Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

[Old Ghost]

I have SD SSL-1's Neck & Middle and SD SSL-5 in the Bridge of my Fender Standard Strat and while I love this setup, I couldn't stand the single coil noise for the love of god!!! I'm a humbucker guy and I just recently gone to the twang side. Hum and pickup noise, I couldn't stand it!! I think I'm ready to sacrifice great tone for something a little quiter than the SSL-1's and SSL-5. I'm looking at Fender's Vintage Noiseless pickup set and before I decide, can anybody please give me their honest opinions on these pickups? Clapton uses them with active tone controls. I was thinking, well if they're good enough for him, I was thinking...:scratchch
Any input and advice are welcome, please. Thanks!

 

[jeremy]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

they are awful in my opinion. i still have at least one full set and have sold at least two others. they sound dead to me, nothing like a vintage single coil. claptons preamp is a big part of his sound.

if you like the tone of the ssl1/ssl1/ssl5 combo look at the duncan classic stack plus neck and middle and custom stack bridge. its basically the noiseless version of what you have.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I like the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups myself. Played them in several Strats and they sounded good to me. However, given a choice, I'd go with the Duncan set jeremy recommended to get the noiseless versions of what you have already.

 

[prophetofthor]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

fender also makes a "hot noiseless" set. that set is supposed to be miles ahead of the "vintage noiseless". i think its about the same price.

i'm mystified clapton can get decent tone out of those things. it must be the world class tube amps he plays through in addition to the clapton on board preamp. i played a clapton sig strat in a music store. horrible. . . .

would be awesome to here him play thru some noiseless duncan's.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I like the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups myself. Played them in several Strats and they sounded good to me. However, given a choice, I'd go with the Duncan set jeremy recommended to get the noiseless versions of what you have already.

I agree. I spent a day repairing a guitar with the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups and I thought it sounded just fine. Surprised the heck out of me because I'd read so many negative reviews. But I thought they sounded very good.

That said, I'd go with Jeremy's recommendation just because I like Seymour and Evan and feel more like supporting SD Pickups than I do Fender. I'd go with the Duncan Classic Stack pickups: I have a set of those and I've used them now for quite a few years.

Like the Fender Noiseless pickups, the Duncan's don't sound exactly like a vintage Strat pickup but they do sound close enough (especially for stage work) and they do sound very good.

To me, a "good" pickup is one that I can relax with and not be worrying about something missing. I can do that with the Classic Stacks.

I also like Joe Barden's hum cancelling pickups.

I do not think it's possible to build a twin coil Strat pickup that will sound exactly like a vintage Strat single coil because it's NOT a vintage Strat single coil. 90% of the vintage tone might be as close as you can get.

Lew

 

[Stratman]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I would rather use these Seymour Duncan SSL-1's i a properly shielded guitar

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I would rather use these Seymour Duncan SSL-1's i a properly shielded guitar

To be honest, I play my Strats with the Duncan Antiquity single coils more often than my Strat with the Classic Stacks. Yeah - they hum and sometimes in the studio I'll get so much hum that I'll switch to another guitar or be forced to play an entire song with the pickup switch in the #2 or #4 position which is humcancelling.

But generally, a little hum is just the price I'm usually willing to pay to get 100% of the classic vintage Strat tone I grew up with and want to hear.

 

[symptom]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

You should check out the Fender Samarium Cobalt (SCN) pickups too. I've heard a few samples and they sounded amazing. Anyone has any experience with those?

 

[fenderguy12]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

These pickups came stock on my guitar and i love them.

 

[GoDrex]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I have a set of the Hot Noiseless. I think they're ok. Not great, but I can get good tones from them. I think the Hot in the name is misleading. They're definitely low output and they don't really drive a tube amp anywhere near a low output humbucker.

I really would like to try the Dmz Area noiseless singles. From what I've heard they seem pretty good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwubC7G0NZM

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

Don't forget the Custom Stack Plus. You could have a Classic Stack Plus in the neck and middle, and a Custom Stack Plus in the bridge, and you would be as close as you could possibly get to the SSL-1 and SSL-5 in a hum-cancelling format. You can even install a coil cut if you want to disable the bottom coil during times when hum isn't important. But you really won't notice much difference.

 

[RLee]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I've heard a lot of negative reviews of the vintage noiseless set, but don't have any personal experience with them... they were fender's first attempt at noiseless.
But I do have a lot of experience with the fender SCN pickups, as those came stock in my fender deluxe. While I was very impressed with them, I still swapped them out for true single coils (CS69's in neck/middle, and antiquity II surf custom bridge), because they weren't able to give 100% of that authentic strat chime and presence. Yeah I get some hum now, but it was worth it to me.
But the SCN's came remarkably close to it, I must say.

