Beck signature strat.

The set I bought came in an aged white colour. I installed these pickups in my '91 USA Standard Strat, replacing the original pickups. The hum is gone! This was the main reason for my choice. At the time, I was living in a house with huge electrical field problems - the hum from interference was as strong as the clean signal from the guitar so I needed to do something.

The Pickups sound extremely similar to the original USA pickups, but probably a bit tighter in the bass (this may be due to not having a 50hz component in the signal any longer). They respond well to the standard volume and tone pots (unlike the vintage noiseless option which requires a change of pots). Originally I had wired the guitar so the the first control knob was on the neck PU, and the second on the bridge PU. This left the middle PU with a much greater top end that didn't fit with the sound of the others. This weekend, I have rewired the first tone control to cover the neck and middle PU's.

Sound from all three pickups is now wery well balanced. I can get good blues and rock tones now. The cleans are also very good. The only thing that these pickups don't do well (to me anyway) is that mid position "quack" - mine sound a bit muffled rather than quacky. It's a nice tone, just not what I would call "quacky". For comparison, though, the original USA pu's didn't quack much either. Maybe it's because these PU's are slightly hotter than vintage?

Overall, I have been extremely happy with my purchase. I picked them up on special so only spent about 40% of the price of a set of Kinmans. I am satisfied with the sound to the point that I won't be looking for anything else for my strat.

The one thing to mention about these PU's is that they are about 1/3 taller than regular pickups. Anyone wanting to install them should check their cavity depth before starting.

[Vorbis]

Nice, thanks mate. What's the full price for a set?

[Bg]

Yep I have a set, they're smokin'

[StratMan]

Nice, thanks mate. What's the full price for a set?

Thanks,

I paid $AU200 for the set when I was in Melbourne (single PU's were selling for about $AU135 at the time!) - they normally go for $AU270. For comparison, Kinmans were around $AU500 at the time. Not sure what prices are here.