Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat

Single coil. 3 pickup set. passive.

Fitted into an fiesta red 97 strat. These replaced a set of Dimarzio
noiseless. I wanted to get back to the real deal. The dimarzio's did
a great job with the noise and turning the guitar into a work horse but
it lost 90% of the strat quality of tone and character.

The sound is very traditional. The out put is higher than the original
stock p/ups.But of course with no hum.I adjust the pick ups quiet low in
the plate, this gets rid of much of the "harshness" as the pick attacks the string. I kept the 500k pots. I like the slight treble bleed when I
roll the volume control just back from full.It is an overall more "creamy sound". I have a "E" series Megaswitch that in the middle position gives the bridge and the neck pick up together..Try it,, a very
useful sound.I think these p/ups are a great sounding pick up if you are
after the traditional sound of a quality strat.

Been playing for a long time. Lots of gear on the way. (Should have another home for the money i've spent) Bottom line if you like the sound
of some of the best players that play strats, then you need a strat. On
top of that it helps when the p/ups sound like original vintage strat
pick ups. And these do it very well. If you need a super scooped sound
from humbuckers for Metal or Hardcore then you need a second (or 7th)
guitar.. When a strat plays well and sounds like a strat its one of the
coolest guitars to play.

noiseless passive set

I had this set installed in a MIM 50th anniv. gold strat. The stock pickups weren't happening. I tried the David Gilmour set, but it absolutely ate batteries. The reason I chose this set is because I needed one with all the required pots and caps. Everything that was stock on this guitar under the hood had to go.

Everybody has an opinion on the ideal strat sound. I, for one, don't care for super high output strat pickups. I love chimey Claptonesque tone. These do deliver tone clean tones you love. I was concerned that with the whole noiseless deal, I would lose the 2 and 4 position quack. It's still there and sounds great. Having said that these aren't high output, they do sound great gained up. And , yes they are noiseless.

I would replace this set with the same one if it were destroyed. I have been playing for 20 years. This pickup set is staying with this guitar.

Single coil, passive, white FVNS pickups set.

I installed these in my '96 Fender MIM Strat. I replaced some 80's Fender pickups I bought when I got the guitar. I didn't like the hum I was getting from this guitar and had not played it in a year or so because of it.

I really like the tone I get from these compared to the stock, and sound about as good as the 80's pickups I took out, without the hum. I play blues, classic rock, metal and todays rock, but through different guitars. This guitar is mostly for cleans, blues and some various playing.

If they were stolen I would buy again in a second. I really like that these come with the pots, caps, resistor and pickups in one package. I have not tried the Lace Sensors or any other pickups in this guitar so I can't compare.

Stacked singles, passive. Been described in many prior reviews. As some other posters mentioned the quality control on these must be pretty poor. I had to send the first set back to Musicians Friend as the bridge pup was dead. The second set was fine with no issues.

1999 MIM Strat. I got bored with the OK stock pickups and really wanted to quiet things down in my practice room. I loaded up the full set of 3.

The output seems relatively mild, but this is a good thing if you want to hear note separation. Some of my favorite single coils are rated at between 5 and 6k. I think these are between 7 and 9? not sure. I play into either a BillM modified Fender Blues Jr. or late model HotRod Deville 410. I installed these pups about 5 years ago, liked them intially then let the guitar sit virtually unplayed for about the last 2 years becuase I've been using other guitars more. I decided to pull out my MIM Strat last weekend and spend some time dialing in some great tones. I found that the bridge pup which is typically pretty thin and brittle sounding can be very useful by using a compressor and dialing back the tone a bit. (I installed a jumper between lugs on the switch when installing these to give the bridge a tone control option. I think this is a necessary feature for all bridge pups) After jamming along to some Little Big Town I found that I was getting great clean and overdriven tone through my Deville in all pup settings. These pups to my ears do a Great Strat Quack in positions 2 and 4 and really have clear bell like tones in 1,3 and 5. I was tempted to install 250k pots as another poster stated to tame the highs, but when playing in the mix I think it's better to have the option to cut through when needed and dial back the tone controls when not playing with a band. I play a variety of blues and rock and contemporary Christian music. I love that these are very quiet pups and work great for the venu's I play.

If I had to replace these, I might try the Hot Noiseless pups instead since I already have low output true single coil GFS pups in another Strat. However I do like these quite a bit and will keep them in the this guitar. As other reviewers have stated it does take some time to dial these in, pup height is very important, tone control for bridge is critical, it seems 250k, 500k, or 1 meg pots is a matter of preference. I used the pots that came with em. I think they're 500k but don't remember for sure. I've been playing the guitar for 35 years, but have only been playing electric guitars for the last 10 years. I have 2 other Strats, 2 Tele's a Les Paul copy and an old Sears Silvertone with amp in case. I also have a 1976 Hohner (Martin D45 copy) and a 2007 Guild D50 Bluegrass Special. These are not the best sounding pups I've heard, I actually like my cheap GFS Alnico Premiums better for overall tone, but those are noisy in most environments (except in church they are dead quiet there, must not be any rf) The Vintage Noiseless do a very respectable job for being noiseless pups and come really, really close to imitating a true singel coil. Great Bang for the buck!

Single coil passive, though I'm not sure if they're true single-coils or some kind of hybrid design. Really don't know the impedance or other specs. They came stock on a MIM Player's strat.

