Your top 10 clean tone guitar pickups of all time.

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

1. TV Jones T-Armond/Dearmond Dynasonic

2. Seymour Duncan Custom Shop Soapbar A5 Staple/Lollar Soapbar A5 Staple

3. Gold Lace Sensor single coil

4. Seymour Duncan Dynabucker HB sized single coil

4. Lollar Gold Foil

5. TV Jones Magnatron

6. TV Jones Supertron

7. Lollar P90

8. Gibson P90

9. Gibson '57 Classic

10. Gibson 490R

Honorable mentions Gibson Gary Clark A5 rod magnet Soapbar, and Gibson Burst Bucker I

I've owned or own and played through all of the above, and each one brings something beautiful and unique to clean tones. Honestly the 1 and 2 spots are so close it is really more of a tie. The TV Jones T-Armond and Dearmond Dynasonics, and the Seymour Duncan and Lollar A5 Staples just have a certain magic to them that nothing else I ever played through can touch.

They exhibit an almost hi-fi clarity that never lacks in lowend warmth, just the right amount of midrange, and gorgeous upper harmonic complexity. They sound divine clean in a way that even few Fender single coils can touch and work perfectly well for everything from vintage jazz, surf, blues, funk, classic rock, modern rock, and even metal tones. Balanced, punchy, articulate, with depth and airy clarity/chime.

 

[jeremy]

antiquity ii surfer - neck, middle, or bridge and notch tones. all are fantastic

antiquity ii jaguar - very similar to flat pole surfer pups

the duncan hendrix set neck/middle tone is fantastic!

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

antiquity ii surfer - neck, middle, or bridge and notch tones. all are fantastic

antiquity ii jaguar - very similar to flat pole surfer pups

the duncan hendrix set neck/middle tone is fantastic!

It's funny to me that I love vintage type Strat tones recorded or live, but personally have never been able to get into the tones of vintage style Strat pickups in my own Strat or others I played.

My '87 American Std Strat came with Fender American Standard A5 singles. I did like them clean, but they were still a little on the thin side for me. And with any overdrive or higher gain they were horrible sounding to my ears.

I eventually swapped those to Gold Lace Sensors and absolutely loved them. They are blanced, with both warmth and detail that give me beautiful sounding cleans, and play far better with overdrive, fuzz, and higher gain tones to my ears.

Many years later I got my hands on a Fralin '50s wind Strat set, swapped them in, and couldn't pull them out fast enough. It was like everything I didn't like about my original Fender Strat pickups. Back to the Lace Sensors and back to loving my tones I went. The same goes for Strats I played in music stores with vintage style Strat pickups.

Weirdly enough I love vintage style Telecaster pickups.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

antiquity ii surfer - neck, middle, or bridge and notch tones. all are fantastic

antiquity ii jaguar - very similar to flat pole surfer pups

the duncan hendrix set neck/middle tone is fantastic!

While I'm on Fender single coils my favorite pickups of theirs I ever played through by far are the single coils in the '70s Fender Coranado a buddy of mine ended up buying over a PRS Hollowbody. I spent a solid hour plus with him playing one through a Mesa Blue Angel and it stands to this day as one of the most 3d beautiful clean tones I ever heard. I went with him when he was guitar shopping. He went in intent on getting that PRS Hollowbody after seeing it up there and playing it a few times, a $3000 dollar guitar.

He was talking to the salesman about the PRS trying to work down the price a little, and when I pulled the Coranado off the used wall, plugged it in, and started playing he turned around and was like woah.

We played both for a good bit of time each, and it was literally no contest. The Coranado sounded both bigger and more beautiful clean and with overdrive. He walked out with the Coranado at 1/5th the price of the PRS and I made an enemy of the salesman.

I played that guitar many many times over the years through my Mesa Tremoverb, and his Peavey 5150 combo both clean and dirty and it always sounded fantastic.

Now that I remember playing that guitar those pickups might be tied with the number 1 & 2 spots on my list.

