Tonerider City Limits

Tonerider City Limits single coil set for Strat

Mighty Mite ash clear coat body and Warmoth CBS birdseye maple gloss neck partscaster. City Limits single coils full set installed. Replacing GFS Hot Alnico staggered single coil strat set- sounded to generic, did not take to well to overdrive.

6.0k neck, 6.3k mid, 8.7k bridge. Very nicely balanced pickups. Bridge is perfect not to shrill and trebly. A strat bridge pickup I can actually use. All positions sound great. Nice low-end, punchy, just the right amount of mids, and tight highs. Similar to Texas Specials but not as noisy and harsh. I like these much better.
I play through KJ Audio handwired 100watt head (cross between a Marshall plexi and Marshall JMP but more rounder sounding) and mojo 2x12 open back cabinet w/ British Vintage 30Watt speakers (similar to Celestion Heritage 30's).
I play blues, country, hard rock, and anything slide.

I never submitted a review with Harmony Central but I liked these pickups so much I felt I needed to do so. I would definetly buy these again. I build guitars and have installed many pickups. I have also been playing for 25 years any played many different styles of pickups (the never ending quest for tone) these are at the top of my list. I will keep these in my main strat till I die. Great sounding pickup at a great price. I can't wait to install other tonerider pickups.

City Limits single coil set

I wanted the best tones I could get for my project Stratocaster. I built This guitar using a MIM body and hardware, finished it myself in dark blue pearl with white pearloid pickguard, blach PU covers and knobs. I installed the complete City Limits set looking for the best bang for my buck. Now it sounds as good as it looks, I feel I put together the ultimate Strat to suit my playing style.

I liked the True Vintage versions O.K., but wish I had bought two sets of these instead. They were a little tame for my overall playing style. Output is perfect, has an all-out rock sound to get heavy as you want, but also cleans up better than anything I have tried before. Can get great useable sounds in all 5 positions, I plan to utilize them all! Very versatile for the different styles I play in my group. We do mostly Classic rock, mild to heavy and a litte country rock as well. I am about to try the Classic blues versions but I have a feeling they won't be as good either.

I have been playing solid for about 32 years. I have several guitars, I wish these were installed in all single position slots in every one of them! The only other single coil pickup I like similar that I have tried is the Seymour Duncan SSL-1 which is a bit more expensive and only tried it in mid position. If stolen I would buy again but only if I wasn't in jail for beating the thief to death if I found out who did it.

3 single coils, replacing old Fender pups in an 80s Japanese Strat.

The stock pups were OK but a bit weak IMO. Replaced them with Teas Specials but they didnt do it for me at all, a bit harsh especially the bridge. Sold them on Ebay for a profit and then read some good things about the Toneriders and dcided to give them a go.

Definitely louder than the stock and very "strat" like. Comparable in volume to the Texas Specials. I really like the neck pup and use the bridge a lot too. I didnt notice too much more volume gain on the bridge to be honest. Using a Fender Blues Deluxe, Peavey Clasic 212, H+K Tube factor, VOX V847 and Analogman Sunface. A great strat pickup, only con would be a slight squeal with really high volume and gain but its not really a metallers pup anyway.

I would definitely buy these again. Great sounds, as good if not better than Fenders(except for the fat 50s perhaps). way nicer than a set of Kinmans I offloaded recently, just more "real" sounding..I'm playing 20 years and gig 2-3 times a week, every style although "blues/rock" is my fave. Quality of the pups and packaging is top notch. GREAT value for money too.

Single coils; a little on the hot side. Tonerider calls them "scatterwound" rather than overwound.

I installed these in an American Roadhouse Strat. It originally came with Texas Specials, which I took out just to try some different sounds, storing the original pickguard. Well, several moves later and the pickguard got lost, so I bought these to replace it.

The output is similar to the Texas Specials; the bridge is definitely a little hotter, and the neck a tad more mild, but very similar. The neck is what makes this set shine, its fat and round, but clear as a bell. Inevitably these pickups will get compared to Texas Specials, and I think the neck pickup on this set stands out above the Texas Specials I used to have.

