Illusion Pickups Illusion Pickups 1956 stratocaster reproduction set

In the 6K range very vintage and that is what pedals love!!
High output pickups work the amp well but throw off pedals to being useless.
Besides I like clean and these are clean.

I installed them into my hand built Swamp Ash Stratotele, a Strat hardtail with an Illusion Esquire tele pickup in a Tele bridge.
Middle and neck.

Any body using them? I don't know but they should try.
Let me say this comparing these to GFS pickups is an insult to Scott at Illusion, this guy knows his stuff and will work with you. GFS is an import pickup I have a set of GFS Gray bottom 70's rock stars in my older Srtat and I would say yes for $70.00 a set they are far better than the fenders I had in it, price is the key and thats it. Illusion is upping there prices so I jumped on what was left off Ebay.

Vintage sweet just the right tone.

Hand wired PTP Bonpicker Half/Breed 20 watt 1x12 combo (www.bonepickerguitaramps.com), Budda Verbmaster, Fender 1965 Black face Deluxe Reverb, Fender 1968 Princeton, 2007 Heritage 30 watt Briton 2x12 Combo and a 60's Vox AC-30.

Tone iss close and tight no mud no Ice pick.

Country, Jazz hard rock and blues.

Thes don't do Death or Thrash, just old school Marshall wall of sound stuff maybe.

My taste with tone change like the wind at times but some times the wind stays calm and the sea is like glass at sunset.
I will stick with these untill a shaft of light from the sky points to another sweet single coil pickup, I already have my Humbuckers covered with Jeff's High Order pickups (www.highorderpickups.com), I will never change these out of my Heritage guitars ever.

This particular set of pickups are modeled after a Fender 1956 Stratocaster guitar's pickups. Unlike other manufacturers that claim to make "exact reproductions", this 56' set is to my ears an "exact reproduction". 6.12K Bridge; 6.25K Middle; 6.15 Neck. Illusion Pickups give the inductance of each pickup in Henries as well, where most other manufacturers don't ever divulge this information. The main reason being that a "true vintage" single coil will typically measure 2 - 3 Henries. Values above or below this range are not "true vintage" sounding pickups.

I installed this in my custom surf green strat with AAA flame maple neck. I had a set of Seymour Duncan strat APS-1 pickups in this guitar, and ran across Illusion Pickups on the web. I thought to myself if these guys are for real with what they promise, then their pickups have to be the best secret around. Illusion has a lifetime warranty, 30 day return/exchange, free vintage tone capacitor, vintage covers (on their strat sets). Illusion pickups make Gibson and Fender types of pickups, and they have a MULTITUDE of strat pickup sets from the 50's through the 70's that are modeled from the same circa Fender Stratocasters. These guys make vintage strat pickups the way that Fender should always be making their pickup line however limited it may be. I really liked the compressed sweet tone of the SD APS-1 pups with A2 magnets, but the IP 56' set uses A3 magnets like the original 56's + the .1uF Cornell Dublier phone book cap truly makes this strat come alive tonally.

IP considers the 56' set a hotter set than let's say their 55' set or even the 58' set, but to me the output is standard (6K range). I have the whole gambit of tube amps, and guitar effects however the true test for me was playing them clean initially. Needless to say I was VERY impressed. The whole set shipped to my door (with candy included in the box - What a deal!) came to $106.00 TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE! I've noodled with guitar for many years, and I love to listen to and play along to blues and classic rock. This set of pickups is all things to all players who play country to blues to classic rock. If you're into grunge or extremely distorted tones then you probably don't care about your tone anyway since no one can differentiate your sound from others of the same style. These pickups are for musicians that want to be heard and remembered for their distinctive "vintage tones" Balanced tone across the board. I was even surprised at the .1uF Cornell Dublier tone capacitor that was included, as I'd heard that a .1uF cap typically elicits a somewhat dull/muted tone. In my particular case with my 56' set the .1uF cap allows these pups to "breathe" while providing a more open tone.

From hereon out Illusion Pickups are the strat and tele pups for me. I have used Seymour Duncan pickups for years, and they're just fine, but the Illusion Pickups were NOTICEABLY different and distinguishable from the rest. The only other company that is SOMEWHAT competitive is GFS (typically around $60.00 a set), BUT GFS has inconsistent quality in their pup line, they do not include vintage tone caps, do not have lifetime warranties with a 30 day return or exchange policies. It's clear to see who the true winner is here for price, quality, and the value added perspective.