Nostalgic Distortion
New member
So like the title says, I've finally found the perfect set of pickups for my 2010 American Special Stratocaster!!! Not really surprising considering I've literally spent several hundred dollars on different puppies over the past two months & I've gone through more than a dozen different sets made by a verity of manufacturers!!! The really surprising thing is the S.C. set that I ended up landing on, & the fact that they didn't cost me a penny, at least not now anyway...
I bought these about 3 years ago & until the other night I'd completely forgotten that I had them!!! I bought them used for no other reason than they were super cheap ($60 shipped) but unfortunately I didn't have anything to drop them into at the time so the went into a box & that's where they've sat until last night! I'm not 100% sure what year they are but I believe they came out of a late 80's - early 90's UAS Standard?
That's what the listing said if I recall correctly & I suppose it makes sense because they were winding them pretty hot for a while back then & these things have some balls!!! I'm getting a resistance reading on them that goes as such, 11.7K bridge, 11.2K middle, & 10.7K in the neck. They still have a really beautiful bell like tone while clean but they also have a darker side when you throw some gain at em!!!
Originally I kinda figured that I would end up with a Fat Strat in the end because I've only got the one Stratocaster now & I knew it needed to cover a lot of ground. My other "must" was it had to be able to get pretty aggressive in the bridge while still being sweet in the neck and middle slots. Furthermore it needed to be a fairly balanced instrument, I didn't want big jumps in volume when I flipped through the switch positions?
I tried A BUNCH of Duncan's, some Fralin's, a pretty sweet set of B.K.P.'s, and even some lesser known "boutique winders" stuff. It was all good but I didn't find anything that was "PERFECT" so I just dropped a Vintage/Hot set of Fralin Split Blades into it & kinda gave up???
Until last night that was, I was going through some stuff & ended up coming across the Fender puppies. I didn't expect to like them so I figured I'd build a guard out of them since I had all the stuff to do it & then sell it for $100-$150 at least doubling my investment. I tossed them in a spare guard & got to soldering...
When I got it finished up I had to make sure it was functioning properly so just for turds & squirts I installed it. WOW, I was completely blown away by the tone & shear power!!! I guess it just goes to show that you don't necessarily have to spend a ton of money to get a great set of pickups???
I bought these about 3 years ago & until the other night I'd completely forgotten that I had them!!! I bought them used for no other reason than they were super cheap ($60 shipped) but unfortunately I didn't have anything to drop them into at the time so the went into a box & that's where they've sat until last night! I'm not 100% sure what year they are but I believe they came out of a late 80's - early 90's UAS Standard?
That's what the listing said if I recall correctly & I suppose it makes sense because they were winding them pretty hot for a while back then & these things have some balls!!! I'm getting a resistance reading on them that goes as such, 11.7K bridge, 11.2K middle, & 10.7K in the neck. They still have a really beautiful bell like tone while clean but they also have a darker side when you throw some gain at em!!!
Originally I kinda figured that I would end up with a Fat Strat in the end because I've only got the one Stratocaster now & I knew it needed to cover a lot of ground. My other "must" was it had to be able to get pretty aggressive in the bridge while still being sweet in the neck and middle slots. Furthermore it needed to be a fairly balanced instrument, I didn't want big jumps in volume when I flipped through the switch positions?
I tried A BUNCH of Duncan's, some Fralin's, a pretty sweet set of B.K.P.'s, and even some lesser known "boutique winders" stuff. It was all good but I didn't find anything that was "PERFECT" so I just dropped a Vintage/Hot set of Fralin Split Blades into it & kinda gave up???
Until last night that was, I was going through some stuff & ended up coming across the Fender puppies. I didn't expect to like them so I figured I'd build a guard out of them since I had all the stuff to do it & then sell it for $100-$150 at least doubling my investment. I tossed them in a spare guard & got to soldering...
When I got it finished up I had to make sure it was functioning properly so just for turds & squirts I installed it. WOW, I was completely blown away by the tone & shear power!!! I guess it just goes to show that you don't necessarily have to spend a ton of money to get a great set of pickups???