The middle pickup is nice, but a little more mid-rangey than I prefer, but I'm being picky. It's still clear like the neck pickup, but it doesn't stay as clear when heavily overdriven. Low and medium gain it still retains its character though.

The bridge pickup is fantastic. I NEVER used the bridge setting with the Texas Specials; it was just too harsh. However, that is not the case with the City Limits. It's clear, hot, a bit in your face but never tiresome to hear. It sounds great clean, overdriven, and distorted. A BIG improvement over the Specials.

I'm using this guitar into a modded Valve Junior head into a 1x12 cab with a Greenback. They complement each other well. I play mostly blues on this guitar, but the pickups are versatile enough for rock, country, things in that vein.

If I were to lose this set, I would but them again. I never liked the Texas Specials enough to say that. I've been playing for about 17 years, and own several other guitars and amps, although this Strat is my personal favorite. I love the sound of these pickups, and there isn't anything I hate about them. They just sound great.

I compared to other brands before buying these; Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, Golden Age, and of course Fender. I settled on these because of the positive reviews here on Harmony Central and because of the great price. I'm glad that I did; I'm not sure this guitar could sound any better than it does now.

Good old fashioned single coils, I'm not a techno freak, but these seem to be wound a little to the hot side.

I put a set of these into a Robert Cray hardtail Strat to replace
some Fender HW1 "hot alinco 3's" which are very much on the hot side and versatile for effects. I really like the HW1's pups, but they are a little flat, monochromatic, something was not there. So I tried these, JACKPOT! All this for $99?!

The output was nearly identical to the originals. I use a Fender Super Champ for home practice, gotta have tubes to really appreciate a fine set of pu's. I play mostly Blues, some rock and gospel, whatever sounds good in the minor pentatonic, ha. These are THE pups for that SRV sound. I have a set of Tonerider Vintage in another guitar, read my review on that. The TR Vintage are akin to Fender CS 69's, the City Limits would match the Texas Specials, well that is just a referential comparison, not even in their wildest dreams can Fender come anywhere near the Toneriders, forget about it. Sorry Abby, we love ya, your pups are brilliant but there is a new kid in town.
These pup's are so musical and alive with textures that you love them more every time you play them. These pups are also as advertised, they really are "versaitle", you can drive these babies with as much distortion, gain whatever, they deliver and maintain their dignity, the beauty shines thru! Read my review on the "Pure vintage' set.
Tonerider! you have my deepest graditude and respect!

I don't know where this company came from or how they did it for the price but they make the finest single coil pups I have ever heard. The product is top drawer, imeccable. I want to get a set of their Blues model, just imagine, 3 Strats each one with a different set of Toneriders, oh man that is heaven. So that's it, no more tone hunting, just riding which is one of the purest forms of Bundini-ism known on this rock called as Earth.

three stratocaster style single coil pickups, late 50s overwound style, which is what SRV was rumored to have in his main axe. since overwound, they're hotter than your standard strat pickup, so be aware that the tone you're going to get is sharper than a stock fender. also, a prime feature is the incredibly small price tag.

i put these into a (probably) 90s squier stratocaster which has subsequently undergone more operations and is now a sexy little tone machine. the stock pickups had that nice single coil punch and crispness when i first bought it, but i soon realized they were weaklings waiting to get eaten alive. i was looking for SRV like tone, and these have helped me in my quest immensely

the neck pickup has got that chunky fatness to it, but it's still sharp and biting. i also raised my pickup a little bit past the standard height to get added attack, and these pickups respond so nicely to my hard pick attack style. the 2 and 4 positions get that really cool quack to it, but the 2nd position (near bridge p'up) has a distinct trebley edge to it. the bridge pickup is super hot, so much so that i had to lower it a little. this is probably a by-product of my having trebles up on my amps, but the tone is killer all the same. these pickups, aside from nailing SRV tone, can pull off all forms of rock (sabbath, floyd, king crimson, wolfmother, among others), and lovely clean tones. my favourite position is the neck p'up with my boss blues driver and ibanez ts-7 tubescreamer driving it hard. simply magnificent.

