# Lollars, Duncans or Texas Specials?



## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

I'm trying to decide which pickups to go with for my Strat. 
I hear great things about the Lollars but trying to compare them with internet sound files is making the decision nearly impossible because they are demo'ed through various amps and playing styles

I want noiseless cleans first and foremost but also a real fat, bad rock and blues sound. 

Anyone have experience comparing these?


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## DrHook (Oct 28, 2013)

I can't speak for the Lollars (wish I could), but I would give the nod to Texas Specials. I've tried some of the Duncans in various Strats and Teles and I like them..but my personal taste is the Texas Specials..they respond well to rolling the volume from clean to driven and still retain the clarity without being over the top.


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

How about Fralins?


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## Fox Rox (Aug 9, 2009)

I have a set of Lollar Tweeds in my American Deluxe Strat, and I absolutely love them. They transformed the guitar. I haven't tried Duncans, but I have tried the Texas Specials. They are really nice, but they aren't Lollars.


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

J S Moores..... I built two Tele's. A guy was getting one and he ordered Lollars .. I ordered the same specs and got the EXACT same sound for way less...


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## Morkolo (Dec 9, 2010)

Another vote for Texas Specials here.


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## Chito (Feb 17, 2006)

shoretyus said:


> J S Moores..... I built two Tele's. A guy was getting one and he ordered Lollars .. I ordered the same specs and got the EXACT same sound for way less...


+1 I have JS Moores in my Tele. I've never had anything better on that guitar. Talk to Jon and he will make you one that will fit what you want.


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## GUInessTARS (Dec 28, 2007)

I had a Nash strat with Lollars in it.
The best single coil strat sound I have heard.
Very responsive to the volume control, sweet and not strident clean, clarity and cut with distortion.
They came with the guitar, and when I heard them I changed the pickups in my 
American Strat.
I have never owned J.S. Moore's but I would love to try a set.


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## Stevo (Apr 3, 2008)

For fat Strat stuff, I think the Lollar Specials are your best bet. They still sound Stratt-y but have enough mids that they are useable live and don't disappear. My fav Strat pickups I've tried in my partscaster.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

have you considered a Fender 57/62 set of pickups ...
http://www.fender.com/en-CA/guitar-.../fender-original-5762-strat-pickups-set-of-3/
they sound great on my strat ...

just putting out another option along with all the other great ideas.

G.


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## TA462 (Oct 30, 2012)

Another vote for the Texas Specials. Go into any Long & McQuade and try out a new American Special Strat, they come with the Texas Specials.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

TA462 said:


> Another vote for the Texas Specials. Go into any Long & McQuade and try out a new American Special Strat, they come with the Texas Specials.


Great, thanks...I haven't looked at Strats since '87 not up on current specs, but will check it out.

Thanks again everyone. What would be nice is a pickup shootout on youtube with a good quality recording. Using same playing style and amp throughout


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

I will go against the grain here & say nay to Texas Specials. They're usually an upgrade over stock Am Std pups, but they can be a little harsh. The neck position is decent, but there are "better" overall choices. Better really depends on what you're going for, I've yet to meet a noiseless pup that I like, they all sound muffled & woolly to me. FWIW here's what I've tried in terms of readily available aftermarket pups:

Custom 54s: Very "bell-like" highs that cut but aren't ice-picky, tight bottom & scooped mid tone. Works nicely with either maple or RW fingerboards, very John Mayer-ish with RW (he's a bit of a douche but he has good tone). 

Fat 50s: Work well with a maple board but can be too bassy with RW. I would take these over TSs if you want big & ballsy.

Lollar Blondes (flat poles): Very nice, but the bridge was a little thin sounding, so I would recommend the Dirty Blonde set that has a higher output bridge pup. I was a little underwhelmed, but there was a lot of hype around these so perhaps my expectations were too high.

Duncan Antiquity Surf II: Great pups, on the mellow side thanks to the A2 mags.

J.S. Moore: Had a set that was built to 50s specs. Absolutely fantastic. Jon does a great job of translating the sound that's in your head to the winder. If you're not happy, he'll give you a free rewind. And he's CDN. Hard to argue with that.

Harmonic Design Vintage Plus N&M/Super 90 Bridge: Meh. Too modern/hi-fi for my taste (see comments above about noiseless pups).

I currently have a set of Mojo Tones in a partscaster that sound really good but but I have no idea what the specs are so I can't comment on them.


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

Roryfan said:


> I will go against the grain here & say nay to Texas Specials. They're usually an upgrade over stock Am Std pups, but they can be a little harsh. The neck position is decent, but there are "better" overall choices. Better really depends on what you're going for, I've yet to meet a noiseless pup that I like, they all sound muffled & woolly to me. FWIW here's what I've tried in terms of readily available aftermarket pups:
> 
> Custom 54s: Very "bell-like" highs that cut but aren't ice-picky, tight bottom & scooped mid tone. Works nicely with either maple or RW fingerboards, very John Mayer-ish with RW (he's a bit of a douche but he has good tone).
> 
> ...


