Fender Custom Shop '54

Custom Shop 54 Strat Set. Brand new. One of our local Guitar Center's was blowing three sets out for $129. Usual price was $189.

If you are reading reviews, you know the spec's on these. Mine tested out right to levels.

I have numerous Strats of different vintage for various reasons. These went into a 1994 Jap Strat, which was based on a mix-match of late's 60's type. Not sure of model, but it is maple-cap neck, big headstock, no bullet truss rod end, ash body (heavier), 66 style "Fender" logo, double string tree, smallish "D" neck shape.....great palyer, just orginal pickups were weak and flat.

Readin reviews of any pickup is tough and subjective, to say the least. Acme soundclips are somewhat helpful, but limited.

The pickups sound great. Very close to Lollar Blondes, in my opinion. I have those in a parts-o-caster. Smooth output, not harsh or brittle in any way. Spanky and tight in that 50's Strat sort of way. They do not drive the amp so much as they work with it-whether you go into distortion naturally with output tubes, or preamp distortion or a OD pedal. Very musical.

I was actually more impressed wiht these than I thought I would be. I really bought them becasue they were such a good deal.

I would highly recommend these pickups, especially if you can find them for under $130 like I did. I have tried CS '69's and own two CS Strats with other pickups in them from Fender CS, I cannot believe Fender does not use these in more models.

Another helpful tidbit....if you never played in that middle position on your Strat, you will now. It sounds killer. I took out my 5-way and had a 3-way put in when I had these pickups installed....also kept old-school Fender volume and tone control set up alone with 250k pots, etc.

Blues, funk, R&B, RCHP-all authentic tones are obtainable with these pickups. do not pay extra $50-80 for Fralins, Lollars or Bill Lawrence..these are what you are looking for.

I am reviewing a set of three single coil pickups for the Fender Strat.

DC Resistance is:

5.9k - neck
5.9k - middle
6.5k - bridge

These pickups feature hand beveled alnico 5 magnets, formvar wire. They are wax potted. The set I am reviewing is without the RW/RP for the middle pickup.

The pickups were installed in a 1999 Mexican Stratocaster in all positions. A pickup change was long overdue, I had looked into the Seymour Duncan Antiquities at first as a friend had tried one for his telecaster with amazing results. After listening to sound samples for hours on end, I decided to go with these Fender pickups.

The output level on these babies is true vintage. I mainly play these pickups through a Fender Blues Jr and sometimes through a '66 Bassman. The Blues Jr used to break up with the volume set over 5, now I find myself teetering into overdrive a bit later... around 7 or 8. The best part is that even at 12, the tone is clear and articulate... the ceramic pickups that came in the strat were lifeless and abrasive under distortion, the Custom Shops however remain balanced and fluid. These pickups are very well balanced and can conjure up just about any strat sound it seems. It feels like I pilled a blanket from over my stock pickups... I am thrilled.

I play the blues as well as 50s/60s rock and roll. These pickups are well suited for this and more...

If these were lost or stolen I may try something else, but I am very happy with these and would not hesitate to buy them again. The Fender Custom shop knows what they are doing... it is nice to see that even with some of their other products not being so great, the CS still gets the job done.

I've been playing for about ten years or so now and these are the best strat pickups I have played yet... hands down.

I dont love the price paid for these pickups, but it is at the very least competitive with comparable pickups... a bit cheaper than the boutique stuff.

I wouldn't mind a RW/RP center pickup, but I don't really miss it much.

2008 ... Fender pickup shop is still cranking out high quality pickups like nobody's business.

Single coil, hand-beveled alnico 5 staggered magnets.
These measured roughly 5.6 neck, 5.7 to 5.9 at the bridge
Cloth pushback wire
White covers
little chromey sticker on bottoms saying CS or something.

A damned fine job of reverse engineering the pickups that made the original strats worth a boatload of bucks right now.... for good reason

I've had mine for the summer now, and I've had a chance to compare them with other strats. I love these p/ups.

Partscaster: Fender Highway 1 nitro alder body with Classic 60's vintage neck.
I chose these from sound clips, and the only others I was considering were CS '69's, which I might try in my next one, but ain't no big thing to go back to the '54's.

Artists using them ? who knows ? haha.. I like them, my friends like them, the college girls next door like them, that's all that matters to me about that.. :)

I'm running into a pretty hot hand wired tube amp based on a Super Reverb, and they're plenty loud.

I have mine adjusted only about 1/8" above the pickguard, these magnets are very strong it appears. But the tone is un-freaking-believable. Well, I guess since I actually hear it, it IS believable, but you know what I mean.

