Fralins? Duncans? Harmonic Designs? Fender?
Let's hear your opinions...
Fralins? Duncans? Harmonic Designs? Fender?
Let's hear your opinions...
I've been hearing Velvet Hammer S1's and S2's quite a bit recently (I have an S1 in the neck of my Tele, for that matter). Very clean, warm, beautiful.
I heard that if you put Rio Grandes in a Squire it would sound just like a Strat. :rofl
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
From Fender I like the Custom Shop 54`s, and the Time Machine Series pickups. I also like Fralin`s Vintage Hots with the base plate on the bridge pickup. Antiquities are nice if you like a warmer sound, as they are a slightly hotter pickup and they use alnico II magnets instead of V`s, according to my Antiquity booklet.
I'm very happy with the Fralin's I put in my MIJ RI Strat. I have a set of Steel Pole pickups and they are great,very ballsy. I also played a Melancon once with the Fralin Blues set and it was a killer axe.
HTH,
Yoeri
I'm very happy with the '57/'62 pickups in my '57 RI, and also have a SD APSII in it's bridge where the original died.
The G&L AlNiCo pickups are great as well. Very similar to the above mentioned pickups.
Then I have to admit I actually like te gold Lace Sensors in my Clapton and the Gotoh hummers in my G&L Legacy Special.
- Steve "Stratoholic" Kellett
I've been having great experiences with Rios and Van Zandt. The Rios are pure Texas tones, SRV all the way, very meaty. The VZs are very very vintage like pickups. The True Vintage is super glassy, much like Fralins Vintage ones, and the Vintage Plus set is superb, most balanced strat pickup I've ever heard.
The Rio Tallboy are fat and clear, with huge bottom, while the Muy Grande is all about power, very fat but not overly hot.
The Halfbreed is somewhat lost between these two, I personally don't like them. They are too midrangey for my tastes.
Fralins are also nice, don't own them but played couple of times.
Felipe Nacif
Another vote for the Van Zandts. I have em in a G&L Legacy and they are great sounding pickups. Definitely more on the vintage side.
I also have a set of Fender Custom Shop '54 Pickups in my Fender Strat. Really not too bad, but I like the Van Zandts better.
This has been a famous mortimer production
I was going to buy Fralins for my '57 reissue, I think it is an '83, and a guitar tech told me to try the new Fender 57/62's with the beveled magnets. I resisted say that I had used the 57's a long time ago, that was what came on the guitar, and that I wanted something good. He said that Fender had redesigned them and they were really high quality pickups. Plus I could get them for $90 a set. I said what the heck and installed them. They are really good sounding pickups. I've probably had 7 or 8 different sets of pickups in this guitar over the years and these really sound the best. The middle isn't RW/RP and that bugs me occasionally, but the tone is there. I haven't had any desire to swap them out and I've been using them for about a year now.
It was quite a nice surprise. I'm glad he talked me into getting them.
I really like the Custom '54's from fender, and the fat '50's.
For non-fender brands, you can't beat Antiquities and Fralin's
Jason
The Bear Guy
. . .or "Frankenstrats", as I call them. When it comes to Gibsons, I think the more vintage the better - as close to 1959 as possible. When it comes to Fenders, I think you're throwing money into the wind going vintage. Having said that, I tried three sets of the Lindy Fralins for my three Mules - Vintage Hots & Vintage Hot "Underwound", both with bassplates on the Bridge, and Blues Specials, also with a Bassplate. All three have 5-Way "Megaswitches", wired so that the middle position gives you the neck & bridge pickup combination (a very "Tele" sound). I'm VERY happy with the two "Vintage Hot" iterations - the jury is out on the Blues Specials - one day I like 'em, next day I don't. . .I had a set of Fender "Vintage Noiseless" too - those are pretty damned good - I may go back to them in the Blues Special guitar. . .The thing I like about Fenders is that they just BEG for tinkering, and satisfy my urge for same. Since I'm not wrenching on cars or bikes anymore, I wrench on Strats instead! Kinda reminds me of that Jeff Beck Album cover, with the Stratocaster up on the lift. . .I say "Mix & Match" - it's FUN! There's a HUGE parts market on eBay for ANYTHING Stratocaster, so there's obviously a giant subculture of "Strat Tinkerers" out there. Try anything - if you don't like it, you can probably get most/all your money back for that neck, set of pickups, etc. by sticking it on eBay. . .Cheap Thrills!!