 

[playas]

Sounds like you might appreciate bare knuckle apaches for strat pickups. That extra little bit of mids takes the edge off the thin high end which is imho what most strat singles are missing, being too scooped.

I'm not even going to attempt 10, but Apaches and Seths would probably be high up there for me.

 

[Artie]

You listed all 10. Nuttin' else to say.

Except . . . Layla.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

You listed all 10. Nuttin' else to say.

Except . . . Layla.

You friend have damn fine taste.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Sounds like you might appreciate bare knuckle apaches for strat pickups. That extra little bit of mids takes the edge off the thin high end which is imho what most strat singles are missing, being too scooped.

I'm not even going to attempt 10, but Apaches and Seths would probably be high up there for me.

That's exactly what I loved about the Gold Lace Sensors. It wasn't that they lacked high end, but more that they had more prominent mids.

If I ever get another Strat, or put together a Partsocaster I may give those a try first. Ty.

 

[Chistopher]

Any thing Lace sounds phenomenal in the neck, especially the Hammer Claw and Deathbucker. I like the Antiquity II Surfers too. Outside of that, I don't particularly use clean all that much. My favorite clean sounds are on long necks with big strings, regardless of pickups.

 

[jeremy]

i dont love the lace golds clean, and i have an old late 80s set which was the best era, imnsho. also had a custom set of lace hot golds donzo sent me. my buddy still has em in his main guitar and they sound great, but not as good as a surfer clean. my favorite clean tones are a fender guitar into a fender bf reverb amp. specifically a great strat into a pro reverb, super reverb, or vibrolux reverb. shimmer and chime that cannot be surpassed for my taste.

layla was a '56 strat and '57 lp into small amps. cool tones for sure

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

i dont love the lace golds clean, and i have an old late 80s set which was the best era, imnsho. also had a custom set of lace hot golds donzo sent me. my buddy still has em in his main guitar and they sound great, but not as good as a surfer clean. my favorite clean tones are a fender guitar into a fender bf reverb amp. specifically a great strat into a pro reverb, super reverb, or vibrolux reverb. shimmer and chime that cannot be surpassed for my taste.

layla was a '56 strat and '57 lp into small amps. cool tones for sure

We all have our loves. For me my ultimate cleans are Dynasonics or Gibson Staple types into a either a Hiwatt Custom 100, Ampeg VT22, or Magnatone Panoramic Stereo feeding a cab or two with alnico EV SRO12's or SRO15's.

For softer vintage cleans with some speaker breakup any of the above amps into my open back 2x12, and an open back 1x15 loaded with a Coffee Can EV SRO15. Best surf and roots rock tones I ever got out of any amp.

 

[jeremy]

cleans with speaker breakup doesnt sound like clean to me. i love those light breakup tones, but dont consider that clean. my main gigging amp is an old deluxe reverb and it sounds amazing, but at gig volume, the cleans arent totally clean sometimes. if we are talking "clean" tones, then i want a 40w bf/sf fender amp to get that 6l6 glassy top and big clear bottom end

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

cleans with speaker breakup doesnt sound like clean to me. i love those light breakup tones, but dont consider that clean. my main gigging amp is an old deluxe reverb and it sounds amazing, but at gig volume, the cleans arent totally clean sometimes. if we are talking "clean" tones, then i want a 40w bf/sf fender amp to get that 6l6 glassy top and big clear bottom end

That's what the guitar volume knob is for. The two Pulsonic cone Fanes with the volume up near noon or above on the amp, and the guitar volume rolled back to 5 or 6 give up gorgeous vintage cleans, up to 8 and they start crunching up, and at 10 they start to sing with a beautiful '60s rock vibe. The SRO15 stays clean no matter what unless getting hit with very high volume and provides huge depth and clarity for low string surf riffs and just keeps getting more full sounding and with smooth breakup and natural compression as the volume on the guitar gets turned up. This works great with either the Magnatone straight to the cabs, or the Hiwatt Custom 100 or Ampeg VT22 into an attenuator so as not to blow the low wattage Fanes.