Stock in MIM Player's strat. The Player's strats have ash bodies, slightly flatter fingerboard radiuses, and larger frets than the regular MIM strats, which is why I bought it. Mine was the maple-fretboard version, but I'm not really convinced that whether a strat fretboard is maple or rosewood affects the tone, at least not as much as other factors.

I ditched 'em for a $25 set of MIM standard strat pups. I'm not totally happy with the MIM standards, especially the neck seems a little thin, but they're way better than the Vintage "Toneless" pickups that came with the guitar.

The output was about the same as the standard MIM single coils. Mostly I use them with modified Peavey Classic 30. Using these for mostly funk /blues/soul.

They sounded great in the store, but on the gig, they just didn't cut it.

I like a nice snappy clear tone for funk rhythm and palm muting parts, but I like a nice juicy singing neck pup lead for soloing. Unfortunately, these didn't do it. In overall frequency, they were close the the standard single-coils, maybe a tad more upper midrange. The tonal "balance" was pretty close to standard single coil. Actually, the #4 and #2 positions weren't too bad, having an okay quack. Even the bridge pup wasn't bad and sounded a little tele-like.

All that aside though, they sounded awful. No matter what I did, they had a brittle harshness to the tone. Every sound in every position, at every pickup height, came with an icepick. It was like an over-scooped humbucker. There was always a touch of "thuk" to the sound. If I wanted "thuk," I'd get stacked pups or humbuckers.

I'd pick up this guitar on a gig, and it was like somebody laid an egg onstage. I'd futz with the amp over and over trying to get some juice, life and sparkle out of them, and I just couldn't do it.

I tried raising them, lowering them, a dime's width, an nickel's width, two nickels, etc. Sometimes it would help a little, but they still sounded like nails on a chalkboard -- Harsh, biting and brittle -- Especially on the neck pup. I just could not get a useable neck pup sound. The #4 wasn't too bad, but as soon as the neck was by itself it was like someone farted onstage. Even the #1-#4 positions, while not terrible, still suffered from some kind of lifelessness. No matter what I did, they never sat right in the overall mix and band balance. One second they'd be too quiet, next, they'd be tearing your ears off. Complete lack of bloom to the notes: They'd start off a okay except for a little "thuk," and then maybe 100 milleseconds after the initial attack they'd turn into a thin harsh grating sustain. They might have sustain, but it's sustaining such wretched frequencies that you wish it would stop. No singing, no bloom, nuthin' but brittle harsh thin ugliness.

These might be good for someone playing an arena with 10,000 or more people. In that case, the lack of hum would probably be more important than the tone, and the size of the venue might ameliorate the biting harshness. Besides, once a venue gets too big, it's all the soundman anyways. Or maybe if you were doing a TV spot or talk show band, in which case the lack of hum would be far more crucial than the tone quality. However, in a nightclub or tavern, or normal small gig, these just sucked. I'd get all set to dive into a singing solo, flip on the neck pup, and it was like someone let the air out of my tires.

The standard MIM strat single-coil set sounded way better. Not perfect, as they had some hum and they're still a bit icepick

If they were destroyed or stolen, I'd be sad that I no longer had them to sell on eBay. Truth is, I probably wouldn't even notice, since they just sit in a box in a closet. Once I took them out of the guitar, I've never wanted to put them back.

I've been playing like 35 years or something. I make my living doing it at the moment, though that could all change next week.

I've been through enough gear to finance a third-world country, so I think I've got a pretty good perspective. I'm still searching for the perfect tone -- and of course different gigs need a different tone -- but these weren't even in the ballpark: Harsh, sterile, lifeless, never sat in the mix right. I'd happily take the 60-cycle hum back than. I'd rather be forced to stay in the noiseless humbucking #4 or #2 position with some real single-coils than have to listen to these.

A good, well-shielded guitar and single-coil pickup shouldn't hum too badly in most situations. In this case, it wasn't worth the tone sacrifice to lose the hum.

Single coil stacked for noiseless capability. I got the cream tinted covers.

Frankenstrat home custom built, had some stock single coils that were to tinny and bitey. Replaced the whole set because of the 60-cycle noise and trebley tone.

Output is about 75% of the stock pups and sound good. I only had to boost the compression about 10% to get a good even volume and tone is very good at this level. Boss pedals are used into a Peavey VK 212 amp. All pre direct to input one no effects loop used. The tone is a little bit lacking on the bass but the mids and highs are smooth and level. I did not change the pots or capacitance, I used the stock Fender configuration with the 250k pots. The only change I think I would make is to change all the pots to 500k. I use the bright switch or on another amp it would be your prescence to boost the highs and you know this is just fine. The pickups are adjusted to about 1/8 of an inch above the pickguard, much more and the magnetic pull restricts the string vibration and then I see why some people would say the pup is lifeless. Lower the pickups and you will have the nice Fendery "quackability" without the noise. Too many people have complained but I think they either expect the pickup to play metal or don't know their amp or are just too lazy to seek out at good tone from this fine pickup. I think the user needs to really tweak the pickups to get good tone but it is worth your time and effort to get to the sweet-spot with this particular pickup.

I would buy them again, much better than stock and better than the SCN. If I would do it again I might buy the Jeff Beck HOT set but this is very well suited to my classic hard rock and blues philanderings.

Passive stacked coil pickup, didn't check the impedance. Kit includes new pots, and capacitor for tone controls.

