Strat pups

  • Thread starter Thread starter ggunn
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Dunno about the Kinmans, but I spent a LOT of time chasing "noiseless" with Strats back when I played them. None of the pickups I tried could really get the clarity of pure single-coils. I eventually settled with Dimarzio Virtual Vintage, which were okay, but still not really it.

But I recently played a Strat copy with the new Fender Noiseless pickups, and was pretty much blown away. It sounded like a STRAT!!! And no hum. They didn't seem to have the lower-mid blandness that seems to be the curse of stacked-humbucker designs. But you could try the Kinmans... they do have a very good reputation.

My solution was to stop playing Strats. :D I now play a Gibson Blueshawk with Dimarzio Virtual P90 and DLX pickups. It's dead silent and gives me an enormous variety of beautiful tones. It's especially good at the fat jazz clean thing, and meaty 1970s rock tones (think Tull, early Black Sabbath, etc). It's an extremely versatile guitar.
 
If you do a search over at the fender forum, you will get all the info you want about the kinman pickups:

http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html

I have the new noiseless pickups in my 2000 Collector's Edition Strat. Great vintage tone without the hum.
 
I have a set of kinman's i use in a room witha 21" CRT monitor and they made a ton of difference ... and to me the tone if anything was improved beyond what the strat (american version) came with - also outdid the 5/62 RI's as well for me..
 
Kinnmans are great pickups. Very nice and probably the best noiseless pu's made, IMO. Their expensive and now you have to order direct from Australia.
 
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ggunn -Check your PM - I have a set of Kinman's available if interested.
 
Kinman's are great. Your going to have a hard time going wrong with them. They don't sound as good as a set of really great REAL single coils (at least, not if you want that single coil sound), but they are as close as you will get in a PUP which is quiet.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Kinman's are great. Your going to have a hard time going wrong with them. They don't sound as good as a set of really great REAL single coils (at least, not if you want that single coil sound), but they are as close as you will get in a PUP which is quiet.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
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Hmmmm. Are you saying that they won't sound as good as the (mostly) stock pups in my '61 Strat? The noise is not that big a deal; I play mostly in the #2 position and my (not stock but as close as I could find) bridge pup is RWRP. I do want that single coil sound (yeah, I know, the #2 position is technically a dual coil sound); I play mostly clean.
 
ggunn said:
Hmmmm. Are you saying that they won't sound as good as the (mostly) stock pups in my '61 Strat? The noise is not that big a deal; I play mostly in the #2 position and my (not stock but as close as I could find) bridge pup is RWRP. I do want that single coil sound (yeah, I know, the #2 position is technically a dual coil sound); I play mostly clean.
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They will sound different. It's up to you if that is a good thing or not.

They are very close, though.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
They don't sound as good as a set of really great REAL single coils (at least, not if you want that single coil sound), but they are as close as you will get in a PUP which is quiet.
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Hey Light, what would you consider as a set of really "great" single coils?

I'm thinking about changing the pups in my American Strat. I can't really say there is something I don't like about the tone, I just want to experiment. I love John Frusciante's tone and would consider that my ideal "Strat tone."

I took your advice on humbuckers (SD pearly gates and alnico) and have been very happy with those. So any advice would be appreciated...

Sorry for the hijack...
 
the kinmans sound great....
but are really expensive.

you owe it to yourself, to check out the Bill Lawrence line.

got em loaded in two of my guitars now, and i ain't stoppin' there.
 
Scottgman said:
Hey Light, what would you consider as a set of really "great" single coils?

I'm thinking about changing the pups in my American Strat. I can't really say there is something I don't like about the tone, I just want to experiment. I love John Frusciante's tone and would consider that my ideal "Strat tone."

I took your advice on humbuckers (SD pearly gates and alnico) and have been very happy with those. So any advice would be appreciated...

Sorry for the hijack...
Click to expand...


The best? Lindy Fralin makes fantastic pickups. Call him up and tell him what kind of stuff you do, and he'll make a good recomendation.

Beyond that, I don't actually use many single coils. My Strat has Hot Rails, and I like them a lot. They have a lot of that Strat brilliance, but with a bit more balls. Also, the way I have them wired the in between possitions split coils so they are just like on a normal Strat.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
GONZO-X said:
the kinmans sound great....
but are really expensive.

you owe it to yourself, to check out the Bill Lawrence line.

got em loaded in two of my guitars now, and i ain't stoppin' there.
Click to expand...
I have a Bill Lawrence P-Bass replacement and it is brilliant, I also have the 450-Ls and they are good but were not exactly what I wanted but they are really good so I have stuck with them. And I believe Bill Lawrence makes PU's for Fender now.
 
I've got a guitar with the Bill Lawrence SCN pups in.
Sounds great to me :)
 
I think Kidmans and Fralines are great pickups.

Fralines are pricey IMO.

For half the price of Fralines you can get Fender 57/62 reissue pickups (vintage style single coils)
I have yet to find a pickup that sounds better than the 57/62 reissues. They have all the chime and quack you could ask for in a single coil pickup....and if you turn up and dig in with you right hand they will scream.

I have one on my '66 strat and I absolutly love it.

Here is how my strat is setup:
texas special on the neck position (adjusted down very low on the pickguard.
57/62 reissue in the middle position (adjusted a tad bit higher than the texas special)
original '66 strat pickup on the bridge.

This is a killer setup!
All pickups on my guitar sound good, but, I stay on the middle pickup most of the time...It just sounds so good I hate to switch to another!

The main thing is to not have the pickup magnets too close to the strings....this ruins your tone. I have adjusted texas specials way down on the pickguard, for friends of mine who were going to buy better sounding pickups, and they were blown away by how good their current pickups sounded when adjusted down away from the strings.
This is crucial!

By the way, I don't care for stacked humbuckers....single coils have tonal qualities that humbucker designs don't duplicate. The stacked humbucker designs are closer...but no cigar IMO.

The hum is just part of the vibe man!
 
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