I also made a steel bassplate for the bridge p/up. easy task there. tiny bit more punch, and a bit less annoying bitey icepick stuff.

Ever in search of THE tone, when I first fired these up, I thought they were very nice, better than I'd had so far....
Then I let my friends a/b it with theirs, and it was listening to THEM play it that I realized I finally found something I can live with.
Awesome, in a word. I think sometimes we miss what we're looking for by looking too hard.

5 definite sounds from the switch positions, not a lot of hum, but I shield stuff.
I also added a simple switch to add the bridge pickup in with the neck and neck/middle . It's in parallel, so it gets a little quieter, but a different sound.

The lowends thump, (not quite as much as some nice original '65's and '72's that a friend has, but close), and the bells and ringing chime is there.
If you're looking for vintage, this is it.
I can't understand why people are paying up to twice as much for p/ups that are wound with the same materials, and the kicker is, they're trying to emulate a Strat sound to begin with.

Although I don't play overdrive very much, we ran it through a Tube Zone and some crunch pedal today, and it sounds really good with a Fender amp overdriven. Kinda muddy on a Mesa Boogie, but then again, different styles of music.

Mine cost me about $140 new on the 'bay.
You can not beat them for Fender sound.. how could you, they're Genuine Fender :)

I'm always in search of new things, and I like trying out p/ups, strings, woods, etc. Like an alchemist.
These p/ups are now in my magic pantry of stuff that works, so if I couldn't find anything else I liked better, these are fine, I know where to go, they're on the top shelf.

Only thing is they're a little fatter covers than some p/ups and they only come in white. nitnoy little *****, I know, but it'd be nice if they could match my black knobs and tips

Single coil set, neck and middle 5.9; bridge 6.3. All have henries of 3.0. That may be a better measure. Staggered poles, hand beveled.

Fender American Strat HSS. Stock pu's 2 Tex-Mex and Diamondback humbucker. All excellent. Just looking for a more vintage sound. Found it.

Output is comparable to stock, maybe slightly less. Use a Peavy tube amp and a J-Station modeler for minimal effects. I play almost everything. Sound is balanced, clear and articulate. You can hear every little thing you do, almost acoustic guitar quality. Beautiful sounding. Neck pickup is very similar to Tex-Mex it replaced, slightly clearer. Bridge of course is very different from DH-1 HB it replaced. Clear, bright, & punchy like a single coil should sound.The middle pickup is where the most improvement occured. The Tex- Mex is good but the '54 in the middle is just outstanding. Clear, articulate, bassy, punchy...Stratolicious. Combined with the neck or bridge in 2 and 4 just perfect. Many Strats seem to lose volume in the 2 and 4 positions, not these. Maybe even a little louder. That may be due to the (lack of) RWRP. Everybody talks about hum, use a noise gate and don't stand right next to the amp! It does help. Suits almost any music. If you play metal you're gonna use humbuckers i.e. EMGs, but these do almost anything else.

Been playing 30+ years, lots of different guitars. I thought about '69s but a friend has a custom shop '54 strat and it rocks so on that I chose these. Right choice. There are more expensive pickups out there, but if you want a vintage strat sound the original version has these pickups, ash body and maple neck. To me that combo is it.

measured 6.0 neck, 5.7 mid, 6.2 bridge with my multimeter

american stratocaster

phew! I have two strats, one 2001 american series with 1998 am. std. pickups/rosewood board, and this one, a 1998 american standard with maple board. I really love those american standard (deltatone?) pickups, they sound great in both guitars. a nice even, modern, not too soft not to hard sound, with some nice cut. these 54s are more on the sweet side. like a cream puff, or a latte. they are so dimensional, it's like the guitar is painting clouds in the air. if you listen to the sound samples on the acmeguitarworks.com website, you can hear it clearly. these pickups do something a little different than any of the others... a bit more detail and texture in the high end. maybe a bit vague in the bass. texas specials were ok but a bit too "strangled", lace sensor gold good, but too "compressed" when you dig in. I like a little spank from a strat. these give just enough, and just as sweet as the lace to boot. (a bit less aggressive than the am. stds or tx specials). this review based on only one day of playing time...so maybe not quite fully informed

good value, cheaper than bill lawrences! (another one I bought and sold). between these and the american standard pickup set, I am, uhhh...set

Pickup features: Single coil
Impedence or other specs: neck and middle 5.9k, bridge 6.5k

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Custom Shop one off Classic Player strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: na
Other pickups on guitar: na
Artists using this pickup: na
You musical style(s): Mostley blues based rock, some jazz and straight blues
Reason for pickup change:

Perceived output level: Guitar has clapton midboost so pickups kinda hot
Tone: very balanced leaning slightly on the bright side, in a good way
Sonic evaluation: Ordered stock on a 04 Fender custom shop classic player strat. Hardtail bridge, maple neck and board, and clapton midboost.I play straight into either a victoria tweed champ, or Clark tweed deluxe. I had previousley owned a set of these in a clapton sig strat with the boost so I knew what to expect. Pickups handle all styles that I play with ease. Have owned Frailins, Van Zandts, Kinmans, and vintage noiseless. I have to say that the custom 54's cover it all. A little noisey, but manageable.Good sustain, very quackable in the inbetween positions, handles the midboost prfectley.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great all around pickup for just about any style

Comments: Only other pickup that comes close are the kinman avn traditionals. Only because they do get rid of the hum.

Pickup features: Single Coil
Impedence or other specs: DC Resistance 5.9K, Inductance 2.4 Henries, slightly hotter bridge

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Highway 1 Stratocaster
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock, Seymour Duncan little '59 Bridge
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: ME!
You musical style(s): Blues, classic rock; Hound Dog Taylor, Johnny Hooker, Pink Floyd
Reason for pickup change: Bought into negative hype about Highway 1 pups, bought into positive hype about CS '54 pups. Also, why not? I was putting the SD little '59 into the neck of a project guitar, needed a bridge pickup for the strat and figured I'd get a complete set.

Perceived output level: Perhaps a little less output than stock pickups. The bridge, although wired to be louder, still seems a bit underpowered compared to the Middle and Neck.
Tone: The tone is very sweet and glassy. My wife heard me putting them through their paces and said the sound "sharper" than the old ones. This may be because of a cap change when I put the new ones in, though.
Sonic evaluation: I play exclusively through a Line6 Guitar Port. My virtual setup is a Bassman with Celestion t-75 speakers. I also use the Small Tweed and Blackface models as well. So, I'm mainly a Fender amp man.
These pickups sound extremely bright and clear. My wife was dead-on with her evaluation, saying they are a bit piercing if left alone without any tone control. I completely re-wired my strat when I installed these. The Highway 1's come with 250k tone and volume pots, with a .1 uf capacitor. My wiring scheme has a master tone and volume (both 250k). The tone control now has a .022 uf capacitor which does not roll off nearly as much treble, so you get more range from the tone control without getting too muddy at the low numbers. I have found the sweet spot to be around 3 and 5 on the tone for soloing.
I also added a treble bleed to the volume so as not to lose any high end when using the volume control. This works really well for going from soling to chording without getting "muddy."
My final change was installing a bridge bypass switch which allows me to turn on the bridge pickup at any time, giving me 7 pickup combinations.
I find that I really didn't need to change the stock pickups on the Highway 1. The guitar came with stock ALnico pickups, unlike the mexican strats. I do notice some cleaner, glassier sound, and an improved range of tonal options, but this is most likely the result of the lower capacitor. They are very nice pickups, especially for replacing those on a mexican strat. I'd leave the Highway 1's alone, though, given the choice.
The real strength of this set is the neck pickup. I don't use the neck position all that often myself, preferring to do most everything with the middle position. But the neck is a huge improvement over the stock neck of the Highway 1. I am able to realize Jimmy Hendrix's style much better with this new neck pickup. The sound is a drastic improvement, but as I said, I don't use the neck position all that often. Maybe I'll start now that I have something to work with.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: These are great for Pink Floyd music, also for classic rock and blues. They are sweet and have a lot of snap and sparkle. Neck is a huge improvement, not much difference in the other two.