A friend of mine has these, when purchased they went into an American standard strat, now they are in a 50th Anniversary strat. they relpaced the stock pickups both times. We swap guitars a couple times a month, just to play with different toys.

Comparing them in tonal refrence to the following; Rio Grande Tallboys, Fender; tex-mex, 60's Classic, 50's Classic, American standard early 90's, American standard 2004, 57 japanese re-issue, Lace Sensors.

The output is less than you would expect from a dual coil pickup, toying around with them with a couple different 808 tube screamers (Ri and UE300) and a FulldriveII 10th ann. into a Fender modern two channel all tube "Twin Amp"

Very clear and defined. More focused on high-mids and highs; than lows or a "round" sound. Never heard a Fender pickup with great lows, and these still don't have great lows, but good tight lows, and good lows is progress for Fender! The mids and highs are VERY good, not as smooth and chimey as I would expect from fender. Cuts/blends clearly through the overdrives, good sustain.

Best Fender pickup I've ever heard, very impressed for the company they are coming from, would recommend them over Lace Sensors (or anything else from Fender).

I've been playing for 11 years, and I probably would not buy these. Not to say they aren't great for someone else. The owner of the guitar loves them, and I can see why. For the money they are a pretty good buy, not boutique; R.G., Torres, or Fralin, but probably the best regular production pickups to come from Fender in a long time.

single coil,passive

Installed on '06 MIM strat. Replaced the loud [but lacking tone] OEM pickups. I play mainly classic rock and blues-rock, and I wanted that Clapton / Buddy Guy sound.

They sound mellow, but have more output than you would expect. [they put out 9.3k on my multimeter] Tone is very balanced, slight bias toward mid and treble. I'm running through a Vox ad30vt at home, and a Carvin 100 watt combo on stage. They sound best through the Carvin. I probably not use these for metal [even though we play a Metalica cover and it sounds pretty good]

If they were stolen I would buy the same set up again. I have been playing over 11 years. I play in a blues-rock trio and a four piece alt-metal band. I own a Fender MIM strat, an Ibanez sz320 and rg321. For amps I have a '01 Carvin SX200, Vox AC30VT, '66 Fender Princeton Reverb, and a Ibanez TB15

HB-Pickup, passive

They are installed original in my American DLX Strat. I made a litle mod on neck and middle pickup. I gave them a middle tap to play them as singlecoil using the tonepot's to dial them into single when the pot is full open (10) and humbucking at 9. Its not easy to solder a middletap in a pickup. You can easyly destroy the pickup!!!

The output at single coil is greater than in humbucking mode. I play a Fender HotRod-DLX with Jensen C12N and mostly JJ-tubes. My music has a spectrum from classic rock to crunge, ballards, blues, rap, funky, etc.. The variaty of the single coil sounds perfects my needs in many ways. The neck PU in singlecoil fits perfect for SRV or funk and even rap. All over strong sound without being edgy on top. My second Favorite sound is Neck PU in Singlecoil with Middle PU in humbucking. Great fo picking Ballards, sounds nearly accustic with sparkling highs and fat botton. I also like the screaming distortionsound of the bridge PU and the good control of feedback on both bridge and middle PU.

The orginal sound of th noiseless is a little bit boring if you play clean but the humbucking PU's a great for distortred sounds and very quite. Mostly the sounds fit into the music. In ohter ways I use a sloped in Korg AX3000G for effects or one Marshall sound. I'am happy with my equipment.

Single-coil sized and voiced stacxked humbuckers. Direct replacement for Strat p/us. You already know this of course.

Guitar in question is a 2006 MIM rosewood board Strat, modified as follows: Callaham block and saddles, tremsetter. Set up with 11-49 Fender 150 strings, 8 thou relief, action 1mm all strings at 17th fret. These p/us replaced the stock MIM ones.
Stock MIM pickups surprised me. High output, and not too bad through a pignose, but they didn't like any valve amp I put them through as soon as I turned up a bit(motorboating noises when changing p/u, squealing, hum as loud as the guitar, getting worse and worse as the amp turns up. And that's at just over "playing in the kitchen" volumes. Never tried the MIM pickups at gigging volume - the idea's to awful to think about.

Amps used either a Fender Bassman (1961 tolex head into original cab with 2x12" Jensens or a Laney LC15, with a T-Rex Tremster and Fender re-issue valve reverb between guitar and amp can you guess I play surf alot?). That's basically it as far as effects go. The MIM is a spare guitar, main one's a fairly battered 1963 Strat I've had for nearly 30 years.

Vintage noiseless are indeed noiseless. Output is respectable - less than MIM stock pickups and slightly higher than my pre-CBS (athough the magnets will have weakened over time - a 40 year old pickup is unlikely to sound how it did when new). Tone is surprisingly similar to preCBS, and as well as clean they give good Hendrix, Buddy Guy and Clapton types of tone and work fine with a RAT or Muff.

Those complaining about a brittle sound - throw away the 1M pots these come with and stick to a standard Strat 250K volume/tone setup. Cures the insane highs and smooths things out properly and results in a very "vintage strat" sound, nicely hollowed out.

Remember that in the 1950s/early 60s what we'd regard as a pretty heavy set (12-54 anyone?)of strings was the norm. No 8s or 9s - it you wanted a 10 use a banjo 5th string etc. So the amount of metal in the strings was greater hence the pickup output was higher than with typical modern light strings and not as bright or zingy. Have a listen to Dick Dale and consider his string gauges and then wonder why the fuse wire you use for strings can't get near his tone...