i've had these in my guitar for over half a year, and the more i play them, the more i love them. i've stacked them up against stock fender parts, and i'll be honest, mine sound better in a squier body than my roomie's 2007 MIM fender (which is a really nice guitar). they're fatter, punchier, and sharper. granted, i play on 12s and my roomie plays on 10s, but the difference is still palpable. considering how modestly priced these babies were, i can't believe how great they sound. hooray to me for finding such a lovely product

Overwound 50's style pick up set for stratocasters with extra hot bridge pick up. Didn't note the impedences before I installed them.

I installed these in a 1996 MIA Fender Strat with a 21 fret neck. I replaced the standard fender set that had friggin bar magnets next to the slugs and were controlled through 300K pots. I love my guitar but the tone always sounded dull and dark. The only really good sound I got out of it was by wiring the neck and bridge pickups in series - which sounded supurb but turned my guitar into a one trick pony. After years of playing along to the stereo and trying out a variety of other peoples (of varying quality) I figured the pups had to go.

What a beautiful set of pick-ups. The output is low-mid powered and certainly gives you plenty of choice when setting the volume level on the guitar. The bridge is still a little wimpy but I accept that it needs to be to keep the mid and higher frequencies pumping. Note separation on all 3 pups is really good and notes/chords really ring out - just like a good strat should. Through the clean channel on my Boogie Nomad all three pups sound clear and crisp and the bridge has a nice bite to it - not quite telecaster style but good none the less. Add some drive and the pups shine, you can still hear the root note through all the distortion - particularly on the mid and bridge YEAH! Sounded good through my pedals too (Fulltone OCD, Boss DS-1, DOD Fuzz FX 52). I only use a 3 way switch on my strat so can't say what the inter-positions sound like.
I love playing al sorts of styles but particularly hard edged electric blues (ah la SRV, Chris Duarte, Rory Galagher, Hendrix) but also 60's - 70's rock, a bit of Grunge, metal and right through to jazz. These pups do really well in all these styles (well not full out balls to the wall metal - but HEY) but really nail that SRV/Hendrix/Galagher sound.

Mate - they sound superb.

When I replaced the pups I also shielded the pick up cavity and pickguard, star grounded the pickups (see guitarnuts .com) put in high quality 220 K pots, Sprague caps and the whole business. I wanted the guitar to sound good. How much of the sound inprovement is due to the pickups? I still reckon heaps.
I listened to strats with: fender noiseless, custom wound, 67/69's etc; Seymour Duncans, Fralins and some I am having trouble remembering. The only other pups I got hard for were the Rio Grande dual calibrated set. The Toneriders are up there with them. $ for $ there was no contest. I felt i could afford the risk at that price. They may be inexpensive but to me, the quality is there - no question.

3 Single coil, overwound... (Neck ~ 5.6 Kohm... Mid ~ 6.4Kohm... Bridge - 9.8Kohm (measured with an old analog multimeter)... Top quality... Not cheapo junk !!

Installed the set in a cheap Squire Strat.. What a world of difference !!

Neck tone is strong... Mid is very versatile... Bridge punches out like SRV...
If you like strong clean tones, this is the set!!

I've been playing for more years than I care to remember... I'll be getting another set for my real Strat.. For the price, these can't be beat !!

Passive single coil strat style, staggered poles, medium output. My old analog meter measured DC between 6.3 and 6.6 for the middle (jumps a bit due to age).

This review is somewhat unique in that it's for a single RW middle pickup (City Limits) installed in a Fender Nashville Deluxe Telecaster. This model Tele has three pickups: A Tex-Mex Tele bridge and neck with a reverse wound Tex-Mex strat pup in the middle. So, in essence, this is Tex Mex with a Tele Twist. The Tex-Mex aren't bad sounding pickups, and are at the same price point as the Toneriders. And there's the rub: do you spend $35-$40 for each Tex-Mex or $33 for Toneriders? It's a no-brainer as soon as you hear the Toneriders. I changed primarily for a better sounding bridge pickup; the Tex-Mex was a bit ice pickish and none of the three pickups had the articulation and tone I wanted from this Tele.