Also, hum is often very specific and directional, so I was able to remove or reduce most of the hum-causing sources in my practice room (light dimmer, PC battery backup supply, the PC itself).

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

Don't forget the Custom Stack Plus. You could have a Classic Stack Plus in the neck and middle, and a Custom Stack Plus in the bridge, and you would be as close as you could possibly get to the SSL-1 and SSL-5 in a hum-cancelling format.

That's the setup I use - they are quite amazing. They do all the things I want a SC to do and they were actually a huge improvement over the true single coils I had in the guitar. They deliver in the notch position really well and have a transparent, clean, resonant vibe about them that I really love.
You might feel you've lost something after using the SSL1s but in band situation I'll be surprised if you'll feel the difference.

There's also the pretty expensive solution of the Suhr back plate if you insist on not going for stacks...

 

[Old Ghost]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

Thank you so much for all the input gentlemen, very much appreciated! Looks like I'm going to have to go with the Duncan Classic plus and Custom Plus stacks! I knew I was somehow making a mistake going with the Fender Vintage Noiseless. There are just too many negative comments about them all over but I also see legendary players use them live all the time. I love the Vintage tones I'm getting from the SSL-1's and SSL-5 and I wouldn't trade it for anything less but the hum and noise was just getting to me and I guess I was starting to get desperate. I didn't want to lose the sweet vintage tones and to be honest, I really don't have very much experience with single coils. I really don't have any idea which Duncan hum cancelling single coils would come close to the set that I have right now without sacrifcing vintage sweetness. I understand the stack plus don't sound as vintage as true single coils but as someone mentioned, they're pretty darn close and I think I can live with that as long as the noise is not there anymore. I find myself getting more and more into the Strat each day and I don't know why :scratchch.

 

[Old Ghost]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

My Strat: 2008 Fender Standard MIM

 

[jmh151]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

fender also makes a "hot noiseless" set. that set is supposed to be miles ahead of the "vintage noiseless". i think its about the same price.

i'm mystified clapton can get decent tone out of those things. it must be the world class tube amps he plays through in addition to the clapton on board preamp. i played a clapton sig strat in a music store. horrible. . . .

would be awesome to here him play thru some noiseless duncan's.

I have an older Clapton strat with the Lace Sensor pickups- that guitar sounds unbelievable- and many say that version is much better than the recent Clapton strats with the vintage noiseless

 

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

I really don't care for hte Fender Noiseless pickups...I;d rather use Lace Sensors to be honest!

If I were going to go noiseless in my Strat today I'd go Bardens no question...I have a Barden in one of my Esquires and it's a mind blowing pickup. If I were gonna go noiseless and didn't want to use the Bardens I'd start withthe Classic Stack Pluses and a a Custom Stack Plus inthe bridge...I use the same 2 SSL-1 and an SSL-5 in my Strat and I've tried the Classic Stack Plusses and quite liked them...I'd imagine that the Custom Stack Plus is just as good but voiced to be more like the SSL-5...sounds good to me.

 

[kgarvey@hotmail]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

Personally I've tried long and hard to find decent noiseless single-coils and for me they just don't exist. On paper they're great but they're the difference between using a digital amp and a tube amp. There are some okay sounding digital amps, in the same way there are some okay noiseless single-coils, but tubes and single-coil hum are what its really about. Just to add I think rosewood boards are better suited to noiseless pick-ups than maple as a general rule. However to me they're too much of a sacrifice...i'd rather just use single-coil sized humbuckers with coil-taps.

 

[richard shapiro]

Re: Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups?

personally, I have found that the lace alumatone pickups are an incredible set of pickups for anyone looking for extreme clarity, full sound, low noise, high output pickups. they look "funny" but are, to my ears, hands down the best pickups around. not a "vintage" sound (or look) but a fundamentally better pickup design. the sound somehow cuts through noise without being in any way harsh, the subtlties of playing come through extremely well, highest signal to noise ratio of any pickups out there, no hum whatsoever (you don't even really need to shield the cavity!), and they are louder than most active pickups, to say nothing of any passive pickup design. also extremely light. Although very high output, they don't have any of the "drive" that overwound pickups will have, great for people who want to either have a very clean and "twangy" sound, or for people who love to use lots of effects, the clarity and volume keep the sound clear through a pedalboard. though i haven't built it yet, I think a combination of a overwound SD in the bridge position combined with an alumatone in the neck would give exceptional sonic range. everyone who listens or plays through my rig (fender strat w alumatones, THD bivalve) is blown away by the clarity and how it cuts through the sound without actually being louder. If these pickups looked "normal" I think they would be VERY popular, but people seem very conservative, always wanting to go for that "classic" look, which is the achilles' heel of these bad boys. personally, I like the kinda futuristic look they give. cheers