I'd happily use these pickups again. Curiosity was one motive for buying them (that and I oculdn't source any 54s or Fat 50s at a sensible price at the time).

humbucking no noise

'84 jap strat

output about same as stock with out the buzz. use them with both tube and solid state amps. a little brighter than stock-that's good, my old sc's were dull.

IMHO I would not go with the 500k pots-tried it and they're way too biting. Went back to 250k in a heartbeat. They are pretty good if you spend some time finding the sweet spot in height. Found my tone with the bridge and neck @ 4/32", and the middle @ 6/32", this gives me great, smooth slick tone on each, and surprising quack in positions 2 and 4. Also, lose the parrallel trble cap/resitor on the volume control. Kinman's series setup works much better with 250k pots(kinman.com-perfect guitar-tone workshop. Enjoy.

Vintage Noisless PU's from Fender. Covers are Vintage cream color with Noiseless inscribed on each PU. PU are wax potted even the wires have a hint of wax coating on them. according to the box the magnets are ALNICO type magnets that are beveled to reduce noise. PU DC resistance is 9.8K Included in the kit are 3 1Meg ohm controls, 1 specifically for volume the other 2 for Tone. Also included is a green CAP of some plastic film variety (mylar, polyester?) and a mica CAP and resistor.

These went into my MIM 2006 Strat with the upgraded Tremolo bridge. The stock ceramic magnet type coils are really hot but on the one note no harmonics type, in other words no tone.

I play mostly Blues and Jazz with some classic rock, I consider myself mostly a lifelong student and not a performing musician by any sense. I do know tone and know when it sounds right when being played.

My taste in axes is more traditional,, Strat, Tele, LP and I own veriations of each model. Most of my guitars have replacement PU's in them except for my Nashville Teles. All my other Teles have Torres and DiMarzio PUs in them and sound wonderful. I also have a Strat with Torres Blues PUs with BluesKaster plate that sounds wonderful also. All these PU's are not noiseless and to be honest with noise supresssors, sheilding and better cabling, noise gets supressed rather well though some HUM goes thru. The Fender PUs are NOISELESS even with distortion and without. Very little noise, hum, or buzzing is heard with these. Even more quiet than a hummy, Fender did an admirable job with these. While these PU's do not sound HOT, they actually are, having an even frequency response gives one the impression these have reduced output when infact they are mellow sounding. They drive the amp into distortion quite easily. Being noiseless and/or HOT is not the most important quality for a PU but TONE is!!. These babies have it! That wonderful Vintage Tone, very close to the Torres PU in terms of clarity, sheen, balanced frequency response, harmonic bloom. The Torres PU is only SLIGHTLY better in these catagories. AND the Fender is truley noiseless no need for noise supressor or bitch'in cables! in other words the noiseless quality to these is just the icing on the cake to its wonderful tone.

As you can tell I really like this PU set. My ear for TONE has gotten finicky thru the years so these are on my short list of must haves. This was not always the case for the Fender noiseless PU. A few years ago I purchased a set that had a 500K Volume and 250K tone controls in the kit. I was not happy at all with the results and trashed the set. For some odd reason I decided to try them again esp. with the 1Meg controls. AWESOME! 10++

Installation FYI......................
Installing any PU kit requires a certian amount of soldering skill, the ablity to reconize where connections go and what certian electronic components do and how they would interact. That said, I de-installed the old PUS, stock POTs and wiring. Only the stock switch remained. I tried to de-solder the wires on the stock switch and found the wires wrapped around each terminal making it almost impossible to desolder without ruining the switch.. Instead of risking tearing up the switch and buying another one, I decided to leave the existing wiries inplace with 2" leads from each terminal. All that was needed was to trap the particular PU wire to the switch wire lead, then solder and tape. This made life much easier, it also saved in the cost of a new switch. I wired everything up as per the wiring diagram. What the diagram did not mention what the MICA cap and resistor was for. My guess is these two make up an RC network across the Volume control to allow some high frequency bleed when the Vloume is turned down. These were not installed though the Torre Volume Kit was installed to perform this function. also installed is copper foiling covering most of the pickguard.

Noiseless double wound single coil look pickups. Specs: see product info.

1994 Mexican Stratocaster, replaced original pickups which sounded muddy to me.

Output is much better than original pickups with much clearer tone and definietly no hum! I am very pleased. I think it made my mexistrat sound better than an american standard and more like a deluxe player strat. If you mod the same guitar,, you need to get the diagram for the Cor-tek 5 position switch which doesn't look like the switch on the diagram that comes with the pickup set. Fender will give you the cor-tek switch diagram as well as an improved wiring diagram ,, just email the customer service...

I would replace these if lost or stolen,,, I have played as a hobbyist for 30 years. I have also a Les Paul Studio, A martin 000-15, a Washburn travel guitar, an anniversary Telecaster, and a Classical guitar. I would highly recommend this 3 pickup set, but only recommend self wiring if you have some prior experience with electronics kits, etc,, as I did.

Singlecoil shape with a dummy coil to "buck the hum". ALNICO V magnets, what makes them sound very different from the ceramic "Hot Noiseless" in the Fender Jeff Beck-Strat.