For the money, these simply can't be beat. I paid $33 for a brand new RW-Middle city limits pup when I purchased the Tele Hot classics set of two, and for strat players the set saves you some change. I'd put these in my strat with no hesitation, but I recently installed a set of Bill Lawrence Keystones (even cheaper!); I'll review those soon.

The Tex-Mex this replaced wasn't a bad pickup at all. This Tonerider, however, is a much better pickup. It took about an hour of playing to realize the main difference: balance. This pickup balances beautifully across all six strings and makes running the middle pickup alone an entirely different experience than in the 2/4 positions where I usually engaged it when running the Tex-Mex. A pickup this bright and articulate at this price is amazing.

I play mainly blues and R&B, but I do mix it up; this pickup makes my Tele complete. I would imagine this pup would serve in any position except the bridge -- it's not hot enough.

I compared this with the Fender Tex-Mex it replaced; a BL keystone, mim ceramics, vintage noiseless (toneless, actually), and the cobalt noiseless (pretty nice with a price). The Toneriders, by far, gave me more bang for the buck than any of the above.

Single coils. I think impedances were like 5.6, 6.5, 9.7

Pickups installed in a 2006 Fender Koa Stratocaster. I replaced all 3 of the stock Seymour Duncan's. I found the Duncan's to be too narrow in their tone palette, and the modified pole stagger really under-emphasized the B and E strings.

I should note that the original bridge pup I received had a short. Ralph sent me a replacement, no questions asked, and paid the shipping. Excellent customer service!

The output level is great, and very even across all strings and across all 3 pickups. The modifed pole stagger brings a balance between strings that was missing from the stock pups. I'm also impressed with the breadth of tone across the 3 pups. Each pickup is very distinct and very useable across different tone and volume settings on the guitar. Excellent quack, especially in positions 2 and 4. The bridge is bold with being shrill or ice-pick. I'm very pleased with the sound.

I play through a Mesa Boogie Mark IV, sometimes using a Boss DD-6 delay, modified TS-9 tubescreamer and Vox 847 Wah (both modded by Garmopat). The Strat, Boogie and pedals give me all the sound and tone I could ever ask for! My styles range from blues, classic rock, R&B/rock'n'roll, southern rock, '80's rock and some country. My writing style spans genres, so it's hard to describe. My current gear meets all my needs.

I'm very pleased with the City Limits. They represent a definite improvement over the stock pups. I would be happy to replace them if lost, but I also might be tempted to try something else just for the sake of experimentation. I've been playing for over 30 years, mostly on a Gibson SG and Telecaster (which I traded a '70's Strat for). I bought the Koa as I missed the Strat sound, and it's the only guitar I play anymore, so I was wanted it to sound right. I have no desire to change the toneriders. I'm rating them 10 as they represent a fantastic value and the customer service was excellent!

Set of Single Coils...... passive. Wound 5.7k front, 6.1k on middle and 9.7k on rear ..... as checked by my multimeter.

I put these in an SX stratocaster copy I bought for $100. I hadn't even bothered playing the thing with the standard electrics in it. I pulled out all the cheapo bar magnet junk when I got it. Removed the soft tremelo block and springs and screwed the bridge down as far as it will go. Instant hard-tail. I had to use a chisel on the neck pocket to get it to fit properly. You get the picture .... it's a cheapie ..... but the 3rd grade wood is OK!!!!!

This is my recording guitar, so the pickups were wired directly to the output jack. No volume, no tone control. I need to check if I should put a resistor in to compensate for the volume pot, but it sounds good. My strings are nickel wound 11-49's.

This is an early review. I may add or change bits later.

Output level seems good. I like to use short leads which helps. The set that arrived were lower in resistance than I expected on the front two pickups. I thought (based on previous experience) that the pickups would be too thin, and I would have to send them back. Nuh. I'm happy .......!I didn't expect them to sound as good as they do..... usual internet blah blah and all that.