I agree with you, Joe. I haven't touched my LP, but I have happily turned my Fender into a Bastardocaster.
This has been a famous mortimer production
George Gruhn's written an article in VG recently addressing the issue of "vintage Fenders". His big concern is the ease of tinkering. Therefore, authenticating vintage Fenders can be difficult, especially in the day of "aging".
My '97 Cunetto Relic has the '54 Reissues. They are wicked.
.......... from the Land of Gibson
If you guys think Jim Rolph's PAFs are close to the real deal, you should hear his Strat (and Tele) pickups.
My shop Strat (a '60) has a set of Rolph '56s in it. I like them better than the stock pickups which ended up in the parts box.
I have tried them all, Rolph gets my vote for most authentic sound and look. In fact, after I saw my first Rolph singlecoil, I got very scared and immediately stopped considering buying even one more "vintage" Strat pickup on ebay. After many years of repairing vintage Fenders, I can not tell the Rolphs from real old Fenders by looking at them. I had to mark mine with a Sharpie to make sure I know what they are among the rest of my pickups.
hogy
That's a pretty thought provoking article, BTW...Originally posted by hank
George Gruhn's written an article in VG recently addressing the issue of "vintage Fenders". His big concern is the ease of tinkering. Therefore, authenticating vintage Fenders can be difficult, especially in the day of "aging".
My '97 Cunetto Relic has the '54 Reissues. They are wicked.
Jason
The Bear Guy
I'm more of a Tele guy, but since both of my Teles have Strat pickups (one of them has two!), I'll cast my vote for Bill Lawrence's L-280/L-290 series. They're noiseless, to my ear deliver a very refined, versatile, expressive single-coil tone, and cost less than just about any traditional single-coil other than (discounted) Fenders. When it comes to single-coils, I think the Fender '57/'62s sound every bit as good and "vintage" as any of the pricier clones, so I guess I just don't get the appeal of Fralin, Von Zandt, Rolph, etc. unless it's customer service or some sort of mystical "mojo" factor. Ymmv, of course! :-)
Had the Kinmans and liked 'em at first, but then when compared to true single coils. they just don't sound as good. No hum though.
Had the Fralins too - nice and clear, but a bit too well manored for my tastes.
Tried Van Zandts - these are pretty cool.
Actually my favorites, were the Fender pickups, but not the standard Delta Tone pickups. I actually liked the Texas Specials, but sometimes they can be a bit too much, but the tone is excellent.
Honestly, I hated every bridge single coil I tried. If I were to get another Strat, I'd probably put something else in the bridge.
My vote is for the 57/62's that came in my '57 R.I. Strat. Great tone. I have a set of '69 CS in another strat, but I don't think they are anywhere near as good.
Someone said they like the Time Machine pups. Care to elaborate a bit? I'm planning on getting a '56 Time Machine soon, and would like to know if anyone has any input regarding the pups they are putting in those.
I've had the Kinman AVn-Blues in my '97 Am Std Strat for four years and they fill the bill for my playing needs.
All the mentioned pups are good but each with a slightly different flavor.
Hammer on......Blair
1st Choice: John Suhr V-60's.
2nd Choice: Van Zandt Vintage Plus.
PAF's ? ;-)/
Drumbeater,
Recently, in ToneQuest Report, Ronnie Earl said that he has retired his vintage Strats and now uses the current model Relics. He states, "But when I`m out now I`m playing Relics, and think Fender did a really good job of making them feel old, and they sound good. I can`t tell the difference." Pretty good praise!! Anyways, the Time Machine Series pickups that I`ve had all seem to have a d.c. resistance reading around 5.9k to 6.0k. They don`t have a rw/rp middle and the sets are not calibrated, just like in the old ones. They are put in the guitars without any concern for the d.c. resistance readings. Sometimes, by accident, one may actually be calibrated. So you end up with each guitar sounding slightly different. I had one guitar where one of the pickups read only .01 different than the other two, both of which read exactly the same!! So basically all three had the same readings. I think that the pickups have nice clear lows, and the highs aren`t too piercing. If you like a guitar with calibrated pickups and a rw/rp middle, you may not like them. But you won`t get those options on an original vintage Strat either. So many choices!!