I've played lots of Fenders, I own an Ampeg VT22, and for big, deep, and glassy cleans I will put my Hiwatt Custom 100 up against any 4x 6L6, 5881, or 7027A loaded American style NMv amp ever produced.

Likewise the cleans out of the stereo 4XEL84 Magnatone would make many Fender lovers rethink how fat and glassy a clean tone can be gotten out of EL84's, and the smooth transition to the combination of poweramp + speaker breakup at your fingers by riding your volume and tone knobs is amongst the best I ever heard out of any amp.

 

[Rex_Rocker]

I like the DiMarzio SDS-1 clean, personally.

It's sparkly and spanky, but it's not anemic like a traditional single coil can sometimes be.

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

I like the DiMarzio SDS-1 clean, personally.

It's sparkly and spanky, but it's not anemic like a traditional single coil can sometimes be.

Sounds like the ideal mix in a single coil.

 

[Mincer]

For cleans, I love the Classic Stack Plus, the Five Two, Seth Lover, Antiquity Humbucker and the APH-1.

 

[AdrianSD]

Dimarzio Gravity Storm
Black Winter
Full Shred
And in the right guitar/ amp EQ combo, '59 is fantastic.

 

[freefrog]

Not sure to have a firm top 10 when it comes to CLEAN tones but...

Absolutely speaking,
1-1962 Strat stock pickups.
2-Patent sticker T-Top's from the late 60's.

In the Duncan line,
1-SSL1's.
2-Seths.

Out of the Duncan line,
1-Onamac Strat PU's. Pretty close to the single coils of the vintage Strat aforementioned.
2-Motor City Pickups, A2 Black Belt. Under the radar but stunningly close to real P.A.F.'s IME.

Honorable mention to Firebird style Mini-HB's like the Duncan SM1, Fender CS69 or 54, Fender CuniFe Wide Range, Gibson T-Type's, Stephens Design VL1's, Skatterbrane Twangbranes and a few unknown models made by local winders (I've a set of CREL humbucker with a special design and a very low inductance, very nice sounding, like those of my friend luthier with similar specs)

Out of Strat PU's and Gibson style HB's, in no particular order:
TV Jones Filter'Tron,
Burns Tri-sonic,
Dano lipsticks,
DeArmond Dynasonic,
DeArmond silver foil (Kleenex box)...

Oh, crap, it became a top 20!

So I'll stop there. ;-)

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

With a name like Twangbranes you know it's gotta be good. :naughty:

 

[Hiwatts and Gibsons]

Not sure to have a firm top 10 when it comes to CLEAN tones but...

Absolutely speaking,
1-1962 Strat stock pickups.
2-Patent sticker T-Top's from the late 60's.

In the Duncan line,
1-SSL1's.
2-Seths.

Out of the Duncan line,
1-Onamac Strat PU's. Pretty close to the single coils of the vintage Strat aforementioned.
2-Motor City Pickups, A2 Black Belt. Under the radar but stunningly close to real P.A.F.'s IME.

Honorable mention to Firebird style Mini-HB's like the Duncan SM1, Fender CS69 or 54, Fender CuniFe Wide Range, Gibson T-Type's, Stephens Design VL1's, Skatterbrane Twangbranes and a few unknown models made by local winders (I've a set of CREL humbucker with a special design and a very low inductance, very nice sounding, like those of my friend luthier with similar specs)

Out of Strat PU's and Gibson style HB's, in no particular order:
TV Jones Filter'Tron,
Burns Tri-sonic,
Dano lipsticks,
DeArmond Dynasonic,
DeArmond silver foil (Kleenex box)...

Oh, crap, it became a top 20!

So I'll stop there. ;-)

And no worries on going overboard. I started the thread hoping to give people looking for pickups that do great cleans ideas.