Kinman Blues Set

Single coil

80's strat - fender standard pickups noisy buggers - had to go!!

through Marshall VS265 and/or direct through line floor POD pro.
now have the control from the bite to sounding as smooth as a worm with a tie!

Noiseless had to be the way to go - tried these on spec and haven't looked back since. Gonna put them in my 70's strat as well - to hell with museum axes - I want the sound and these little spuds deliver in spades!!

Pickup Type: Single coil passive pickups

Models: AVn-62 neck, AVn-62 medium and SCn bridge

Specs: Staggered with a second bobbin for hum canceling
AVn-62: Impedance:6 K-ohms, Resonance 3.8KHz, Inductance 2.45 H
SCn: Impedance:6.8 K-ohms, Resonance 3.5KHz, Inductance 2.96 H

Model of guitar: Fender Stratocaster Lite Ash

Modifications: None

Position: neck / medium / bridge (Kinman AVn-62 / Kinman AVn-62 / Kinman SCn) with K9 circuitry

Pickups being replaced: Seymour Duncan ALNICO II Pro (medium with reverse polarity and reverse wound)

Reason for pickup change: Seymour Duncan ALNICO II Pro are great pickups for rock but to have a true clean sound you have to play too low and too much carefully because they jump into high volume and distortion too easily for my taste. Noisy as any "regular" single coil. Neck and bridge pickups are good but hard to control. Bridge pickup is too bright and harsh. I wanted a noiseless solution, with warm sound, plenty of harmonics, better dynamic range and able to be either clean or crunchy according to picking..

Musical style(s): Rock, Jazz, Fusion

Amps and Effects: I use Fender Twin, Marshall JCM 2000 and mostly VOX AC-30. On each one the pickups give me the expected sound. I just add reverb, a bit of chorus and some delay.

Output level: Medium. The balance between pickups is perfect.

Tone: Each one of these pickups has a wonderful tone. Great attack, great dynamic range, colorful harmonics and very good sustain. Clean and ready to crunch when demanded. Always warm and creamy. Smooth or punchy but never harsh. Perfect balance of thickness for every position, not fat, not thin, just meaty. Round basses without being overwhelming, full mid range and great highs without ice picking.
Neck pickup AVn-62 can be either dark or clear without becoming muddy or too bright, just by dialing the tone control and playing accordingly. Very versatile. Good for jazz, blues and rock. Great vintage tone.
Medium pickup AVn-62 keeps the same virtues of the neck pickup but with the differences expected for the different position. Great alone and perfect for blending with neck or bridge. Great vintage tone.
Bridge pickup The SCn has the ideal amount of output and brightness. No ice picking at all. Twangy as a bridge pickup should be. On the limit of vintage tone.
No problems of string pulling at all. I can get really close to the strings without being pulled.
The Kinman K9 circuitry is a perfect match for the pickups.
The volume control is more gradual than regular ones and does not cut treble when rolled down as it happens with the Strat original.
Tone control can be set as a regular treble cut control or as a high resolution midrange scooper. Both modes do the work very well. I personally use the regular treble cut mode. To me it has a very good EQ curve, never as moody or bright as the Strat original.
Blender control is fabulous, besides the 5 standard Strat position you can blend and set the desired amount of the neck pickup when selecting bridge, medium or bridge + medium pickups. Additionally you can use serial or parallel wiring providing a great arsenal of sonic possibilities. The bridge + neck combination produces the classic Telecaster sound that I like very much on arpeggios.

Sonic evaluation: SOUND is wonderful. DYNAMICS, ATTACK and PRESENCE are perfect. There is VERSATILITY all over the place. Truly NOISE FREE.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Everything except metal.

I have been playing for 30 years and these are the best pickups I had by far. Not perfect but close...

Price is right for the quality. The $409.00 included the 3 pickups, the K9 No-Soldering Harness circuitry and control plus the shipping.

The Kinman pickups with the K9 circuitry bring the musician out of you. I'm not a governed or limited by the pickups anymore, instead, the guitar brings out for me everything I demand. I feel that everything I do with my fingers (I only use picks occasionally) is reflected in my sound and I love the tone. My Strat now feels perfect.

The installation of the No-Soldering Harness is easy, just follow the instructions and double check your connections.

If destroyed or stolen I will buy them again.

I will not be looking for sound in some years and when that occurs, I will look at Kinman first.

I did not try every existing pickup but I had some Fender (Strat and Tele), Gibson, Epiphone, Steinberger, Jackson and Seymour Duncan and I prefer the Kinman over the other and in every aspect, they suit me better.

Support: 10.
Initially, I put an order with my custom combination of pickups and Chris Kinman himself emailed me suggesting a better set according to what I described I was looking for. I called to change my choice and I did spoke with a very gentle employee who change the production order at that very moment. I received the package direct from Australia 5 days after my order.
When installing everything, and because I don't see very well, I left 1 pin for the medium and bridge pickups unplugged. As a result these pickups were sounding very weak. I emailed Kinman on Friday night explaining my output level problem and immediately - on Saturday! - Chris Kinman again answered and gave me 3 points to check... the first one was the correct one and 5 minutes later I had my guitar perfectly set. To me. this is true excellent support.