Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials

Pickup features: Single coil, passive
Impedence or other specs: "Overwound", reversed middle

Model of guitar or bass: Parker Nitefly s/s/s
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Dimarzio custom
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: SRV
You musical style(s): Folk, rock
Reason for pickup change: Wanted a different sound

Perceived output level: Fairly hot, overly touchy to treble.
Tone: Stunningly unbalanced. Far too much mid.
Sonic evaluation: I wanted chime, I wanted bite. The pickups are overwound giving, acording to Fender, inhanced mids. This does NOT mean mids in tone. It means that the 'g' and 'd' strings are so much hotter than the lows and highs that, when playing, say, a 'g' and a 'b' string together, you hear only the G. The unballanced sound affects leads, but not as much. For fingerpicking, these things are almost useless. Handslaps on the strings make the most unmusical tint - these are not for muting and unmuting. In fact, these are not for anything subtle. Ever.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play electric folk. I seldom play single line solor. I just changed back to my old pickups.

Comments: If you just wanna solo, these are great. The sustain is good and the tone is nice and smooth. If you know any chords beyond low 5ths, find something else. These are the most badly balanced pickups I have ever played. I give em an 8 for sheer solo work. For my playing, a 3.

Pickup features: Single coil, passive
Impedence or other specs: they all have it right.

Model of guitar or bass: 78' Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: originals, never had tone, or sustain
Other pickups on guitar: none
Artists using this pickup: To all the losers, SRV never used these pickups, his were all originals, and custom made ones from other people. It just so happens that they are voiced and designed for the Texas blues sound.
You musical style(s): Western swing, blues, rock, cajun, and telemiester music.
Reason for pickup change: Originals sounded weak and were not staggerd like all of the rest of the single coil line of pickups.

Perceived output level: Strong and clear output
Tone: warm and bright at the same time.
Sonic evaluation: 79' strat and 2002 Am Std Tele. Through a 2001 custom vibrolux reverb, with american made GT6l6's

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play all kinds of music. I have the strat and tele to do my dirty work, when the situation calls.

Comments: If I lost my strat, I would hunt down whom ever took it and shove it up thier a$$. If I lost my tele, I'd go buy another.

Pickup features: Passive, single coil, Alnico magnets, Mid PU is reverse wound
Impedence or other specs: 7.6K Ohm Bridge, 6.5K Ohm Middle, 6.2K Ohm Neck

Model of guitar or bass: custom made strat clone.. I call it the "Strat-O-Blaster"
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: none
Other pickups on guitar: matching set installed
Artists using this pickup: SRV wannabes and tone cloners
You musical style(s): Classic Rock, Blues, Country and popular rock
Reason for pickup change: As a gigging musician, I needed somthing to provide that classic Strat sound that my stable of Les Pauls couldn't (and shouldn't!) provide.

Perceived output level: Much hotter than stock Fender pickups, with greater tonal character.
Tone: Well balanced, with tonal character by the bucket full.
Sonic evaluation: I installed these PU's in a hand made swamp ash Stratocaster style body with flamed maple top veneer. Rock maple bolt on Warmoth neck with rosewood fingerboard. Kahler tremolo, Spertzel locking tuners. 250K Ohm CTS Pots, Switchcraft jack and 5-position switch. Backs of pots are all grounded to bridge, and back of pickguard is "Aluminum Taped". My main gigging amp is a Peavey Classic 100 thru a 4x10 celestion cabinet. Effects are Zoom 505-II and a Jim Dunlap "Cry Baby" Wah. I don't get any noise unless I stand directly in front of my 4x10 cab with the volume turned up past 7.. and even then the noise is slight. If you put these pickups in your guitar and it sounds like there's a blender set on "Puree" in your amp, it's because you either A: Lack sufficient ground and/or shielding, or B: have cheap crappy tone/tone/volume pots or switch. (maybe both!) Put it this way: If you put 4 cheap bald tires on a Lamborghini, you'll never get the speed and control you would if you put quality tires on it. Same with pickups. You can get the best pickups in the world to slap in your Austin, JB Player, Johnson, Rouge, Aria, Chineese Strat, (insert other el cheapo guitar brand name here) but unless you replace the sub-standard switch and pots, you'll never reach the pickups (and your overall tones) full potential. Also remember: no amount of fancy aluminum foil tape is a substitute for properly grounding and wiring your guitar! With that said, these pickups in the neck/neck middle position get me as close as a person can get to that SRV tone without jacking the guitars action up into the stratosphere and putting 12 or 13 gauge strings on your guitar. (the way SRV set up #1, the guitar the Fender SRV Signature Strat is modeled after). Bridge pickup is a definate improvement over run of the mill Strat stock pickups and sounds smooth and mellow with just a little bit of gnarl when used in conjunction with the middle pickup. With new retail prices on a set of these right about $120, it's an inexpensive way to really beef up the sound of your Strat style guitar without shelling out the big $$ for the name on the headstock. The type of wood your guitar is made of has alot to do with the overall tonal characteristics of these pickups, as well. I've seen them installed in Alder and Poplar bodies with maple fingerboards, and they just sounded too bright. In my opinion, Ash or Swamp Ash for bodies and a Rosewood fingerboard is the way to go. Bolt on necks are inherently bright anyway, no sense in making it worse. If you find these too bright, I recommend sanding the paint and laquer out of the neck pocket of the guitar and off the part of the neck that fits into the neck pocket. The bare wood of the neck pocket should be bolted to the bare wood of the neck. This greatly improves sustain and tone. Thats the way Leo Fender did it.. who am I to argue?

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Good for blues, country, soul, country and most rock. NOT FOR HEAVY METAL!

Comments: These pickups, especially for the money, are fantastic. If you play alot of music in the neck or neck/middle position, you're sure to be delighted with the improvement these pickups provide over stock pickups (ESPECIALLY Stock pickups in import guitars!). If you're one of these guys who seems to be stuck in the bridge pickup posotion 99.956% of the time, you probably won't like them. While the bridge pickup is much better sounding than stock, it still sounds like a thin single coil pickup. Nothing beats a humbucker pickup for the bridge position. I'd say a strat setup with Texas Specials in the neck and middle position and a Duncan JB Jr, or Pearly Gates pickup in the bridge positon with a coil tap switch would make an ideal "universal" guitar. I've got 3 Gibson Les Pauls, so that eases my humbucker jones, and use this guitar mainly for SRV style blues and as a backup. If this guitar was ever destroyed, or stolen, i'd definately pick up another guitar and install Texas Specials in it to replace it. They're responsive, have great tonal character, and overall sound great for my musical style. Not reccomended for metal heads, thrashers and GWAR cover bands!