I'm looking to pull the VN's out of my CS strat and I've been told that the 54's are the shit.
Any comments?
I'm looking to pull the VN's out of my CS strat and I've been told that the 54's are the shit.
Any comments?
You can never have too
much music in your life.
I really like my Custom 54's. And I have tried out many different vintage style single coils. But they seem to do a lot and are always very sweet sounding while they do it. Even with a lot of distortion, which is mostly how I play.
Here is a recording I made with mine... :cowb
Damn Smark you were Jammin that sounded awesome.
if you want to stay quiet, go with a set of Kinmans. the trad's are similar to the 54's, while the Blues are the SRV $hit kickers.
Another semi-quiet option is the Fender Fat 50s, especially if you have a fairly bright Strat. The Fat 50s middle PUP is RW/RP so positions 2 & 4 are hum cancelling. I believe the Fat 50s neck PUP and the '54 neck PUP are the same or very close. The Fat 50s middle is a bit warmer, and the bridge is a little warmer still, but nothing like the Texas Special bridge PUP.
The Fat 50s that came in my C.S. 58 Strat read 6.1K, 6.2K, & 6.4K ohms vs ~7.0K for a Texas Special bridge PUP. They have beveled magnets and enamel wire just like the '54s. I added the middle PUP tone control to the bridge only position, painted the cavities with shielding paint, and used a '62 RI guard with a NOS full sized shield and it's reasonably quiet.
BTW: I love the sound of these PUPs in ALL 5 positions :) The C.S. '58 has an alder body and a nice big maple neck. Mine's Candy Apple Red with gold hardware - I picked it up on a whim at a really good price when Fender discontinued them and dealers were blowing them out. I've had a bunch of Strats and was never quite happy with any of them - hey I'm a Tele guy ;) This one really floats my boat though :)
Last edited by Teleologist; 09-04-2002 at 02:56 PM.