Dragonfire Texas Blues

I bought these Dragon Fire Texas Blues from guitarparts.com in a prewired pickguard. They are single coil, passive, alnico pups with an output of around 9k.

I installed these on a Fender MIM Stratocaster. I hated the stock ceramic pups that came on it, so I replaced them with Fender Tex Mex pups. I didn't like the Fender Tex Mex pups either because they sounded muddy, so I bought these.

Much higher output than the stock ceramic pups and the tex mex pups, but clear - they maintain the stratocaster sound with higher output and considerably more punch. Nice beefy twang on the bridge pickup, good fender strat quack on positions 2 and 4, good classic rock and acoustic type tones from the middle pickup and very good bluesy sound off the neck pickup. I play blues, blues rock, country, country blues, classic rock and some hard rock. These pickups can do it all. These are the best stratocaster pups I've ever used. Very awesome pups. I run these through a Laney LV200, an Orange Crush 30R and a Rockers TB15R. Sometimes I use a big muff, a chorus and a wah pedal. That's it.

I have already ordered another set of these for my other mexican strat, so yes, if they were lost, stolen or broken, I would replace them with the same. I've been playing 45 years and have a nice collection of stratocasters and telecasters. I love these pickups.

single coils with higher than avg. impedence specs...supposed to make them "hotter" and louder than typical tele pickups, passive
These were for the Tele if you didnt get that already!
Alnico and price were the main reason to try'em out.

installed into yamaha tele that orig. had ceramics...which i hate as single coils for some reason...seem to be ok
for buckers vut have not met a singlecoil ceramic i ever liked

very MIXED review here as the bridge pickup could very well be one of the best I have ever heard in a tele...and i have heard LOTS...price usually but not always has a play in the sound, however, it would be very hard and very expensive to get a better bridge sound...very chicken-picky bitey and clear with not too much but a nice top end.

the neck pickup however was miserable in every single height used...vapid, colorless, seemed to have a veil over it, dark...need i go on...it was pitifully bad and looking at the other reviews i may have gotten a bad one or they don't know what a good pickup sounds like? my rating therefore drops to cutting it down the middle but the bridge is so good i'll give it a boost on that end.

play everything but like my sound to go straight to amp with no efx and little distortion

im tossing the neck pickup for a seymour or dimarzio (they make great tele pickups and surprisingly cheap when coompared to the fralins vs diff. in sound)
but overall, happy with the bridge and will keep it and was worth the total amt. paid for both....much better than those gfs pickups!
have played for longer than you've been alive my son, and with a suitable neck pickup, this git will be a fender-killer as the neck size/shape is spectacular.

Single Coil Passive Strat Pickup Set
Overwound Alnico Magnets
Cloth Lead Wires and Wax Potted
Middle Pickup Reverse Wound to Cancel Hum in positions 2 and 4
Hotter than American Stock Fender Pickups
Output similar to Fender Texas Specials

I installed a set of three in a Main Street Chinese Strat Copy made by Kona. I get off on making cheap guitars sound great. The guitar is a cheap but nice blonde all wood instrument and I just replaced the original ceramic magnet pickups only, no changes to the cheap pots and capacitors. Whoa!! What a difference! In fact, sounds better than a 66 Strat and a 71 Strat I used to own! I should have paid a lot more to sound this good.

The output level is perfect, hot enough to work with distortion, and still a lot of nice bright sparkle on top for clean tones and great string to string definition. I am playing through an all tube 22watt Peavey Bravo with a single 12" Celestion Blue which I put in a while ago. (Best production speaker on the planet). I play mostly 50's, 60's and 70's rock and some blues. The Dragonfire Texas Blues can cover it all, clean or overdriven. When I need a little more volume, I use my blonde Crate Vintage Club 30, which is all tube and should have cost a lot more for as good as it sounds. I'm a real tone-on-a-budget kind of player and the price point of the Dragonfire pickups is perfect. I had a stock SRV strat a while ago with Fender Texas Special pickups, and frankly I like the Dragonfire Texas Blues set better because they are less glassy and brittle and more toneful like the old Strats made in the 50's.