Guitar: Rockinger Strat, self-built
Position: neck - middle - bridge
These are the pickups I put in the guitar when I built it.
Artists: Eric Clapton

Output level: maybe slightly hotter than stock Fenders
Amps: Rack system with Peavey Rockmaster, ENGL 530 Tube preamp, Roland GP-100 and A Peavey Classic 50/50 slave.
Tone: Pretty Stratish, but not totally vintage sounding. I consider them to be very versatile. If You are NOT looking for the warmest sparkle of Your life, with super dynamics and bell-like tone, BUT for a modern, "working Strat"-sound without noise, these are just the ones to look for. If other players experience noise problems, I am positive that their wiring or their pickups must be damaged. If they are not broken, these PUs produce less noise than a humbucker - which they do in my guitar. To me, they do not sound to brittle or harsh - and Im used to humbuckers. I think they sound pretty warm for the brightness they have. As You may have noticed: I love their sound - and I used the stock 1meg-pots. By the way - You should try using a (push-pull)switch for serial wiring! As someone else wrote: I gladly sacrifice the last 3 % of sound for getting away with the noise. I simply cannot enjoy the best Strat-sound in the world if it is infected with humming and hissing...
Style I play: Blues, Hard Rock, Metal.
Very good for all of these styles, as long as You don't expect them to sound like a full-size HB. Very articulate even at gain levels You could never reach with humming standard singlecoils, because Your amp would blow up due to massive 60-cycle-output.And by the way: the Rockmaster produces ridiculous amounts of gain. The CRUNCH channel has more gain than a recto! (Don't try the Ultra channel with full gain and pulled boost switch...)

If they were destroyed or stolen I would always try something else, because that's how I am... But in the end, I could well enough use 'em again.

I have been playing for 25 years now and I got like ten guitars or so (A self-built Warmoth mahogany/quilt top Strat with Duncan Pearly Gates, Washburn Nuno Bettencourt, Squier Stagemaster Deluxe with an SD Custom and a Dimarzio SCHB, Gibson Les Paul Studio, Fender HM Strat and Celtic Showmaster..., all pretty modified to my liking.

Loves: Total absence of noise and hum IF properly installed, and a sound pretty close to good single-coils, and the price tag, compared to Dimarzios and Duncans - thats why I give them an overall 10 for value for money!
Hates: None, but I would like them to have more output and a tad more mids. Sadly the "Hot Noiseless" sound very different due to their ceramic magnets.

Pickup features: Single Coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Nashville Tele (Mexican Tele)
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Neck & Bridge
Other pickups on guitar: Middle Pick Up
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s):
Reason for pickup change: Newer Country, Golden Oldies 50's thru 70's Blues, & Southern Gospel.

Perceived output level:
Tone: Clean, & Crisp on Bridge PU., Plenty of Drive for distortion. Mellow for blues with nice bottoms & mids.
Sonic evaluation: Nashville Tele w/ the following upgrades: Gotoh locking tuners. Fender vintage noiseless PU in neck & bridge positions. Fender noieless strat PU in mid position.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Modern Country, 50's - 70's Golden Oldies & Rock, Blues, & Southern Gospel. All 3 PU's suitable for all of those styles.

Comments: Would definitely replace all 3 of these if lost or stolen. Been playing 48 yrs. Yes, I'm an old fart, but I recognize and appreciate good tone, and always have! Nothing about this setup that I DON't like! This is what Fender shoud have installed from the plant, even if they had raised the price $150, it's well worth it! I hated the 60 cycle hum in the Texas Specials that came stock, and the vintage tuners suck BIG TIME! I bought the guitar new @ GC in Houston for $419 and with the locking tuners & noiseless PU set-up, I've got approx $600 bucks in it. The tone and feel now make it worth about $800 - $900 which I wouldn't take for it. So what if it says MIM, the tone and playability are what counts, right? Anyone out there have a Nash Tele that they really like, but can't keep in tune, and hate the 60 cycle hum like I did, this is the 2 moves you need to make. Yopu won't regret it. You oughta here this thing going thru a Boss ME50 and a Fender Twin! It's straight out of tone heaven I'm saying!

Pickup features: Stacked Single Coil
Impedence or other specs: around 10K

Model of guitar or bass: Fender American Standard Strat
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Fender American Standard
Other pickups on guitar: Was all stock now all Vintage Noisless
Artists using this pickup: Not Me
You musical style(s): 70's and 80's metal
Reason for pickup change: Work done in shop for a customer

Perceived output level: these are hotter output than the stock pickups, but the magnets don't have as much pull so it balances out
Tone: Terrific tone. Very close to the Fender '54 pickups I have in my Jackson PS-7
Sonic evaluation: Using a Line 6 Duoverb 1/2 Stack. Spider II, Peavey Delta Blues. These are all around great sounding pickups

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I have a lot of sounds available through different amps. This is a very versatile guitar. Dosn't crunch like my Rhoads, but can cover anything

Comments: Here's my problum with this pickup. The quality of construction, workmanship is absolutly terrible. All the solder joints are cold. The covers are specific to these pickups, you can't put others on there. The neck pickup had wire hanging out of the lower coil. These pickups use good wire and magnets and sound great, but I just can't understand the construction. Looks like a 12 year old wound the coils and put them together.

Pickup features:
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: American Standard Stratocaster
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: stock pickups
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): 60's and 70's rock, blues, soul
Reason for pickup change: My house has serious ground issues and the noise from the stock pickups was intolerable.

