Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I bought these little pieces of heaven as part of a refinishing project over the summer I bought a used Squier Strat, threw out the electronics and tuners first of all. I stripped the dark blue finish that was layed on pretty thick and choked the tone. I tinted the body and headstock slightly and applied an ultra thin satin nitrocellulose coat. It resonates so much that it makes a haunting sound even when you play it unplugged. The stock pickups were noisy, and very weak and bad sounding. So I put in these pickups (with the help of a guitar repairsman to make sure everything was in place) and set them right, and set the guitar intonation and action correctly (I use all nickel strings for a warmer sound), and BAM! this cheap little guitar became a work of art. The pickups sound so articulate and glassy, and suprisingly can get a good amount of quality distortion through my Micro Cube. These are more than I had hoped for, and have made my guitar playing even better. I cannot recomend these enough for any single coil pickup guitar

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I bought these to put on my Strat and it came with very confusing instructions. I eventually just got fed up with it and took my guitar and the pickups to have them installed professionally. Although when I got the guitar back it sounded great. The only thing I regret is not trying a guitar with the Hot Noiseless Pickups on it first.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I was pretty displeased with the sound of my new MIM strat. The ceramic pickups were extremely harsh sounding to the extent that it was painful to my ears. Since I love the MIM strat, I purchased these vintage pickups and I am incredibly impressed with the tone. I play through a Blues Junior most of the time and the thing that immediately struck me was the beautiful clear bell tone and natural harmonics. The made my guitar sound like a custom shop model. I am sure that some of the other reviewers may have gotten a bad batch or something, as I couldn't imagine a better tone from a pickup. The only caveat is that the wires are not long enough for the neck pickup to comfortably reach the switch. On that pickup, I actually had splice it with the existing wire. I am no electrical engineer, but it worked fine. Not sure why Fender wouldn't provide longer wires. Overall though, these pickups are remarkable. I would say that I am a blues/classic rock player and that I consider the pickups to match this style.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I bought a squire strat and soon figuerd out that the pickups in it were worthless so I bought these lifesavers and popped them in and bam, the guitar played great. I would reccomend these pickups to anyone who wants clean razor sharp tone at a low price. the only bad thing about the pickups are that the instructions are not very good and diffucult to understand.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I recently bought these and put them in my Standard Stratocaster, all I can say is WOW! no more noise. I play through a Fender Champion 600 Reissue and this sounds amazing, they have slightly more gaint han my stock pickups and no more noise. They do lose some of the single coil chime that you heard a lot from SRV, so for Texas Blues I wouldnt use them, but for that Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck sound they are perfect. I even use them to play some Progressive Hard Rock like Rush, they can handle Distortion well. My only complaint lies with the Directions, Im good with electronics, but someone who isn't might get confused as it does not tell you to ground to the tremolo claw and body cavity from the volume pot. They also dont tell you where to put the .01cap and the resistor (btw, it goes on the center and left lugs of the volume pot, if you need to see go look at the data sheets of the American Deluxe Strat)

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I bought these pickups to replace the ones in my squire affinity strat. They are a huge inprovement over my original pickups. They sound really great they really added tone and fullness to ny instrument, they were not too difficult to install, not many directions just a a wiring diagram it would have been nice to have a little more details about the wiring. I made it through O.K. These pickups do have a hum on my instrument I do not know if it is something I did during installing them or not, Maybe it is my instrument but they seem to picking up static from off of my pickguard. I am going to try and shield my pickguard. But overall I am pleased with these pickups they were a great improvement in my instrument it is like I have a whole new guitar. I would recomend these pickups for there great tone, the controls pots are a great added bonus with this set.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I received the Fender Vintage Noiseless P/U set and started to install them on the new Strat pickguard I purchased. I noticed right away one p/u was wired with a black/yellow pair of wires vs. the other two with black/white wires. The diagram sent with the p/u set doesn't point out where the black/yellow wired p/u goes. I went to the Fender website and looked up the wiring diagram for the American Standard Strat. (it uses the same p/u's) This diagram is in color and shows the black/yellow wired p/u is the bridge p/u. I also noticed that the p/u wires on all three p/u's are the same length. This means which ever p/u you put in the neck position is too far from the switch for the wires to reach. The bridge p/u needs its white wire to be about two inches longer to get routed properly and reach the switch. I spoke to Fender Customer Relations and the set is being sent back.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

These pickups sound terrible. Its like taking a standard Strat, and turning the tone knob all the way down. THERE'S NO TONE IN THESE PICKUPS!!!!!!!!!! That's basically all there is to it. Yeah, they may get rid of the hum but at what a price. All you have to do to get rid of the hum is put your hands on your instrument. Its not like you're going to be playing with your hands off it. If you want a Fender sound DO NOT BUY THESE. If you want a Gibson sound DO NOT BUY THESE. If you want a Fender trying to sound like a Gibson BUY THESE.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

