Help me Pick some Kinmans :)

[WDeranged]

Hi all, recently found this place and decided to sign up, looks like a nice friendly place with a distinct lack of flame wars

I've decided to get some Kinman PUPs for my old Squier, it's a 1994 Korean Strat which is impressively solid (apart from the tuning machines, which are due to be replaced).

My tastes in Strat based music lie mostly in the Gilmour - SRV areas so we're talking smooth and glassy down to rough and twangy.

I love the impact and feel of the pluck you hear on decent strats, i've spent the last few days listening to every sample of Mr Kinman's pickups that i could find and so far my thoughts are


Traditional Mk2 - Lovely semi clean and twangy sounds but i worry they're too thin for my tastes

Blues - Lovely sweet sound, i haven't heard these used with lots of gain yet though, i worry they could be too dark.

Woodstock - Sounds pretty fantastic for the higher gain stuff, lots of pluck, not heard them clean though, heard they aren't that versatile.


I've emailed Kinman but i know he's bogged under with work so i dont expect a reply soon...which sucks because i really want to order some PUPs

Any replies would be appreciated and i'm looking forward to joining in some of the interesting conversations here.

Thanks

WD

[stratcat62]

I've owned Woodstocks and currently have Blues in my Am Deluxe and am very satisfied. Considering that guitar is ash bodied with maple fretboard and inherently bright, I found the Woodstocks were brighter than the Blues. For classic rock, blues and even hard rock I've been very happy with the characteristics of the Blues. Don't know about metal or high gain as I've never tried to get those tones.

[Sage]

Kinman's website states that Gilmour himself bought a set of Woodstocks.

I have a set of Traditional MK II pickups that sound pretty good, but I found them to be a little too sharp to my ears. The attack is very pronounced and I wanted a smoother violin-like sound.

I replaced them with a Blues set, and I found it was a step in the right direction. The "aged" sound of the pickups took the edge off the attack, and the distorted tone is smoother. The trade-off is that the clean sound isn't quite as bright, but I have found that turning up the amp's presence knob can compensate for this. With the Traditionals, I found that even with the presence turned all the way down, they were still too bright. And this is with a .1uf capacitor.

The trouble with the Blues set, however, is that the bridge is way too hot. You might love it if you're really into SRV, but I wanted a more balanced approach. I ended up swapping out the bridge for an AVN-59b (just an AVN-59 configured for the bridge). I absolutely love the results.

[WDeranged]

Thanks for the replies guys, my purchase has been delayed by a massive winter heating bill but i got a reply from Chris.

"When reading my answer bear in mind all my pickups have a large degree of versatility. My Traditional Mk-II set has the most gritty twang, and not too bad at smooth and glassy too. Of course you have to facilitate these different sounds with your amp controls and the way you play to some extent, but shouldn't be too hard to achieve. The next choice is the Woodstock's.

Read the descriptives on my Website and go for the set that has the
most attraction for you. You won't go too far wrong with either set."

Doesn't really clarify things for me but he appears to discount the blues set as suiting my needs.

If only there we're more samples available

WD

[stratcat62]

Don't know why he would discount the Blues, I found them to be a very versatile set. Of course, my Am Deluxe is inherently very bright and the blues may not give the same result with an alder body and rosewood fretboard.