Terrific, response...thanks. You brought out a couple things...I have a maple neck and don't want "woolly" or thin sounding. Like you said, the Lollars sounded good by review, but I wasn't moved by the sound files on their site. (Though I loved the sound of them in Laura Cox's your tube vid (rockin lollars with Bacchus Tele)
I like the idea of the Fat 50's and J.S. Moore, and even more now knowing he's a fellow Canuck. S. Ont by chance? I couldn't find location details on his site


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

Scotty said:


> Terrific, response...thanks. You brought out a couple things...I have a maple neck and don't want "woolly" or thin sounding. Like you said, the Lollars sounded good by review, but I wasn't moved by the sound files on their site. (Though I loved the sound of them in Laura Cox's your tube vid (rockin lollars with Bacchus Tele)
> I like the idea of the Fat 50's and J.S. Moore, and even more now knowing he's a fellow Canuck. S. Ont by chance? I couldn't find location details on his site


Yup, Jon's in downtown Hamilton. If you think of some of your favourite tones/players he can translate that.

I have a Suhr Strat with a chambered ash body that I absolutely loved until I plugged it in. The stock V60LP pups were too modern/hifi (very esoteric I know) for my ear, so I dropped in a set of 54s from an '04 50th Annie Am Std Strat & bingo. Chime & sparkle aplenty when clean, ballsy yet they retain note definition & clarity when driven. FWIW some of my fave pups are found in '56 Relic Strats, which are supposedly very close to 54s. 

Forgot to mention Custom 69s, which are great but definitely on the low output side of things, you might find the bridge to weak/bright/thin, esp. w/ a maple board.

Fat 50s are usually fairly cheap on the used market & if you're really on a tight budget you may want to consider the Tex-Mex pups that come stock in a Jimmie Vaughn sig model.

But if you have the coin in your gear fund, give Jon a call. You won't be disappointed.


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## TA462 (Oct 30, 2012)

The Fat 50's come in the American Standard so you can try them out when you try out the Texas Specials. I have both a American Standard and a American Special and honestly I like them both.


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

TA462 said:


> The Fat 50's come in the American Standard so you can try them out when you try out the Texas Specials. I have both a American Standard and a American Special and honestly I like them both.


Good point, I forgot about Fender upgrading the pups in the U.S. models. If you want to try more of their offerings, the previous generation of American Vintage series guitars & current MIM Classic Player 50s have 57/62s. The MIM Classic Player 60s model has 69s. Should give you a pretty good baseline.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Scotty said:


> ....S. Ont by chance? I couldn't find location details on his site


J. S. Moore was in Hamilton as of a couple of years ago.

Cheers

Dave


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## noman (Jul 24, 2006)

If you want noiseless, none of those mentioned will get you there. I have all the pups you mentioned. Lollars would be my first choice but they are not noise-free! I have an American strat with Seymour Duncan's installed and this is truly a silent strat.........JBjr in the bridge and Duckbuckers in the other slots. Still get the strat tones but no noise. Not as much 'quack' as the Lollars but it's still there........I hate Texas Specials!


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## b-nads (Apr 9, 2010)

Jon's pickups are awesome and I highly recommend them as well.

I also have no great love for TexSpecs - harsh and can lack definition. The 54's are my favorite of Fender's line-up.

I have Budz pickups in all of my single coils guitars...David does amazing Tele and Strat pickups. I also enjoy D Allen offerings. JS Moores are great, reasonably priced, and will cost you nothing to get across the border, although I've never paid duties on anything I've gotten from Budz.


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## Rski (Dec 28, 2013)

The amount of Strat pickups is mind boggling. I attempted to order Duncan noiseless pups last fall, but the ones I've chossen never materialized, due to the Canadian distributer of Duncans, Can West I remember. As I waited, I read simular delays on other forum sites, same issue.

I bought a strat set made by bare knuckles, a botique UK pickup manufacturer. Although they are not noiseless, they work well with a tad more ump and really work well when positions are selected that combine a pair...


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## Scotty (Jan 30, 2013)

thanks again guys.


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## PaulS (Feb 27, 2006)

had the texas specials in my strat but I replaced them with Lollars and I am not going back...


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## itf? (May 27, 2009)

The lollars are great pickups and would be my vote of the ones listed. I would highly recommend, in the noiseless category, that you take a look at Bill Lawrence's Wilde Pickups (NOT Bill Lawrence USA) or Lace Holy Grails.

The Wilde pickups are really nice, especially his L200, very vintage sounding and his wife Becky, who is now running the company since Bill's passing is very knowledgeable and helpful. The only place I could fault them was the "quack" positions. They can quack but you have to get the height set just right and that can take some fiddling around. At around $50 each for hand wound to order, you just can't beat them.

The Lace HG's are very nice as well. They quack like real single coils and have a nice airy tone to them. The bridge pickup is a little on the weak side compared to the middle and neck IMO but still very nice tone. 

In both instances be sure to either increase pot values to 500k OR use 250k's with a 0.022uf cap.


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