Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

[Lewguitar]

A customer had me wire up a Strat for him with a set of brand new Abigail Ybarra wound Fender Strat pickups...the '69 Fender Custom Shop pickups.

Boy...are these pickups chimey!

They're also very weak: none measure more than 5.5K, and all three are almost identical.

Super chimey though...great vibe if clean is your game.

Killer for Little Wing and Dire Straits type tones.

So how do they compare to the Antiquity Surfers, which are '62 style Strat pickups?

All in all, I like the Surfers more. More output, throatier tone and the Surfer Custom bridge pickup has the higher output I prefer.

The Abigail Ybarra '69 pickups remind me a little of the Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots that Lindy underwound for me to about 5.9K a few years ago.

The super chimey tone of the underwound Strat pickups is very cool!

Lew

 

[Erlend_G]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Sounds like what i am looking for!

Are the pickups really brigth, or is the chime in the midrange?

 

[slightly_rude]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

They came stock in my '69 Time Machine and I've had them in there for 5 years with no plans on taking them out. It is one of two guitars I own where I have not replaced the stock pickups. CS '69s have the deepest bass of all Fender Strat pickups. They are not excessively bright and the mids are dialed back compared to any other Fender Strat pickup. Mine meter at 5.71, 5.75 and 5.79 and that is measuring at the output jack so they are very close to the 5.8k spec. They are very articulate and sound great with a fuzz or overdrive. Not so great under high gain though. These and CS '54s are IMHO, the best sounding Fender Strat pickups.

 

[fuzz+strat]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

These are my favorite Fender pickups, period. I stuck 'em in my MIM Strat, and after a few more mods it's nearly impossible to tell it apart from a high end MIA Strat. Mine measure between 5.7-5.8k as well, and they're just perfect for the blues and psychadelic rock I play. CS '69s = Strat tone.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Can anyone compare these to the Fender CS 57/62's?

 

[slightly_rude]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Can anyone compare these to the Fender CS 57/62's?

I have a set of those also and what I have observed is the 57/62's have more mids and not as much bass. 57/62s sound grainier to me, not as smooth and clear as the CS '69s. 57/62s are not wound as hot, 5.6 to 5.7k but they have more inductance which boosts the mids and attack.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

On Monday of this week, Kellie and I took a quick trip down to Corona to meet with Fender. While we were walking around the Custom Shop area, I ran into Abby. What a sweet lady. She was so nice and she remembered me from that last time I met her. She asked all about Seymour and was worried that he was working too hard. And she's looking forward to doing a pickup winding demo with Seymour in Tempe next week.

She starts work at 4:30AM! Can you believe it? And she finishes around noon or 12:30. That's how she likes it.

Such a sweet lady.

 

[dasfonzie]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

does SD have a model that are like this?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

They are excellant sounding pickups. The box says that they should read about 5.8K...but when I measured them all were under 5.5K. That's the lowest reading I've ever seen from a real Fender Strat pickup. I measured them outside of the guitar because I wanted to use the weakest for the neck pickup and strongest for the bridge pickup. All three were close to identical and none was RW/RP.

Anyways, they do sound excellant...I'll bet Stevie Ray would've like them. From what I understand, with his heavy strings and strong hands he liked pickups under 6K...according to Cesar Diaz.

They couldn't be my only set though...I like them a little stronger than 5.5 to 5.8K. Especially the bridge pickup.

Lew

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

A customer had me wire up a Strat for him with a set of brand new Abigail Ybarra wound Fender Strat pickups...the '69 Fender Custom Shop pickups.

Boy...are these pickups chimey!

They're also very weak: none measure more than 5.5K, and all three are almost identical.

Super chimey though...great vibe if clean is your game.

Killer for Little Wing and Dire Straits type tones.

So how do they compare to the Antiquity Surfers, which are '62 style Strat pickups?

All in all, I like the Surfers more. More output, throatier tone and the Surfer Custom bridge pickup has the higher output I prefer.

The Abigail Ybarra '69 pickups remind me a little of the Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots that Lindy underwound for me to about 5.9K a few years ago.

The super chimey tone of the underwound Strat pickups is very cool!

Lew

Your description makes them sound almost like the Classic Stacks (not Plus) I have in my MIA Strat. Would you say that's an accurate comparison?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Your description makes them sound almost like the Classic Stacks (not Plus) I have in my MIA Strat. Would you say that's an accurate comparison?

I dunno...

I think the single coils are probably more open, more transparent, bouncier and chimier.

Lew

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

My favorite single coils are Chubtone and Duncan Antiquity II's.
I never cared too much for singles that dip under 6.0, only because the chime turns into shards of glass when I try to use much gain......and I'm not talking about superhighgain, just Hendrix/Trower type lead tones.
I'm really a fan of vintage A5 singles that are 7.5-9.7 bridge and 6.3 neck/middle. What amazes me is how variations of that same theme can result in pickups that all sound so different. You'd think they'd all sound the same, but they don't. If you want Hendrix strat tone to the bone, try the Chubtone reverse staggered 69's! I still think my favorite pickups of all time are the Chubtone El Gordo bridge/63 middle/neck.

 

[PoorMan]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Sounds like the prefect candidate for 11 guage strings, Eb, a tubescreamer, and a Bassman...mmmm. :notworthy

 

[ModestCargo]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Sounds like the prefect candidate for 11 guage strings, Eb, a tubescreamer, and a Bassman...mmmm. :notworthy

:yourock:

But boost those strings up to 12s!

 

[hacker]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

I am big fan of the '69s as well. They are the best Fender pickup for Hendrix and SRV tones. As a wise man stated above, they sound great with a fuzz pedal. The bass response is huge for a "weak" single coil.

 

[jdm61]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Lew....weren't the original '69 Strat pickups the "weakest" ones ever put on a Strat?

 

[hacker]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Here's my '69s going into a Fulltone '69 fuzz:

http://www.soundclick.com/util/downloadSong.cfm?ID=2903878&key=3830CA24-6

 

[BNSFJoe]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Hey hacker, I can't get your link to work.

 

[hacker]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

Try now, it's working for me.

 

[Post Fab Four]

Re: Abigail Ybarra wound '69 Fender Strat pickups

I was going to buy an original 1962 Stratocaster, it sounded great. Clean, 100% straight, no issues
It was going for $22k and the wife was cool about the money issue. So I decide to buy but I saw this CS relic rosewood quatersawn neck and ash body. Then I plugged this CS Strat and it smoked the original 1962. Turns out this C.S. Strat had hand wound Abigal Yabara pickups. Her full signature and date appeared on the bottom of each pickup. Now I've been playing guitar for 45 years I'm a pro. I've gigged with everyone from Aretha Franklin to Willie Nelson I musta had at least 500 guitars over the last 45 years. I've never heard a single coil that sounds better than the hand signed yabarra pickups.
They sound amazing! Chimey dark airy almost spooky kinda good. If you can find them buy them!

I also have to say I have a custom built Stratocaster made by Ed Clark guitars.
I have a Seymour Duncan "Twang banger" in the bridge and 5/2s in the middle and neck position.
And that combination of pickups makes for a helluva *****in' Stratocaster!

I also put the Saturday night specials in my Black Les Paul custom and the gtr sounds so friggin good!
When I do a sound check the engineers usually ask me what kinda pickups are in my Black beauty.

Also one more thing that I love about Duncan's is the description they provide about the tonal characteristics of each pickup they make. In my experience the description they give is exactly how the pickup sounds in my guitars.

Stay well everyone, Joe D