Perceived output level: about the same as stock possibly lower
Tone: initially somewhat lacklustre but still strat like
Sonic evaluation: I play either straight to a Fender Blues Deluxe. When I first plugged it in my heart sank, these pickups seemed to have no sparkle, depth, life whatever you want to call it. I had lost the noise but also any kind of musical tone. They just sounded lifeless and clunky. But after doing some tweaking with the pickup height and the eq settings on the amp I was able to coax some tones out of it that actually started to pull me out of the depths of my despair. The biggest difference I found was in plugging into the number 2 input on the amp, lower output but it seemed to add more tonal depth. It seemed that I was either finding them too muddy if I backed off the treble or too shrill if I boosted the treble. Once I changed the input this was less of an issue.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I play rhythm guitar in a 60s-70s rock and blues band, The strat tone is essential for this kind of stuff and I would say these pickups with some tweaking can do the job just fine. With the stock pickups position 1,3,5 were unusable due to the noise so what I may have lost in tone I have gained in variety. I'm still torn whether this is a worthwhile trade off and I'm considering buying another strat to nail that vintage single coil sound even if I'm limited to the hum-cancelling positions.

Comments: I've been playing for about 30 years but I'm no guitar slinger. I own a Les Paul Studio, a Rickenbacker 330 and a Cort Jim Triggs hollowbody, playing through a Fender Blues Deluxe or a 70s silverface Fender Champ. For effects I have a Yamaha DG Stomp but its a tone sucker for the most part, useful for some overdrive, delay, tremolo though. These pickups deliver on the noiseless aspect, but I think they sacrifice some of the sparkle of real single coil strat pickups.

Pickup features: Single Coil, Passive
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender MIM Strat
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock mexican
Other pickups on guitar: None
Artists using this pickup: Clapton, Jeff beck
You musical style(s): Blues, Rock
Reason for pickup change: Std Stock Mexican just didn't cut it. Wanted to upgrade to a better sound, and better pots!

Perceived output level: Slightly more than stock
Tone: Pretty well balanced
Sonic evaluation: Using Fender MIM and Ultimate Chorus DSP. Sound is excellent. Crisp for clean, blusey for crunch. Best of all, chords now sound clear. Definite improvement of stock p/ups

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Great for Blues and Rock, use almost all positions except Middle.

Comments: If these were lost or stolen, I would certainly entertain the thouht of buying them again. I have read a lot of evaluations here on HC about these, some loving them, some hating them, and it is easy to see why. These are very touchy, strong magnets, and tricky to put in. First thing, if you don't know anything about electronics and soldering, let someone who does know put these in....it's worth it.
Secondly, the technician offered me two options on installing these, one, being to only wire the bridge p/up for sound and not tone, adding a bit more balls to it, and the second, wiring for tone, but sacificing some volume. I chose the second option and am glad I did, because these pick-ups due tend to sound a bit brighter, especially on the bridge pick-up. Lastly, and most important----set these very low, my suggestion is just over the plate. This is what makes the difference in sounding harsh, to sounding musical. With this, they are noiseless, and have a great sound. Not sure if vintage or not, being I never one, but sounds great to me. The mexican electronics and p/ups weren't bad, except you had to set everything at 10 on the guitar otherwise you got a muffled, almost waffled sound, and a terrible hum. These sing, and if you set them right, you'll probably be please. For those of you whom think of these as hunk of junks, try this out and see if you notice a change. Made a huge difference to me.

Pickup features: single coil
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: custom made solidbody, hard tail bridge, lefthanded headstock ( I am righthanded), natural finish,... a great one!
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Seymour Duncan Vintage Flat
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: a lot of people
You musical style(s): freestyle, rock, pop, funk, blues, world, ethno, new age, jazz, rock, reggae, some latin...
Reason for pickup change: like everyone - I wanted no hum.

Perceived output level: for output level see other reviews. Vintage noiseless PUs are slightly deeper in size than a normal single coil.
Tone: vintage, balanced to trebly.very nice.
Sonic evaluation: I have an old Music Man, 64 watts, 2 x 10" spkrs. For concerts and recordings I rent a 1964 Twin Reverb with JBL speakers, the one that mr. Eric Clapton has been collecting as far as I know. I play with a RAT distortion, a bunch of Electro-Harmonix and BOSS pedals, eventualy a Tech 21 TRI AC for more control. As a whole I tend to be a vintage sound lover even if I have to use modern tones here and there. These PUs work fine - very good response (dynamics), no hum, well ballanced.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: I believe this pick up is already a standard for vintage tone without hum. It is suitable for all positions and for any style you would play with the old stock, noisy pick ups, that you are probably fed up with.

Comments: I have been playing the guitar since I was twelve.I have played with many bands, many types of music.
World never stops and thanks God! I love these pick ups, but I would try ANYTHING that comes with the description "vintage tone without the hum"
At this point these are the best to my taste of what I have heard.

Pickup features: Single coil
Impedence or other specs: Noiseless

Model of guitar or bass:
Position: neck
Pickup being replaced: Fender mex-strat stock
Other pickups on guitar: Mighty Mite P-90 (neck)
Artists using this pickup: I think Clapton used them for a while.
You musical style(s): Rock, Jazz
Reason for pickup change: Had some extra cash, decided to upgrade. Cheaper than buying a new guitar.

