# Noiseless Strat pups



## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

What our your favourites...discuss, please....


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## itf? (May 27, 2009)

Fender vintage noiseless, hands down. I've tried Kinmans, still sounded like humuckers to my ears. SCN are okay but lose some of the vintage sparkle. However, there is a trick to getting the best out of the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. DO NOT wire them as described on the fender site. Fender calles for 1M pots, BAD idea. Makes them shrill and harsh. Use 250k pots with a 0.022 or 0.47 cap (which ever you prefer) just as you would for regular single coils and they sound marvelous.


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

My vote is for Seymour Duncan Area 58/61 noiseless pickups. I have a set in one of my Strats. Sound awesome. Very chimey with great sparkle. Having said that, I much prefer standard single coils like those in my old 57 reissue (sold) - those sounded fantastic.


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## Telenator II (Jul 20, 2009)

I didn't much care for Fender's early Vintage Noiseless pickups. Last month though, I tried a Jeff Beck Strat with Hot Noiseless pickups and I was blown away. I just put a set in my latest Partsocaster and gigged them over the weekend. It may not be a "traditional" Strat sound, but it's the Strat sound I've always wanted!


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## Sneaky (Feb 14, 2006)

I really like the Area 58/61 pu's in my John Mayer strat. I have Kinmans in another strat - they're OK, but not as nice as the Areas. Not a big fan of Fender Vintage noiseless. I have Dimarzio Virtual T bridge pu's in my Vinetto guitars which I like OK, but will probably experiment with something else one day.

I still prefer real single coils to all of them though.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

I have a Strat with Vintage Noiseless in the neck and middle (still looking for a bridge pickup to go along with the other two) and they're ok. I far preferred the SCN pickups I had in my other Strat. Having said that, I now have JS Moores in my Strat and I've never looked back.


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## bobb (Jan 4, 2007)

Evans. quieter than the SD humbucker on my strat


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## davesvintage (Mar 31, 2009)

I love the Fender Jeff beck hot noiseless. I find the vintage version a tad sterile even with 250k pots, using 1meg pots is borderline insanity and I don't know why Fender recommend that ratio. I had a few sets of Evans and they were crystal clear, but almost surgical clean, so you are missing the real Strat sound. I guess my personal preference is for a good handwound single coil but as far as noiseless pickups the Becks are it.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

davesvintage said:


> I love the Fender Jeff beck hot noiseless. I find the vintage version a tad sterile even with 250k pots, using 1meg pots is borderline insanity and I don't know why Fender recommend that ratio. I had a few sets of Evans and they were crystal clear, but almost surgical clean, so you are missing the real Strat sound. I guess my personal preference is for a good handwound single coil but as far as noiseless pickups the Becks are it.


I was talking to a very experienced player recently that I work with doing repairs and setups, He reccomended those as well. Thanks for all your comments


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## Telenator II (Jul 20, 2009)

Just jammed again with these pickups and the love affair continues. They're really nice. I wired mine up with 250K pots.


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## Shark (Jun 10, 2010)

I like the sound of the DiMarzio Areas. I've tried Kinman's too and they were good at what they did, but the sound wasn't as much to my liking. They don't sound as much like a true single coil, IMO. Never got along with the Fender noiseless varieties, though the old Lace sensors in the Strat Pluses were not too bad.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

Has anyone tried the GFS Neovins?


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## -=Sc0rch=- (Mar 28, 2010)

keefsdad said:


> Has anyone tried the GFS Neovins?


I have them in my partscaster I made, even on high gain settings I can't tell the guitar is plugged in until I strike a chord. They don't sound bad either. I bought the "rock" set which has a Neo 7 for the neck, a neo 6 for middle and Neo 9 for the bridge.

500K pots and a .022 cap recommended. I have the tone pot closest to the volume set up to work with both the neck and bridge, tone 2 set up with the middle pickup. I used a normal USA 5-way CRL switch for my toggle.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Telenator II said:


> I didn't much care for Fender's early Vintage Noiseless pickups. Last month though, I tried a Jeff Beck Strat with Hot Noiseless pickups and I was blown away. I just put a set in my latest Partsocaster and gigged them over the weekend. It may not be a "traditional" Strat sound, but it's the Strat sound I've always wanted!


The Jeff Beck Noiseless were the best pick-ups I ever had in a strat and I have a plenty of them over the years.


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## midnightspecial (Jul 8, 2010)

I have SCNs in one of my 70,s RI Strats and I love them. At first they were kind of dark and lifeless so I started to experiment with pots and caps. The best combo was a 500k volume and 250k tones with a 22 cap. For live playing at club volumes these shine, they overdrive nice, have a nice punchy chime clean and are dead quiet. I have also heard that these sound different in different types of wood, my Strat is Ash so that may be a factor.


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## Lance Romance (Jun 4, 2009)

Tried 'em all. Best of a bad lot were the Areas. Now I have Suhr Fletcher-Landaus in all their noisy glory, and their Backplate Silent Singlecoil System which makes them quiet as humbuckers.

Absolutely no contest.


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## nutter (Aug 29, 2009)

itf? said:


> Fender vintage noiseless, hands down. I've tried Kinmans, still sounded like humuckers to my ears. SCN are okay but lose some of the vintage sparkle. However, there is a trick to getting the best out of the Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups. DO NOT wire them as described on the fender site. Fender calles for 1M pots, BAD idea. Makes them shrill and harsh. Use 250k pots with a 0.022 or 0.47 cap (which ever you prefer) just as you would for regular single coils and they sound marvelous.


yeah i prefer them with 250K pots too. tried them with 1meg and 500K but the 250's were the best. weird.


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## Twangbanger (Aug 3, 2010)

SD Duckbuckers, Very Very Cool Pickups. I have three, but no strat to put them in. I had them in a 2008 AM Standard but got rid of it, but not before pulling the duckbuckers. My new addition Strat is a 1961 RI and I love the 50's Pu that it comes with. When I land on a strat I like to play but don't care for the Pickups the duckbuckers will go in. They aren't a single coil, but they have surprised many SC snobs. They are a very low resistance pickup and sound just like strat SC PU with no noise. If you play out in many different venues these will let you stand where ever you want.


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## keefsdad (Feb 7, 2006)

Well, I finally got the BL's installed. I'm still evaluating them. They definitely have less gain than my stock pups. I suppose that shouldn't be a big problem. Just have to turn the amp up more. I wasn't expecting that, though. Oh well.
I think I like the tone. I just made my first recording and it didn't sound bad.
I don't have the capacitors that Bill recommends in there, maybe I'll try that. I think they could use a little bit more top end.


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## ThePass (Aug 10, 2007)

If I can jump in I'd like to plug Lace Sensors. I've have the Red/Silver/Blue set that came stock in my Strat Plus. I sold them (like an idiot) however. Currently installed are Lace's Hot Golds.......these pickups really shine. They are clear, full of harmonics and add a tad of compression and sustain to my ears, anyway.

And, they are noiseless.


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## Macki (Jun 14, 2010)

I have the SD classic stack plus pups in my strat (G & L Legacy). Really like them - quiet but with traditional strat sound. The do come with a 4 wire output (and maybe the middle is r/w) so you can drop the "bucker" coils in the 2/4 positions if you wanted.


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

I tried to like noiseless strat pickups but ended up goign back to stock

what is this? sounds intriguing

"Backplate Silent Singlecoil System"


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## Robert1950 (Jan 21, 2006)

http://www.suhrguitars.com/pickups.aspx#bpssc


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