Comments: I have several problems with these pickups which I will address here.
First, these came in a box that had them appearing to be in order, from top to bottom. I went and installed them the way they came packaged. When I noticed that the neck pickup was much, much louder than the middle, and the bridge was severely underpowered, I realized I had made a mistake. Only when I went back to change them did I notice that the "neck" pickup had a red dot on the back, indicating (I guess) it was for the bridge position. I suppose it's my fault for installing them so recklessly, but one would think they were packaged the way they were meant to be installed.
Second, the sound output of the bridge (the proper bridge pickup, now that I have fixed the mistake) is still underpowered compared to the other two. I hardly use the bridge pickup unless it's in conjuction with the other two, but this is annoying when there is a noticeable volume drop when switching to the bridge pickup.
The most annoying problem was the bobbins. I quickly realized that the pre-drilled holes were not nearly big enough for the supplied screws for mounting to the pickguard. Even after removing the potting wax from the holes, they were far too small. So, I had to break out my drill and VERY carefully expand the screw holes, praying I wouldn't damage the exposed coils. There really is no excuse for this. Fender ought to supply pickups that one can actually install without resorting to drilling holes just to get the mounting screws in. MAJOR points off for that. This is not some minor problem. This alone will probably send me elsewhere for single coils in the future.
One thing I did like about these pickups is the old-fashioned cloth wire covers. These are a joy to work with, since you don't have to do any tedious wire stripping. Just push the cloth back, and you can solder that baby with ease.
Overall, I am satisfied with these pickups, since they provide what I want, and didn't give me any problems I couldn't overcome. I would warn buyers to be very wary of the problems, though, before one buys these.
Bridge output, incorrect order in the packaging, and the inexcusably small holes all combine for a less-than optimal experience. Wonderful single coil sound, but that can be found from other places too.

Pickup features: single coil passive
Impedence or other specs: neck and middle 6.13k, bridge 6.33k

Model of guitar or bass: strat parts guitar
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Mighty Mite Alnico's
Other pickups on guitar: all '54's
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): rock, blues, a little jazz
Reason for pickup change: cheap harsh tone

Perceived output level: a little more than squier standards and Mighty Mite alnico's
Tone: very balanced
Sonic evaluation: Parts Strat, alder body, maple/rosewood neck. I use a Peavey Classic 20 amp, sometimes with a DOD compressor pedal and a Danelectro reverb pedal. These pickups give full, rich tone and eliminate the harshness. Smooth attack with clarity. In-between positions balance well with neck and middle position volume levels. Bridge pickup alone is too trebly (common in strats.) These pickups really make the guitar sound like a really nice strat. Volume knob does not bleed off treble as much when you turn down. The guitar "feels" different to play. I play with my fingers (no pick), and use my index finger for alternate piking. Picking noise from fingers is reduced somewhat and attack is free of too much popping sound. Fingerboard noise (fret noise) is reduced. A really sweet pickup with nice round tone.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play rock, blues and a little jazz. All positions good except treble alone.

Comments: I'd buy buy these again and may do so for another strat I own. Been playing 35 years or so. I've tried Squier standards (harsh and cheap)and Mighty Mite Alnicos (cold, weak), going for a good regular and sweet strat tone. These fit the bill. Good clean and good distorted; just a nice, full, complex sound. Sounds much more musical. Amp tone controls respond much better now and give greater useable variety of tones.

Pickup features: single coil with no reverse wound middle (they did not do that in 54!)
Impedence or other specs: whatever....

Model of guitar or bass: Fender '68 strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Fender stock '68 pups
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: me
You musical style(s): blues, rock, country, boing boing
Reason for pickup change: looking for a different sound

Perceived output level: pretty high output, higher than i expected
Tone: balanced, a little noisy but toneful, very toneful
Sonic evaluation: Using a '68 Hendrix strat and various amps, or direct into a console or thru a pre or thru a POD. These pups sounds very good. Very wide response, very accurate, beautiful overtones too. Very articulate. Only had them for a few days, but i put them thru their paces, and they came thru with flying colors.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great match, i find myself using all positions on the 5 way. tone control the bridge pup for better tone control.

Comments: I would buy again, or maybe try something else. I am not married to the stuff. Been playing for a long time and own alot of gear. I am not a gear head, i am a musician. I like to try different things when i can. But change for the sake of change is sometimes a sign that you are bored!! so get back to playing and remember why you started this in the first place....chicks...!!!

Pickup features: Single Coil (Passive)
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Stratocaster Plus
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Gold Lace Sensors
Other pickups on guitar: N/A
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): Blues, jazz, country - cleaner style of playing
Reason for pickup change: I had Gold Lace sensors which I like (and have kept) but wanted a more vintage, "sproingier" tone for my strat. I got it with these pickups.

Perceived output level: They seem louder than most strat pickups - easily as loud as my lace sensors (surprisingly to me)
Tone: Very full and rich - bright yet with substantial bass and midrange - almost acoustic sounding - ina good way. Warmer than many strat pickups yet full of sonic detail.
Sonic evaluation: I play these through a Fender Vibro-King or a Twin Reverb reissue. They favor the Vibro-King.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Cleaner blues, jazz, rock n' roll, some hipper country.

Comments: Absolutlely love these - best strat pickups I've heard. They are clear and clean but also 3-dimensional - warm but not muddy, with lots of "depth of field" and chimey sparkle. They excel at crisp clean playing but also sound good with the amp cranked.