Perceived output level: Slightly less than American standard, but hardly noticeable
Tone: Sounds a lot like Lace gold, with more output and balls.
Sonic evaluation: Strat => bunch of effects => Fender PA135 (vintage tube PA) => 2x12 16ohm cab.
The amp has a crystal clear clean tone (even with volume maxed), the rest of the sounds depends on the pickups. For the cleanest of the clean you pretty much can't do better than noiseless single coils.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Rock, Progressive rock, Jazz

Comments: For single coil guitars, I would only use either these or P-90s. For a normal strat setup, I wouldn't play anything other than the Fender Vintage Noiseless. Perfect output, rich tone, and absolutely no hum. I haven't really played this guitar through many solid state amps, but I imagine it would sound fine. I have a feeling that they were meant for serious tube-tone fanatics like myself.

Pickup features: Lipstick and Bridge Stacked Noiseless
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: MIM Telecaster
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: Stock MIM Telecaster
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Various
Reason for pickup change: Wanted "Noiseless Technology"

Perceived output level: Hotter then stock
Tone: Smooth Sounding Lipstick, great tone. Neck still twangy but can sound metal when boosted
Sonic evaluation: Hand Made High Octane, with a Emminence Red Fang

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Rock, Southern Rock, Funk Dance

Comments: Got a set of these, put both in, and it sounded great. Two weeks later, dead bridge pickup. Bought another one since the place would not take a return on the installed pickup. Ordered antoher one in, Prior to soldering in, tested resistance,... Infinite. WTF. Two bad bridge pickups. Had to open up to see what was wrong.
Let me just say it was all too clear when you looked at it closely, The winding wire, is smaller than a human hair, and enamel coated. The failure really lies in the the shotty winding, which on both bridge pickups were spilling out over the guides, with visable loose strands, even with potted wax.
The method for fixing it to a terminal is insane, winding it around the edge and soldering in.... would work, but since the wire is enamal coated, it increases the chance for failure, you can see the solder not gripping the wire.
Though the lipstick is definately worth 44 bucks, the bridge, is a crappy product. I don't know if they changed some process and place which the pickup is now made, but it sucks.
One bad install yeah maybe my fault, but two? nope, besides you can see the shotty design, the windings from the upper stack have no recess, so it just goes over the center partition on the outside, at the same location you have to squeeze rubber tube for a spring like fit. Its bad design and poor quality. Hope the lipstick holds out....

Pickup features: stacked single coil, 2 wires only, all same magnetic pole.
Impedence or other specs: about 4.85k ish per coil, 2 coils stacked wired in series.

Model of guitar or bass: Handmade alder strat copy
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: SSH configuration, all coils 6.2k.
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Don't care. That doesn't influence my decision making process.
You musical style(s): I play everything. I tend toward bluesy things on this guitar.
Reason for pickup change: The 6.2k single coils sounded great but got sick of the noise.

Perceived output level: Don't cause my rack overload indicator to trip that means fairly low output.
Tone: All positions are edgy, lack bass, no warmth, all three 'ice pick' with gain.
Sonic evaluation: I have all sorts of handmade combo and rack equipment. The rack is in the studio so I tend to test there where the environment is controlled.
I have a set of Tom Anderson SD series on my Ash strat. Those pickups sound incredible except I always wanted just a little more edge to them.
These pickups are the opposite. All they have is edge. These might work great for a player in a band with a bunch of Gibsons. These will cut through!
I wired these up per the schematic (though the copy was so bad thank god I didn't have to follow it). Mine had a 220k resistor and 680pf cap across the two hot leads on the 500k volume pot. That's an amazingly bright cap choice for pickups that are already too edgy. I put a lighter cap in but still am not happy. Working on that.
My rack tube setup has a 'crunch' channel to die for. These pickups work best in that mode though the neck and middle have a nasty drop-out that someone else has described as a compressed feel. I know what that reviewer was describing now. I find myself using the tone controls to take out some ice-pick in the neck and middle pickups.
Never really liked the bridge position pickup on the Anderson SD set. I like the bridge pickup in this set in crunch mode. That's when I want that ice-pick edge.
They are thin and boring clean. Very dissappointed in the 2 position. 4 is ok. I can't play this setup clean -- no character to the tone.
Dissappointed that the pickups are two wire only and the neck and middle are the same pickup polarity. If there were four wires and the middle was opposite polarity, the top coils could be turned on in positions 2 and 4 by themselves and still be hum cancelling. That might help out positions 2 and 4.
The magnets worry me. I am afraid they might pull the iron out of my blood! When I loosen the strings, they attach themselves to the pickup magnets like those wrecking yard magnetic cranes.
On a more serious note, the magnets are so strong, I could not intonate the guitar! The magnetic pull made the low-E 'wobble' funny enough that the intonation/tuning analyzer could not lock onto the low-E. I screwed the pickups into the body as far as they would go and they still acted funny. I had to put a piece of metal across the neck and middle position pickups and use the bridge pickup so I could intonate the guitar. This is of serious concern to me.
The pickups are poorly made. I was glad to see they were potted but the wax was all over the pickup covers. The magnets are staggered but not consistantly between the three pickups. I am debating about playing with the magnet heights. I have a feeling these pickup would be helped out by pushing them all into the pickup a little.
I find these pickups of no use without a preamp to increase the output. The same is true for the Tom Anderson's mentioned above.
I use the first transistor circuit from the circuit in the Eric Clapton signature strat. I built that preamp off schematic on the net and put it in an old wha pedal. I don't find the mid-boost circuit useful but the first stage still has a gain of around 4. That extra gain restores the level to something more typical/usable. Note that the original schematic has treble boost on the first stage. I put a switch in to turn that on and off. I leave it off with these pickups.
I haven't tried the 250k pots like some have suggested in other reviews. It makes sense that a little load that takes out some of the edge might appeal to many people. I am debating about trying to find the original Fender TBX tone control. Fender stopped using them in favor of no-load tone controls that open when the pot is turned all the way up. Again, a little load might help tame these pickups.
I keep thinking these should have a few more windings