Last edited by MK.II; 07-26-2002 at 12:13 PM.
For Fender pickups my favs are the new design 57/62ri pickups.
What Fender did was take a 63 Strat pickup and clone it except its not scatter wound like the originals.
The Fat 50's are also nice as are the 69 CS models.
Fralins sound the best to me. The Vintage Hots are nice but I like the 5% underwound versions of the Vintage hots like Callaham has wound for him. Those have the glassy tone and sound like Little Wing on the neck pickup.
The Van Zandts are also good more of a blues tone less glass and shimmer than the Fralins.
The Lawrence 280's are nice for jazz and clean stuff they have a real hi-fi sound that isnt colored at all but to my ears they dont sound like strat pickups not much quack glass shimmer etc.
The Kinmans are the best noiseless pickups in my opinion cause they retain the signature single coil sound that the Lawrence Bardens or Fender noiseless ones loose. But the tradeoff is they are very expensive.
Rolph and Peter Florance Voodoo pickups are also very good they arent as well known as the others but make a high quality super accurate vintage pickup.
I have installed the Fralins in about 8 Strats some ASH some Alder some poplar and they sounded great in all of them the Fender pickups are very sensitive to body wood types they sound very thin in a poplar body and ash you usually need the Alder body to thicken up the tone a little.
I've been really happy lately with Rio Grandes and Vasn Zandts. The Rio's are nice n' hot and the VZ's drip with vintage vibe. I like Fralins too, but I don't currently have a Strat using them. Got 'em in a Tele though.
When did Fender rework the 57/62's?
I've got a set of Fralin "Woodstock '69's" that are just awesome sounding pickups. They sound equally beautiful clean or distorted.
The new design 57/62 ones have beveled/polished pole pieces same wire size and coating as the originals 5.6k but machine not hand wound like the originals 1963 thats the real only difference.
They introduced these in at the same time they re-worked the specs on the 57/62ri late 1999-2000 more accurate fret markers thinner more acurate body contours and also a more correct headstock shape. Thats when these new design pickups were introduced. They are killer. Only complaint the middle isnt rwrp so you dont get totally silent 2-4 positions but they sound great in an Alder body Strat.
Last edited by Marcondo; 07-26-2002 at 01:41 PM.
I think that maybe today with all of the replacement pickups available, that a lot of players actually might not like the sound of a good set of original Strat pickups. Many players have never played the real deal, so their ears are calibrated to whatever kind they`re using. There are so many aftermarket choices claiming to be THE "vintage" Strat tone, yet they all sound sligtly different from the next company`s "vintage" pickups. All of these companies are also making many pickups that intentionally don`t sound vintage, and many players like them too. Some players don`t want their Strats to sound purely vintage. That`s cool too!! It`s all very subjective. All of the aftermarket pickups must be pretty good, because you will eventually meet someone who loves any given brand or model!! It seems that they all sell!! I`m just glad that there are purists that can afford the real deal that still play and record with them, although many Strat sounds that we hear on the radio are not vintage pickups, or not even Strats at all in some cases!! Whatever makes you feel "one" with your guitar is the best pickup for you, IMHO.
Last edited by MK.II; 07-26-2002 at 02:10 PM.
The SD vintage rails sound really good also. Of course this is in a Fat Strat with a Custom 5 in the bridge.
Fralins.
I have them in a restored '57 Strat and they just sound right.
I tried Texas Specials, Duncan vintage Strats and the Custom Shop's '54's and nothing was even close.
I don't know how else to describe them.
Last edited by Don; 07-26-2002 at 07:04 PM.
I like the Fender '60's custom shop pickups in my relic.
Tim C.
unless you wanna spend a ton on the search,the newer 57'62s will get you there,unless noise is an issue.
ive had kinman 56's in my strats since i discovered 'em. i use vintage stagger in neck/mid and flat (no stagger) 62's in the bridge. honestly, i don't think i could go back. they are really wonderful.
