Noiseless Strat Pickups

W

WhoFan

Tommyologist
i have a set of Noiseless Fender pickups.... the very first year they introduced them.... i think they changed the Noiseless ones in the newer Strat Deluxes to Cobalt Noiseless.... i have no idea what the differences are.... any ideas? i assume it's the magnet material?

i was not exactly blown away by these Noiseless pickups and soon put some cheap Alnico Tex Mex pickups back in one of my strats... but i've been really digging some Hendrix these days and wanting to get a stock sounding strat set up.... but i'm a real fan of killing 60cycle hum... i hate noise..... which is the opposite of Hendrix playing extremely loud thru 2 Marshall stacks with a fuzz and strats.... I wonder if i try these noiseless again if they can feedback as well as real singlecoils under high gain solo land but kill a lot of the buzz...

I just remember the Tex Mex pickups sounding a hell of a lot better after trying the noiseless out...
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

What pots did you use with them?

I'm not a fan of the original alnico Noiseless pickups, but I remember a buddy of mine had them in his strat. That guitar had 1 meg pots ( I assume from the factory) and sounded weak and tinny. I installed a full set of 250k CTS pots in that strat and it got fatter and ballsier. It wasn't a true, vintage strat sound, but it made for a cool rock set up, especially if you get your grind from pedals.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

I had the older alnico fender noiseless singles in the neck and middle of my strat for quite a while. I did use the 1 meg pots but could still find a sweet spot with a little tone rolled off. In a full band though I was limited in my pickup choice because only certain settings could actually be heard depending on what else was going on (could only use neck for solos when everyone else backed off, or upbeat rhythms if I beat the hell out of the strings). I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, they just sounded like imitations. I now love the APS-2 and the wonderful tone it gives me makes the 60 cycle hum totally worth it; especially since you can only hear it when your volume is up and you're not playing. Are you sure you don't want to just go for the real thing?

Classic stacks are supposed to be really good though, as far as noiseless SCs. I'd stay away from Cool Rails or other SC-souding HBs if you want true strat tone though.
 
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Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

I don't know what models you have but the latest Fender noiseless are pretty nice. I really like the hot version as well. Punchier but still plenty of Strat goodness.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

Benjy_26 said:
What pots did you use with them?

I'm not a fan of the original alnico Noiseless pickups, but I remember a buddy of mine had them in his strat. That guitar had 1 meg pots ( I assume from the factory) and sounded weak and tinny. I installed a full set of 250k CTS pots in that strat and it got fatter and ballsier. It wasn't a true, vintage strat sound, but it made for a cool rock set up, especially if you get your grind from pedals.
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when i bought that pickup set Fender was shipping them with 3 1meg pots.... they pissed me off a little as i kept writing them saying something must be wrong as the volume controll works like an ON/OFF switch..... no taper... just all on and all off.... Even the wireing diagram in the box called for 3 1meg pots.... after some research i found out that the American Deluxe guitars had ! meg for the Tone and 1 500k pot for the volume.... plus they had a resistor and a cap on the volume controll... i finally got a thank you from Fender for pointing out the issues i was having and all sets of Noiseless Pickups after that had a photo copy of the real wireing diagram and included the 500k pot, resistor and cap...... Fender said the diagram in the pickup set i got was an old draft diagram that was never used..

the tone pots with the 1meg's did very little... i disconected them... for now i have 2 of my Noiseless pickups in the neck and middle of my USA Standard witha JB in the bridge..... one 500k volume and a switch... i'm thinking of trying out a new SSS pickguard on the American strat and experiment with the noiseless one last time in the bridge.... i hardly use them in the strat with the JB as the volume output is way out of wack to be usefull... the JB is twice as loud as the Noiseless thru a clean amp...

i just had them in there for looks... i have been using that strat as a single humbucker rocker...
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

WhoFan said:
i really want to try the Kinman woodstock pickups now!!!! more GAS!!!!

i'm pretty sure Bill Lawrence was the one who designed these noiseless pickups for Fender
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Yes it was him, but his own pickups are quite different. They are very lively and have a very balanced frequency response.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

WhoFan said:
i really want to try the Kinman woodstock pickups now!!!! more GAS!!!!

i'm pretty sure Bill Lawrence was the one who designed these noiseless pickups for Fender
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I always thougt that the original Fender Noiseless and the Ceramic Noiseless were in-house designs, while the SCN's were a Lawrence design.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

Benjy_26 said:
I always thougt that the original Fender Noiseless and the Ceramic Noiseless were in-house designs, while the SCN's were a Lawrence design.
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Ah yes, this is correct. Bill did the SCN's, not the other ones.

My comment about his pickups being different from the SCN's still stands though.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

I noticed one thing about the older Vintage Noiseless a few years back. Everyone kept raggin on them, but I liked them. I had them in 2 Deluxe Fat strats, and WHEN ADJUSTED JUST RIGHT, they sounded great to me. I found out though, that the neck/middle installed in the Fat strats were wound hotter than the normal deluxe strat set to keep up with the DS-1 humbucker. (these were not the ceramic versions, just a hotter wind of the normal ones) I tried several regular VN sets in normal deluxe strats, and thought they sounded fairly pathetic and thin in comparison.

And yeah, they were never meant to run on 250k pots. Which is nice if you are putting them in a strat with a humbucker that needs 500k pots.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

now that i have GAS for the Kinman Woodstock pickups i have been wonder what they cost? anyone have any idea?
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

WhoFan said:
anyone have a ball park figure?
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I'm guessing a lot. :)

If you want a good noiseless "strat" tone on the cheap, I'd look for a set of Dmz VV Blues. I had one in the neck of my strat and it was pretty good.
 
Re: Noiseless Strat Pickups

i had the 2006 clapton model strat which came with the fender vintage noiseless pups and i did not like them one bit. the strat didnt feel right either so i sold that. when i built my own strat i put lace sensor golds in it. id recommend these to anyone. no hum and still all classic vintage strat tone. not dull, lifeless or artificial imo
 
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