Comments: I have been playing for 35 years. I build my own equipement (guitars and amps) as a hobbiest. I play mainly in my home studio. I play my own music and am not trying to sound like any one else. I am just interested in anything that sounds good to me. I don't care if it sounds like 'so-and-so' or if it sounds 'vintage' or whatever.
I am, at this time, unimpressed with these pickups but I have not given up. They are completely different than my Tom Anderson setup and that might be good since I don't need duplicate instruments.
These pickups have already taken more effort than I had hoped but I will continue to 'tweak' them.
They are relatively cost-effective compared to other name brand pickups of this type. I am not afraid to do 'unholy' experiments on them! ;-)
I definitely would not buy these again but I am not so mad that I am going to get rid of them just yet.

Pickup features: Stacked humbucking, passive
Impedence or other specs: 9.8 kOhm

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Stratocaster '62 specs
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: None, since I assembled the guitar myself from parts
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup:
You musical style(s): Rock, funk, jazzrock, classical
Reason for pickup change: Only because I got these in a bargain deal

Perceived output level: A little hotter than normal Strat output
Tone: On this guitar they sound very clear and open, well balanced with a bit more bass than usual from a Strat
Sonic evaluation: Self assembled '62 type Strat, very lightweight body, maple neck with rosewood fretboard, Kluson type machineheads, standard tremolo unit with a small lightweight block beneath.
I run it through an old Ibanez PT5 floorboard which has a great Tub Screamer built in. Works faster than warming up my old Boogie ;-)

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: This pickup sounds well in all positions in my perception, clean or distorted. I can play just about any style with them, slightly distorted I get that nice EvH brown sound

Comments: If it were stolen I would certainly look for some others although I doubt I would buy them new, they're pricy! I like the fact that (although I shielded this Strat very thoroughly) it's completely silent, even when I don't touch ground.
I am very satisfied with what they do, it makes this guitar sound very much like the perfect Strat to me so no reason to swap them.

Pickup features: single without hum noise
Impedence or other specs:

Model of guitar or bass: Fender Stratocaster American Standard
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: All
Other pickups on guitar:
Artists using this pickup: Don't know
You musical style(s): zepellin-kravitz
Reason for pickup change: Remove hum noise on position 1 3 and 6 and try to experiment something new

Perceived output level: in position 1 i preceive more gain
Tone: middy-bassy! with much more mid in position 1
Sonic evaluation: FENDER STRATOCASTER WITH MARSHALL JCM 900 COMBO

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable:

Comments: THE HUM NOISE WAS REMOVED IN A 92% REALLY!! ITS AMAZING, THE SOUND IS VERY CLEAN, I DON'T LIKE THAT VERY MUCH, THAT DEPENDS THE SOUND EVERYONE LIKES, ITS SOUND MORE LIKE CLAPTON STYLE, I PREFER MORE A JIMMY PAGE SOUND. WARNING!! AFTER INSERT THE MICS DON'T FORGET TO PUT MUCH FAR FROM STRING BECAUSE THESE MAGNETS HAS MORE POWER THAN THE ORIGINALS, FAR AND CLOSE WILL CHANGE THE SOUND FROM THE DAY TO THE THE NIGHT

Pickup features: Single Coil, passive
Impedence or other specs: not sure

Model of guitar or bass: 2000 American Stratocaster
Position: all positions
Pickup being replaced: All
Other pickups on guitar: non
Artists using this pickup: not sure
You musical style(s): Alternative Rock, Blues, Jazz
Reason for pickup change: Wanted to kill Hum

Perceived output level: Same for all positions except the bridge. The bridge is weaker than the other positions.
Tone: Overrall very good. Not too different from a regular set of American Standards. The Neck and the Center both sound excellent. The problems are with the Neck/Center, Center/Bridge, and Bridge pickups positions. the Neck/CEnter and Center/Bridge do kill the hum. However they do have a stale tone in comparison to say, a Texas Special or a American Standard pickup. I was very unimpressed with the tone of the Center/Bridge position. It sounds weak. The output of the bridge pickup is very weak also. The output is significantly weaker compared to the other 4 positions. When bridge gives great lead sound when cranked but it sounds weak when clean.
Sonic evaluation: I use a Fender Cyber-twin Half Stack. I'm not a big effects guitarist but I do LOVE the tone and reverb that the Cyber-Twin gives. I only use two pedals. 1). Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and 2). Boss Compressor Sustain pedal.

For which styles and positions is this pickup (un)suitable: Blues-based stuff. Mostly Alt. Rock (radiohead, Pink Floyd, U2). But I am also a huge fan of Blues (Eric Clapton, Robin Trower, SRV). These pickups are great for killing hum. They are noiseless that is for sure. The tone is simply not as good as other pickups. That's why I am switiching to Rio Grande's.

Comments: I would recommend these to anyone who hates Hum. I do and that's why I bought the pickups. They do work as they're described. However the tone is a bit weak. If the tone was just as good or better than regular American stds than I would give them a 9 or 10 but they aren't. These pickups are great but not the best.