Those are a joint effort of Fender Corona R&D and Fender's pickup consultant, none other than Bill Lawrence. BL is the one who rediscovered the original recipe by analyzing and dissecting exceptional old pickups provided to him from Fender's stash.Originally posted by Marcondo
For Fender pickups my favs are the new design 57/62ri pickups.
This is true, except I'm not sure whether the old ones were actually "scatter wound." In any event, hand-guiding the wire during winding has little if any effect compared to mechanical traversing.Originally posted by Marcondo
What Fender did was take a 63 Strat pickup and clone it except its not scatter wound like the originals.
(snip)
I've heard comments like this before, and they usually come from people who haven't used 280s in their own guitars, although I'm not saying this about Marcondo because I obviously don't know. I will say that to my ear positions 2 and 4 of my BL-equipped Nashville have enough "quack" (it's actually more like "twack" or "quang" in position 2 due to the Tele bridge pickup) to divert a flock of migrating mallards, and their high-end response has all the smooth sparkle that was missing from my original "Tex-Mex" pickups and then some!Originally posted by Marcondo
The Lawrence 280's are nice for jazz and clean stuff they have a real hi-fi sound that isnt colored at all but to my ears they dont sound like strat pickups not much quack glass shimmer etc.
Imo, this "don't sound like Strat" opinion is based on a misconception, and I'm surprised to read it coming from someone who knows and likes Fender's '57/'62 pickup! It's true that the L-280 was not designed with so-called "vintage tone" in mind -- BL's intention was simply to make the best-performing noiseless pickup he could within the constraints of the Strat and Tele form factors.
That said, I've personally heard an L-280 directly A/Bed with an actual and imo exceptional '63 Strat pickup and the similaries, using the same guitar and amp settings, *far* outweighed the differences. The 280 didn't hum, of course, and its low magnetism prevented even a hint of "Stratitis" or loss of sustain. The '63 also had just a touch of a scratchy, metallic edge to it, but not nearly as much as modern "vintage" replicas -- including Fralin, Van Zandt, Rolph, etc. -- have, at least to my ear. The L-280 had none of this at all, and I think that's why some people call it "hi-fi." Imo it's a more refined, purer sound than even the every best traditional Fender-style single-coils, but it's a sound you can easily "season" with your playing technique and amp settings to get just about any effect you want, including that touch of scratchy, metallic edge if that's on your personal tone agenda.
As gear fans, over the past 20 years or so we have gotten accustomed to the notion of pickups *defining* our sound for us, a notion reinforced by various "tone gurus" whose names I won't mention here. BL's philosophy is different -- instead of selling you a pickup that shapes and defines your sound for you, he offers a tool that's ideally suited to help you, the player, shape and define your own sound! For that sort of tool you need wide-band output at a relatively low level, low magnetism, and an absence of stray peaks in the response curve -- the sort of quirks that to some of us make a pickup "vintage" or "authentic." The BL idea is to remove as many barriers to tonal versatility as possible, and to my ear and hands he's succeeded like nobody else.
The absence of stray response peaks has another benefit: the L-280 is not only a great upgrade for a fine, acoustically sweet guitar, it also does wonders for a even a typically modest, bright-sounding poplar-bodied MIM. By way of contrast, even the very best Fender and Fender-clone single-coils tend to be quite fussy about body and even neck wood -- a real vintage Fender pickup or a good replica like the '57/'62 tends to need a sweet-sounding guitar to really deliver the goods, in my experience the L-280 delivers in just about any decent guitar.
(snip)
[COLOR=sky blue] Abigail Ybarra in the Fender Custom Shop. I may have missed it in my quick read of this post, but I didn't see any mention of her. She is the one... She wound pickups for Hendrix for heaven's sake! [/COLOR]
Y'all should try her custom shop pickups - they are a work of art.
She's "semi-retired", but still has more experience than anyone on the planet for winding Fender Pickups. She's been there since time began, and now she kind of does whatever she wants...
At the moment, she winds the '69 CS PUP's herself, and oversees the winding on the '54 and 60's.
