Fender Custom Shop '54

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.

Pickup features: Single coil
Impedence or other specs: Neck and Middle 6.01 ohms - Bridge 6.34 ohms

Model of guitar or bass: Fender American Deluxe-Plus Strat, ash body with maple neck
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: The original blue, silver and red Lace Sensors - neck, mid and bridge
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Myself and many, many others!
You musical style(s): Old Surf, Jazz, Rockabilly, Classic Rock
Reason for pickup change: Tone! Have out-grown the Les Paul-ish, sterile humbucker sounds of the Lace
Sensors. Wanted the traditional, early Strat sounds out of
this, otherwise, fine guitar. These pickups give that.

Perceived output level: Standard Strat output. Slightly less than the Lace Sensors.
Tone: This is where these pickups REALLY SHINE! Very balanced, clear and smooth.
Sonic evaluation: Amps used - Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue, Fender '65 Twin Reverb Reissue, Fender Blues Junior and Fender 8 channel powered mixer PA system.
The sparkling clarity and full bodied sound of the early Strat is there. These pickups really made this guitar 'Come Alive'!

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: The Strat sound has proven to be good for any and all styles of music. These pickups give that sound.

Comments: I was pleasantly surprised at just how good this guitar now sounds! It's like having a brand new guitar, that feels like an old friend. This pickup swap has turned out much better than I had hoped for.
Would I buy them again? Yes! I've been playing since the early sixty's and have tried many pickups, in many guitars, over the years. These pickups have made this guitar a great sounding instrument, where it was just mediocre, at best, before.
These pickups DESERVE a rating of 10! (Higher, if it were possible!)

Pickup features: Passive Single Coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Strat Plus ('95)
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Lace Sensors (Gold)
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Blues, Rock, Country
Reason for pickup change: Wasn't satisfied with the lace sensors anymore. Tried something different - and what a difference!!! Lace sensors sound scratchy, have no sustain and don't sound like single coils should...

Perceived output level: It's quite odd - but these pups have more output than the lace sensors which are considered to be rather powerful (at least Fender claims it...)
Tone: very clear, very balanced sound! not too much treble and lots of sustain!!!
Sonic evaluation: I'm using my 95' Strat Plus through the Yamaha DG Stomp (amp simulation) into a 90's Fender Princeton Reverb 60W.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Mainly Blues, Rock, Country. Pickups suit very well. Even overdriven Leadsounds (Gilmour...) sound very smooth and balanced

Comments: Next time I would buy the 57/62's - just to compare. Definitely I wouldn't buy the lace sensors again!!! The '54s are a good buy and fit perfectly if you play mostly blues and clean solos (Knopfler...). But as stated above it matches even harder styles quite well.

Pickup features: passive single coil
Impedence or other specs: dunno (low)

Model of guitar or bass: Strat project
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: n/a
Other pickups on guitar: all '54s
Artists using this pickup: ?
You musical style(s): A bit of everything. Blues, country, rock, whatever...
Reason for pickup change: n/a

Perceived output level: standard vintage low (normal) output
Tone: very balanced, clear, chiming and woody in all positions
Sonic evaluation: This is a strat that I made out of good quality replacement parts. Alder body and an ebony board neck. Vintage style Fender bridge. I had an American Series strat 2 years ago but I sold it. I didn't like the stock delta tones and a set of Kinman AVn Blues noiseless pups I tried I liked even less (odd frequency response). I ended up selling the guitar and I played telecasters ever since....happily. I decided to put a strat together just for fun, and also to give the breed another chance. Teles are my favorite but too many guitarists who I like to listen to use strats. I researched strat specs and with regards pups I decided that a pair of Custom Shop '54 neck and middle pups with a Van Zandt Blue bridge pup would be the best option for me. I had to buy a set of 3 CS '54s and I planned to sell the bridge pup. However, I found the Van Zandt Blues pup too trebly and brash so I decided to give the '54 bridge pup a go. I figured I'd end up getting a mini-humbucker, or even give up on strats again, but I was pleasantly surprised by having the full set of '54s in. All 7 pup combinations are usable onstage (I have a push/push pot switch to get neck/bridge or all 3). With the Delta tones the bridge pup alone and positions 2 and 4 were useless to me, and the sound of all 3 was a joke. With the '54s each single pup setting is wonderful. Full, clear, chiming, woody.....all the classic strat sound descriptions. The bridge pup is similar to a good tele bridge pup in that it will be clear and trebly or fat and rich depending on your pick attack and overdrive. Like a good tele bridge pup you could actually get away with using it on its own right thru a gig if you had to. The sound of the middle pup on it's own is very similar to the sound of having the neck/bridge combination on. With the Delta tones on my old strat those 2 settings were totally different, and the middle alone wasn't great. The '54 middle pup is excellent. The neck pup sounds absolutely gorgeous. The classic full, rich, woody sound. Positions 2 and 4 are 'quacky' but still full sounding. Great for Mark Knoffler impressions. The sound of all 3 on is like another version of positions 2 and 4.
I have a .047mfd cap on the tone, for those who are interested. Apparently the cap value makes a difference.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play a variety of music styles in a wedding/function band using a Fender Blues Junior amp with few effects (chorus, echo, overdrive/boost pedals) and along with my tele this strat seems to suit very well. I don't think it would suit high-gain shenanigans, but for clean to slightly overdriven they are wonderful.

Comments: Perfectly happy with them. I've played since 1969 and I've had loads of gear over the years. I've come to the conclusion that for me the ideal setup is a 1950s style small tube amp (the Blues Junior fits the bill) and a tele or a strat with pre-CBS spec single coil pups. Low output with good clean sounds that you don't need to effect unless you want to, and which beef up nicely with a bit of natural amp overdrive. I would definitely get another set of CS'54s if something happened to this guitar and I needed another strat.