Cheap low-wind ceramic strat pickups - how would they sound?

I'm in the process of doing some work sorting various issues on a friend's left handed strat - it's a candy apple red Japanese Fernandez strat, made some time in the mid 80s I guess. Rather a nice guitar in fact, but the pickups, which do look to be the original fitted ones, are the (I assume) cheap type with metal slugs for pole pieces, and a single ceramic bar magnet at the base - to my surprise. I measured the DC resistances, and all the pickups come out to aboutr 4.8Kohm. Anyhow, I would assume with specs like that, they would sound rather harsh, trebly and thin - am I right? I have to admit that I haven't tested the original pups through an amp, so I don't know myself what the sound would be from experience.

FWIW, the owner is now looking to upgrade to some sort of proper alnico magnet strat pickups, though has yet to decide exactly what those will be.
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Comments

  • Some of these are ok my daughter has some like it on her squire, 
    they sort of do the job but any pickup proper alnico hand wound would bring out the best istr those fernandez strats can sound pretty good.

    Obviously guide your friend to oil city pickups as not much to touch them in terms of value and quality.

    regards jez 
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  • FuzzdogFuzzdog Frets: 839
    I had some 80's Ibanez singles like that - ceramic bar magnet, very low reading on the meter (can't remember offhand, but it wasn't over 5k).

    Expected them to sound horrifically bright and piercing - turned out to be the fattest single coils I ever heard.  Not saying it was good fat, but they certainly weren't harsh or thin!
    -- Before you ask, no, I am in no way, shape or form related to Fuzzdog pedals, I was Fuzzdog before Fuzzdog were Fuzzdog.  Unless you want to give me free crap, then I'm related to whatever the hell you like! --
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71951
    They sound like the ones that came out of my 80s Aria… they manage to pull off the trick of sounding thin, harsh and yet muddy all at the same time, while lacking any kind of subtlety or dynamics.

    I did buy that guitar with the intention of keeping it dead stock - because it's identical to my first-ever electric guitar, before I modded it to the point of destruction - but I just couldn't stand the pickups so I replaced them.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Some of these are ok my daughter has some like it on her squire, 
    they sort of do the job but any pickup proper alnico hand wound would bring out the best istr those fernandez strats can sound pretty good.

    Obviously guide your friend to oil city pickups as not much to touch them in terms of value and quality.

    regards jez 
    Will certainly mention that idea to him! cheers :)
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    The cheap singles on my sons £99 Squire sound sweet as anything clean Imho : here's a 30 sec clip of em straight into desk with a touch of compression :
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Fuzzdog said:
    I had some 80's Ibanez singles like that - ceramic bar magnet, very low reading on the meter (can't remember offhand, but it wasn't over 5k).

    Expected them to sound horrifically bright and piercing - turned out to be the fattest single coils I ever heard.  Not saying it was good fat, but they certainly weren't harsh or thin!
    Interesting, I wonder if these are similar... Although I think my mate is really looking to make the guitar as good as it can be, which will probably still mean new pups. But I don't doubt you, and just shows these things aren't always predicatable just from limited specs.
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    ICBM said:
    They sound like the ones that came out of my 80s Aria… they manage to pull off the trick of sounding thin, harsh and yet muddy all at the same time, while lacking any kind of subtlety or dynamics.

    I did buy that guitar with the intention of keeping it dead stock - because it's identical to my first-ever electric guitar, before I modded it to the point of destruction - but I just couldn't stand the pickups so I replaced them.
    Thank you - I do imagine pickup replacement will be the likely course with this guitar also. I guess in the 80s there wasn't quite the same awareness of the importance of the pickups, and thus it was more likely that good quality guitars would be fitted with cheap pickups.
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Danny1969 said:
    The cheap singles on my sons £99 Squire sound sweet as anything clean Imho : here's a 30 sec clip of em straight into desk with a touch of compression :
    That does sound nice to my ears I must admit, cheers. Well - we have some food for thought re pickups anyhow, glad I asked the question.
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  • FuzzdogFuzzdog Frets: 839
    Megii said:
    Interesting, I wonder if these are similar... Although I think my mate is really looking to make the guitar as good as it can be, which will probably still mean new pups. But I don't doubt you, and just shows these things aren't always predicatable just from limited specs.
    Oh, don't get me wrong - those Ibanez singles were bloody horrible, just strangely fat sounding. I have no idea how they sounded like they did - you'd have needed 1 meg pots in there to get anything remotely resembling definition.  All three were like it too.  I think I still have them lurking in a drawer somewhere after I ripped them out and put some Duncans in there, and in that drawer they shall remain!
    -- Before you ask, no, I am in no way, shape or form related to Fuzzdog pedals, I was Fuzzdog before Fuzzdog were Fuzzdog.  Unless you want to give me free crap, then I'm related to whatever the hell you like! --
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Fuzzdog said:
    Megii said:
    Interesting, I wonder if these are similar... Although I think my mate is really looking to make the guitar as good as it can be, which will probably still mean new pups. But I don't doubt you, and just shows these things aren't always predicatable just from limited specs.
    Oh, don't get me wrong - those Ibanez singles were bloody horrible, just strangely fat sounding. I have no idea how they sounded like they did - you'd have needed 1 meg pots in there to get anything remotely resembling definition.  All three were like it too.  I think I still have them lurking in a drawer somewhere after I ripped them out and put some Duncans in there, and in that drawer they shall remain!
    Ah - gotcha! :D I think I will stick to my recommendation of something new for the guitar in that case.
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  • DeadmanDeadman Frets: 3851
    I had them in my Tokai Goldstar. To my ear they sounded better than any Fender I ever owned. They just had that bell like quality and quack you yearn for.
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  • Danny1969Danny1969 Frets: 10356
    Deadman said:
    I had them in my Tokai Goldstar. To my ear they sounded better than any Fender I ever owned. They just had that bell like quality and quack you yearn for.
    Tonight I played a friends USA Strat and my Tokai Goldstar Strat through the same amp and I much prefered the Tokai tone, it's the sweetest Strat tone ever
    www.2020studios.co.uk 
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Deadman said:
    I had them in my Tokai Goldstar. To my ear they sounded better than any Fender I ever owned. They just had that bell like quality and quack you yearn for.

    Danny1969 said:
    Tonight I played a friends USA Strat and my Tokai Goldstar Strat through the same amp and I much prefered the Tokai tone, it's the sweetest Strat tone ever
    Cheers chaps, this is very interesting to hear, not least because my mate actually does have a couple of old Tokai Goldstar strat pickups kicking around - having looked at these, they are definitely not the same low-wind/ceramic as the ones from the Fernandez strat. The Tokais do have individual alnico magnet poles, and are wound to about 5.8K-ish. Friend thinks they might sell well on the web, but of course another option would be to use them in the Fernandez, and we would just need to buy a suitable bridge pickup to go with them.
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  • DeadmanDeadman Frets: 3851
    Get them installed! I played with the heights and found the sweet spots pretty easily. I presume they all sound the same mind!
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  • MegiiMegii Frets: 1670
    Deadman said:
    Get them installed! I played with the heights and found the sweet spots pretty easily. I presume they all sound the same mind!
    Cheers @Deadman - has to be his decision really, but I've sent him a link to this thread, so he can take what you've said into account... :)
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