I use a hard wired amp that I built myself. It's got 2 EL84's running single ended in parallel..... Vintage 30 speaker..... great transformers..... It has full sound, but the amp is missing a little high end sparkle....the OT is wound a little low. Keep meaning to fix that.

I wanted a guitar for that "Strat" sound. This baby has it. In bucketloads. It's just really "stratty" ...... lovely single coil sound on the front, middle and rear. Great strat "out of phase" quack in the between positions. And it's all nicely balanced. The pickups respond well to height adjustments.

These pickups seem good for any clean strat requirement. Clean pop, country, jazz. Nice with light overdrive on the rear pickup. With heavy overdrive, I got loads of feedback and hash. This could be my amp. It's got a high gain front end. But these aren't the choice for heavy rock etc ........

I would happily replace these pickups. Yes, they do sound good. They are simply great value. They have a bit more of the single coil hum curse than I wanted, but I prefer single coil pickups. I probably need to do a better shielding job on the cavity.

I've been playing off and on for about 27 years. I've owned Gibson SG, Fender Stratocaster, Hagstrom, Ovation ...... etc I've heard a range of pickups....

I like the sound of these pickups. They're good. I bought them coz' I heard they were good, economical and I thought they would be a great match for the SX. Two under-rated giant killers.

As I said, I expected the front and middle pickups to be wound a little hotter..... but it turned out these really suit my amp. I'm satisfied and I'm not searching for other pickups. A great allround set of single coil pickups.

Single coil Strat type pickups.

I am replacing a Van Zandt "Rock" bridge pickup and two stock Squier pickups in a deluxe Squier Strat. It was my son's guitar and it had been laying around partially disassembled so I figured it would make a good mule to try some pickups in. Wow! They are very nice. I compared them to the Kinman AVN blues I have in my 50s Classic Strat and in comparison, I thought there was a blanket over the speaker. The Toneriders have that classis sound that no noiseless seems to have gotten yet. The Kinmans are extremely nice but when looking for THAT Strat sound, these have it.

Output is fairly low to medium just like the originals. I would characterize the sound as authentic, crisp, full and surprisingly not noisy. The neck pickup can really nail the SRV sound and the bridge can cut through quite nicely. The in-betweens can get that Robert Cray quack! I have been playing 25 years or so and have been through more guitars and amps than I care to think about. I am playing through a Pignose G40V into a 1-12 cab, a Roland BC60, and a Fender Princeton Chorus. Typically I run a Sparkle Drive for extra grit.

I am planning to buy a set for my 50s Classic Strat to replace the Kinmans. I have a Tonerider humbucker in a Washburn 330 clone and I am installing a set in my Franken-tele. The attention to detail including the cloth wrapped wire puts some of the big name brands to shame! Brad from Tonerider is quick to answer my questions and knows the tone I am talking about. Just a great experience all the way around. I love the fact that they come complete with spacers and all the screws needed. The instructions are also very easy to follow without information you don't need. I found the instructions with Kent Armstrong pups to be some of the worst.

single coil stratocaster pickup set

1987 japanese fender squier "E" series

These pickups have great tone! however this is a honeymoon review so I may change my mind later, but so far so good!! Very clear pure strat tone! This set is very versatile & can go from crystal clear Knopfler sounds, all the way to balls out SRV!! bridge pickup is very tasty & not to "ice pick" ear piercing, great for gritty solos! positions 2 & 4 are classic strat twang, & neck & middle are very sweet sounding to! For the price you cant go wrong! I had kinmans before these, & I have to say the toneriders are up there! The kinmans are noisless & the toneriders do have a bit of "classic" single coil hum, but the kinmans cost $650, so im not complaining at all for $129 for a set of toneriders! I will be shielding the pickguard soon anyway, so that should significantly reduce some of the hum!

I bought these from powerhouse music & technology in Australia, paid online & recieved the pickups two days later! Excellent service, & they were very helpful in answering all my questions before purchasing!!
For the money you cant go wrong with these pickups, I wanted a set of strat pickups with a wide range of tones, & these have delivered so far!