The 60's are my favorite, BUT they are NOT sold separately, so ya gotta spend about $1,600 for 'em, BUT they throw in a really cool guitar for free
Last edited by bjm007; 07-27-2002 at 10:55 PM.
Don't you know that it's a fool that plays it cool...
I was pretty happy with the TX Specials in my Strats but meanwhile my favorite PU´s are handwound Haeussel Blues (www.haeussel.com).
IMHO they are close if not even better than the Van Zandt and they are easier affordable for me. :-D
Meanwhile I replaced the PU´s in my HR TX Special and the SRV.
cu
bluesfreak
I went to the Nashville NAMM and hung out with Chris Kinman for a while and demoed most of his crop. I also installed a set before NAMM that a customer ordered direct. I gotta say that I'm impressed. I thought they sounded very believable, not compressed at all, not sterile, so if noise is a factor, ie harddisk recording or a generally noisey rig, I'd say go Kinmans...not to slag some of the other folks, but Chris has got it. And his Tele PUs? They're awesome too.
However, I've been using and recommending Fralins since '96 or so. What I really appreciate is that I can talk to Lindy and tell him what I'm looking for, and then he delivers!
One of my favorite Strat things to do is to use a warmer or beefed up PU in the neck and the bridge, but a normal or not overwound PU in the middle. I don't use the middle much alone and the brighter middle gives pos 2 and 4 great "snark".
In response to editorjuno, nothing against the L-280`s, I`m sure that they`re a fine sounding pickup, but I believe that a player that loves the true vintage tone loves it with warts and all. The old pickups had drawbacks, sure, but they had the TONE. That being said, I think that there are many fine pickups being made today that are going to fit somebody`s tastes, whatever that may be. Then we can all be happy with our tone!! G.A.S. anyone???!!!
First off it really depends on what music you're playing, I like the Fat 50's for classic rock and the Texas Specials for the SRV sound. Pup height is a critical part of the equation too.
I definitely understand and pretty much agree! Allow me a little story telling here, from the days when a "vintage" American guitar had to be a pre-WWII Gibson or Martin. I first heard Fender guitars in 1962, when I was a contestant in a folk music contest (I lost to a cowboy-hatted guy from Scarsdale named Don McLean) at a big Disney-clone theme park in New York called "Freedomland," where Fender and the venerable Sam Ash music store chain co-sponsored a tent full of guitars and amps, all shiney, brand new, and very jarring to an acoustic purist like I was back then. A skinny kid was demoing a Strat through a Dual Showman, and what impressed me about that sound wasn't any "grit and grind," but a beautifully clear, bell-like high end, something I'd never really heard before. *That* was the Fender sound that deflated my prejudice against solid-body instruments, and that's still what impresses me about fine "vintage" Fenders.Originally posted by 5758359
In response to editorjuno, nothing against the L-280`s, I`m sure that they`re a fine sounding pickup, but I believe that a player that loves the true vintage tone loves it with warts and all. The old pickups had drawbacks, sure, but they had the TONE. That being said, I think that there are many fine pickups being made today that are going to fit somebody`s tastes, whatever that may be. Then we can all be happy with our tone!! G.A.S. anyone???!!!
Unfortunately, it's very hard to consistently reproduce that sort of performance using the old Fender pickup design, and I think folks have gotten used to more of the scratchy metallic edge than the best early Fenders ever had. To my ear, most of the attempts to clone Leo's best '50s and '60s stuff sound more like the imo much less impressive Fender stuff from the '70s -- to me, that's when the Strat's sound started to get harsher, and the formerly bell-like highs started to sound less musical, almost irritating.
Today, I have two goals from my guitars: to produce a tone that's as good or better than the classic Fenders I heard as a teenaged folky, and to avoid the single-coil hum that kept me from buying a Fender when I finally got into my electric phase a few years down the road -- and I need to accomplish that on a tight budget! BL's philosophy allows me to do it, today's so-called "vintage" mindset doesn't. To each his own -- I'd rather be able to *choose* what "warts," if any, my tone has, ymmv!
Rio Grande Bass Bottom! Try 'em, you'll see what I mean!
The man with magic hands.
I still say that since Abigail Ybarra was winding 'em for Hendrix, she's got my vote... ;)
Don't you know that it's a fool that plays it cool...