They didn't stop making them, and they sound awesome. I played a deluxe strat with 'em just the other day, noiseless is a good word. Clapton uses 'em, and they're awesome. I'm too tired to have a better description or better adjectives rite now... I'll get back on after sleepy
Rock On :32:
My Jeff Beck Strat came stock with the Noiseless pups. They were the ceramic Noiseless though, a little hotter than the regular Noiseless, I do believe(maybe around 10k). I thought they sounded pretty good. Good enought to make me want to buy the guitar, but not to keep 'em in there.
Once the Antiquities went in, there was no turning back. I didn't dislike the Noiseless, just there's mo' better out there.
The Fender Noisless Pickups I played sounded surprisingly good to me. But I prefer the Duncan SSL-1's or Antiquity I or II Strat pickups: more of a classic vintage tone.
I have a '98 MIA Deluxe Strat with the Vintage Noiseless pups and I'm very happy with them. They are sweet and clear when played clean, and they perform well when cranked too. Plus I like the noiseless factor. They're not quite as nice as the Kinman's that I have in another Strat, but they're 1/3 the price. I think they have something of a bad rap, but different strokes... This is the only guitar I have that will probably remain stock.
The EC Strat still comes with the VN (Alnico) pups, and the Jeff Beck Strat comes with Hot VN's (ceramic). The 2004 Deluxe model now comes with SCN VN's which use samarium cobalt magnets.
Is it worth the extra time to sheild the guitar and get the ants, or should I just start looking at some noiseless pups like the hot ceramic fenders or whatever new product is comming out?
I still have that set of Fender Hot Noiseless lying around somewhere. If you're interested, PM me, I'm sure we could come up with a very good price.
If not, that's cool, just thought I'd offer.
I like them. There may be "better" strat tones out there (depending on who you ask), but they offer a nice strat strat tone with a little bit of a vintage vibe. Fender makes a noiseless set up for the Tele and I'm thinking about getting the vintage pair for mine.
Like Curly said though, the Clapton strat owes a lot of its tone to the active circuitry. We took the pickguard of my buddy's Clapton sig strat to fix a switch and you wouldn't believe it - there's a third rout adjacent to the pup routs and the control cavity that houses a circuit board. Pretty intense. I'd be too intimidated to ever work on the electronics of that guitar. Regardless, the tone that thing produces is quite good IMO. It may not be "vintage strat" enough for some of the hardcore strat nuts, but it's great tone nonetheless.