I would buy these again, and again ahead of any other Strat pickup set and I've tried many of the big names over the years. I do my own installations and am always modding one or another of my guitars. I've been playing since 1965. You can buy a set of three Dragonfire Strat pickups for what everyone else charges for one pickup. I would not change anything about these pickups.

High output passive single-coil telecaster pickups. ~10k for both neck and bridge, chrome cover for neck and brass plate below bridge p.u., cloth wires, wax potted, alnico 5 mags, overwound.

Installed on a Fernandes Franken Tele with a custom cedar body to replace the odd, used pickups that came with the 2nd hand guitar, wired with a 4-way switch & 250k pots. I was looking for a beefire tone but still wanting tele twang. The Fender Texas Specials seemed like too much $ and these were cheap enough to justify a try.

These pickups are quite good for the price. The description is accurate - they do add about 10-15% more power, a tad more midrange which i think helps a tele, yet you maintain the tele twang. They are hum-cancelling when both are on, and the neck pickup is more useable than typ. stock neck pups. Very even tone and responsive to digging in when req'd, and well wax potted so nearly no microphonics. I wouldn't say SRV tone however, but good blues tone nonetheless. Perhaps if wired with 500k pots you could get some more output. My only gripe is there were no pickup mounting screws so i had to scrounge around the shop and cut some long ones to work. Other than that, these are definitely bang-for-buck candidates. I definitely recommend as stock replacements.

I have found the tele to be very temperamental with regard to pickups. They really require tinkering and trying different pickups and wiring scenarios to come up with something that works for a particular guitar (that is unless you have a vintage tele -leave it alone of course!) These pickups will definitely liven up a dead-sounding tele, and the neck pickup is good for jazz work. Like I said, i wish it had the mtg screws with it, but for 1/3 the price of Fender Texas Specials I really can't complain. I am satisfied with these pups and the guitar will remain as-is from here on out.

Pickup features: Single coil
Impedence or other specs: 10K

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Mexican Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: GFS Staggered Alnicos
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: N/A
You musical style(s): Rock/Blues
Reason for pickup change: With the maple neck/maple board, existing pups sounded a little to harsh - needed a fuller sound & more output

Perceived output level: Much hotter than original stock/existing pups
Tone: more middle than before - very balanced across the strings
Sonic evaluation: Using with an old solid state Fender Princeton 65. These pups are really great - give a lovely SRV sound in neck position, middle pup is very usable, bridge pup is really honky & the in between sound (pos 2 & 4) have that vintage Fender quack that one could die for!
These are really great pups, well potted & come with cloth covered leads

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Really great for clean & raunchy blues & made the distortion channel on the Princeton come alive now.

Comments: Forget your Fender Custom specials, Lace Sensors, Kinsman etc which cost way above these. ? for ?/ $ for $, these pups are absolutely fantastic making a nice Mexican Strat now an excellent Mexican Strat with a sound that favourably competes with & in many ways surpasses the American Series Fender Strats. If you get the chance, visit the TNT site & purchase a set, you won't be disappointed.

Pickup features: Single Coil Strat alnico
Impedence or other specs: 11K

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock, Country, Blues, Jazz
Reason for pickup change: Up grade from MIM pickups. Better tone.

Perceived output level: Way more output. I tested then against my other Strat with the original stock pups and these has much better out pot and gain.
Tone: Good midrange tone not to bright but not muddy.
Sonic evaluation: I played them through my Fender Twin Reverb with and without effects. They cut through like a knife, I can't wait to gig with them, next weekend.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: With this guitar I usually play Country , Rock and Blues, Lots of lod stuff. Not much Jazz, but I could.

Comments: Glad I bought them!