I've got this Custom Shop Strat that I'd like refit with new pickups.
The pickups on this particular model are hummy and noisy... why
they didn't put their noiseless on here I'll never know.

I'm looking for clean tones... Brit-Pop style.

Really would appreciate your informed opinions on all the options
out there.

thanks

Joe Barden is making pickups again...I'm going to pop a set of those in one of my strats soon.

The new samarian cobalt fender noiseless pickups are supposed to be good, but generally I don't mind a little noise...

tv

I put a set of Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails in my Yamaha Strat clone, mostly just to get rid of the noise/hum/RF susceptibility/etc, but I've been really happy with the improvement in tone they offer too. Classic "glassy" clean Strat sounds, plenty of sparkle & twang.

I'm sorry, I don't want to come across nasty but there shouldn't be a problem with sticking to single coils. THAT is where the strats true sound lies, if that is what you want - the sound of a strat.

Seriously, do you really think Fender are going to put their stacked "Noiseless" design in every guitar they build? The cobult ones are "ok" but don't expect them to sound like a classic 50's or 60's strat.

And as for noise - are you standing in front of a computer monitor? Seriously though, they're not THAT noisy are they? All my guitars have single coils and I never hear hum on tape. Go listen to some old records - do you hear single coil hum on "Sultans of Swing", "September Gurls", "Heaven knows I'm miserable now" or anything off The Wall etc etc.

As I said, I'm not being nasty - I just think it's a shame to potentially comprimise the sound of your guitar due to a little hum which will probably not be a problem.

I upgraded my 70s reissued Strat to Fender Hot Noiseless pickups..
They sound good, but not that different from the stock pickups in my humble opinion.. (I never really did an A/B test, but I didnt notice any big improvement when I got the guitar back from the upgrades)

The cool thing is that you can give it a LOT of overdrive without any noise.. It solves that problem for sure.

I've used the Bardens...they are pretty bright but quite as a church mouse...my strat right now has a pair of Carvin (yeah, I know) blade style in front and mid, with a Duncan 52 tele pup in the rear....

I'm heading out today to see if I can find some EMGs...they really are good pups, and nearly impossible to make hum....

Lindy Fralin's for incredible vintage tone. I can live with a little bit of hum for sound that good.

break out the black and decker router
open up the cavity to fit a trusty old PAF pro
and witness the real tone................

Yeah. I like my strats to sound like strats. Years ago I had some stacked pickups in one, tried it for a while, then went back to the singles.

But that's just me. If you want to try something different, there's plenty out there. I'm sure everyone will chime in with their fav..

Replaced Duncan stacked PUs with Van Zandts. Killer tone. I also have the shielded paint in the cavity to knock noise down. In general they are pretty darn quiet. Wired the pots for Vol, Tone, and Blender. The blender wiring lets me add in the bridge PU to "most" other settings. This gives Neck and Bridge together for a pretty tele"ish" sound.

YMMV
-Lee

Don't forget the Aussie noiseless wonders Kinman. (AVn series). I'm saving up for some!

They are supposed to be superior to the Fender Noiseless, and use authentic materials in the construction.

Doesn't Hank Marvin use them? If so, that's one heck of an endorsement!

PS there's loads of great info on Kinman's website

PS I understand that David Gilmour uses the Kinman Woodstock p/ups!

Shielding the internal cavities of your Strat will help some. At least some of the Cstom Shop Strats have no shielding whatsoever, in keeping true to the original specs. If you really love the tone of single-coil pickups, I would not recommend the stacked coils, they just don't capture the bell-like highs like single-coils can.

An expensive solution to dramatically lessen the noise in Strat-type guitars is this system that is licensed by Suhr guitars.

http://www.suhrguitars.com/pickups.aspx#bpssc

I have not personally used this (its on my wish list), but from what I've read on the net, it really works.

You know Nuekoln, I think you've have a point. When IS it really going to make a
difference to tape? Almost never.

I had asked a friend of mine a few years back about the hum of the single coils; asked if that was some part of a 'vintage sound' that was sought after. He replied in the negative. I think now that he probably has a minority view on that subject (or that he was just wrong).

I just did a little digging around in the documentation that came with this Custom Shop wonder and found that the pickups on this Strat (1960 reissue) are Van Zandts. The neck is the Blues model, the mid is the True Vintage model and the Bridge is the rock model. Anyone else use these? Their website says they're all custom hand-wound pick-ups. Go figure.

thanks for all the replies...

Rue

Nothing beats the John Suhr 60s model. I owned the seymour duncan antiquity (thin) and tried all of the Lindy Fralin versions (too bright). The suhr is perfect.

Just in case you havn't already been to this site

Van Zandts