After some painstaking research and being a big fan of Clapton, I went with the Vintage Noiseless over Lace Sensor Golds. IMO, the Golds sound some what artificial. I swapped these with some recently added TX specials on an almost new Amer. Standard Strat w/maple neck. I believe TX specials sound better on a rosewood neck (another project). The 1st issue; I realized that the wiring diagram that came with my set is NOT accurate. There were 2 capacitors/resistors that came in the box, that were not in the diagram. Luckily I was able to find a diagram that included them via google images which remedied that. Second; I did NOT use the (2) 1 MEG, and 500k volume pot that came in the package, but rather opted for the 250k pots (all 3) that were already in my Strat (highly recommend by many others) And the yellow wire is for the bridge p/u (also not noted in the diagram). VERDICT: absolutely amazing; crystal clear bell tone, silky highs, punchy mids, and warm lows. And hum canceling is an understatement! After using TX specials for so many years, the lack of hum is almost creepy, but well appreciated. Overall, the tone is warm, silky, and lucid, with a pinch of twang. Note articulation and separation is outstanding �ۡ����your unique attack will flourish beyond what stock pickups can offer. Paired with a TS9, they really came alive! Slow dirty blues, rock/blues, and classic rock tone possibilities suddenly become very obvious, all with a nano bite of hum. The bridge pickup is a bit lacking and thin, however a bridge plate should provide for a wider/fatter sound. The covers are aged white with gold lettering which adds a hit of its own vintage flavor. If you want �ۡ��̏white�ۡ�ݕ�_ covers, I believe you will have to buy the ones that are sold individually. Installation time was about an hour, including the online searching. Little soldering skills needed. All in all; I am very satisfied with the product (not so much with Fender) and highly recommend them for anyone seriously looking for a noiseless vintage tone and/or their own �ۡ��̏woman tone.�ۡ�ݕ�_

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

To begin your experience with pro caliber vintage pickups have them professionally installed. They come with propper pots, wiring, and a little bag of screws and washers that discouraged me from attempting to install them. Once installed they are disgustingly sweet. One can tell right away that it brings warmth, presence, overtones when you want them, and best of all no noise. One other thing that I did notice was that it might of lost a little bass, but one can make adjustments on the amp or mixer. If your looking for something that will compliment your tube amp these are for you.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

These pickups sound great. Only flaw is they are really low output, which is sorta annoying. They have a nice classic strat sound. Great for blues and classic rock. These pickups + the fender mid boost is great!

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

Installed these in my Strat copy (Lotus) and I can't believe the difference they make. The potentiometers are a nice bonus with these pickups as the original parts in my guitar were all very much less substantial. The instructions were less than thorough but with some extra reading around the internet, and looking at how my original hardware was wired and installed, made the whole install fairly straight forward - and this was the first time I've even picked up a soldering iron. I'm in love all over again with my guitar!

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I recently installed these on my 30 year old strat. Are they truly noiseless? Well let's just say they are noticeably better on that front, but not as quiet as my les paul. Still a tad of hum but only when I take my hands off the strings. So somehow I'm providing a ground or something while I'm playing the guitar. The tone is really the good news. Even if they didn't reduce noise at all they would have been a huge improvement. Sweet, clean, bell-like chime of a vintage strat! Each pickup has a true sound of its own. The out of phase positions really stand out as well. Quite a nice full well rounded sound. Lots of sustain, lots of nuance, lots of variety, especially with the new tone controls. They truly are a great part of the new sound as well. They roll off real slow giving so much more control. I would have never imagined that this new pic-up set was going to improve the sound this much. My Vintage tube amp has a bold new sound as well. This guitar somehow works through both channels so much better than before. I was happy with the clean channel in the past, but when I would switch to the overdrive channel it would just sound like I gave up tone for crunch. Not any more. This is really cool! How does it compare to my Les Paul? I think I need new pickups for my Les Paul. So thanks Fender for really getting it right. The only issue is installation needs to be done by someone who really knows what they are doing, the wiring diagram is hard to read, and not all the extra electronics are easily identified by the novice. I have experience with this sort of thing but I still got expert help and am glad I did. You need to install everything, not just wire in the pickups.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

THESE PICKUPS ARE TRULY GREAT. NOISELESS AND CLEAN.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

Awful, output is so low everything needs to be cranked up past 11, at which point ALL the noise comes back, as well as catching the occasional BBC radio-broadcast. Was looking for the Pickups in the Jeff Beck Strats and bought these by mistake thinking they were the same thing, they're not.

Ever since I put these in, playing my guitar through an amp has become an uphill battle. I used to be in a band and these pickups turned a good guitar into the guitar everyone else wished I would leave at home. Anyway, these are going on Craigslist and I'm going with a set of CS Fat 50s.

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I don't know why poeple talk trash avout these pickups. The enclosed pots really help open up the souns.

I upgraded them further with a TBX tone and Clapton mid-boost. It gives me a great variety of tones, and no boise!

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

This pickups completely changed the sound of my guitar for the better.
The sound is amazing and very unique

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

These pickups are great for a distorted sound. They don't get muddy and are silent not one buzz or hum. I gave it a 4 because when clean it is quiet compared to my tex mex. but the benifet of it being quieter is that you can drive a tube amp a bit harder with out the volume and this pickup is gorgeous on a tube. If you have a tube amp and are not afraid to play dirty BUY THESE. With solid state you won't be as satisfied but they are still better than stock

Comments about Fender Vintage Noiseless Strat Pickup Set:

I replaced the stock pickups in my Squier "Classic Vibe" 60s strat with these after playing a high end strat that used them in a Guitar Center. After finding out that the set was only around $200 it seemed like a no-brainer. I certainly don't regret the change. There was nothing wrong with the originals, but I don't miss the 60 cycle hum a bit, and they maintain a lot of the clarity of the original pickups without the noise. They sound a little "thicker", but they still sound like a strat, and I'm digging them. I also appreciate the newer circuitry that allows pulling down the volume control without losing a lot of the high-end. Overall, recommended.