Fender Vintage Noiseless

[mystique1]

Anyone tried these? I have 2 Strats, one with DiMarzio Areas, and the other with Lace Golds. Love how both sound though each is quite different. Just picked up an Am Std Strat for silly money, and want to try some other kind of pups. Any opinions?

[GilmourD]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless

The VNs are definitely less... sparkly sounding than the Areas. I have one in the neck position of one of my Strats and I'd describe it as having a smokey tone. It's definitely still Strat-like, but a bit darker. Then there's the Hot VNs, like what's in the JB Strat.

Are you looking for something Strat-like or something out there and different? What sort of tones do you tend to like?

[ehdwuld]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless

my buddy got a set of the Vintage noiseless for his HSS strat
he used two in his and gave me the third for wiring it up

use the 1MEG pots that come with
this makes them much less dark toned

in my buddy's strat
we put the 1MEG pots
two VN
and a Dimarzio DP103 in the bridge
it sounds great

I put the third one in the center of a HSH RG4
between two hot Carvin pickups
with 500K pots
its just way to faint and dark
I have to swap it with something else

[mystique1]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless

Are you looking for something Strat-like or something out there and different? What sort of tones do you tend to like?

No I like the regular Strat tone, and although I'm really pleased with the DiMarzio's I'd like to try something different "make" wise. The Fender VN's seem to have a love 'em or hate 'em thing going. I do like the tone Clapton gets with them though, but how much of that is the mid boost on his Strat?

[JeffB]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless

IMO, the Fender noiseless pups are a downgrade from the Areas you already have.

[GilmourD]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless

No I like the regular Strat tone, and although I'm really pleased with the DiMarzio's I'd like to try something different "make" wise. The Fender VN's seem to have a love 'em or hate 'em thing going. I do like the tone Clapton gets with them though, but how much of that is the mid boost on his Strat?

I like my VN. It's definitely different than the other Strat pickups I have. Like I said, it's darker and smokier, and that was before I installed the Clapton mid boost. The TBX control also goes a good way to bringing in some brightness, which I didn't have before I installed the boost.

These days, if I were to go whole hog on a Strat pickup set, it would probably be an EMG DG20 set going into a candy apple red Strat. LOL