Noiseless pickups in a Strat, yay or nay?

JCA2550

I have a couple of Strats. A beaten up 90s MIJ Squier with Fender Hot Noiseless pickups in and my rather special SVL 61 which sports a tasty set of Amalfitano single coil jobbies. The Fender pups sound pretty good when playing through a cranked setup not quite as shimmery clean . The Amalfitanos sound gorgeous clean but do my head in cranked if it's a hummy stage. So which should I go for,pros and cons?

ElectroDan

I swapped the pick ups in my 90's Japanese Strat for Kinman's (a Hank Marvin set).
I don't do any studio stuff, so for live playing the small tonal difference was worth the benefit of less noise. I thought they were great. In fact I had a few mates ask me to change theirs afterwards too.

guitarfishbay

I don't think any noiseless singles will sound as good clean, assuming you want a classic tone. That's been my experience with both guitar and bass. 

However I think they can sound great with a bit of gain. So it'll come down to which way you want to compromise.

I personally like EMG SAs in a strat. They sound great with drive and the clean tone is good too but it is a bit of a different sound to a classic strat.

guitars4you

to stop the noise then ideal - but to me the tone is always to 'pure' so I prefer something more traditional and vintage flavoured

crunchman

Nay

victorludorum

Nay nay. Yay

simonk

I'd say nay. I put the Kinman Woodstock plus set plus the K9 switching system in one of my strats and was never happy with the results.

robinbowes

Whereas, I have Kinmans in my Strat and love them.

I had a very early Blues set in for years, and recently replaced them with a set of newer Hank Marvin Impersonators (or whatever they're called). The new pickups have a bit more top-end and sound even better than the Blues set. I bought them for another project which didn't take off so I thought I'd try them in my main guitar. 

I've not got anything to compare them with ie. a decent set of regular single coils, but I am more than happy with the sounds I can get from the Kinmans. 

R. 

Schnozz

HSH with Coil Taps and you can pick if you want a Traditional Single coil in the Middle, or a Humbucking Blade/Rail etc.

Kebabkid

Nay for me. I can't speak for any other brands of noiseless pickups (Kinman seem to have a good reputation) but I absolutely hate Fender's noiseless pickups. I find them to be sterile, cold and characterless.

richh

I've had a set of Kinman AVn Blues in a Strat for a long time, and I think they are very good.  As with all these things though, you have to try them for yourself, ideally with your amp and setup.

Gassage

I have to say- Amalfitano's are amongst my favourite ever pickups.

guitars4you

richh said:

I've had a set of Kinman AVn Blues in a Strat for a long time, and I think they are very good.  As with all these things though, you have to try them for yourself, ideally with your amp and setup.

I must admit that Kinman appear to get the best tone out of noiseless p/ups compared to others - Not tried that many different sets but fitted a few for Hank fans and they appear to match the quality of a C/Shop pick-up on 56 Strats when I've done such mods

guitars4you

Gassage said:

I have to say- Amalfitano's are amongst my favourite ever pickups.

I had a set on old 'players grade' partsocaster vintage Strat that sounded great - and recently on a 57 LP Gold Top that sounded awesome

normula1

I've got Kinman Woodstocks in the Neck and middle in one partscaster with a BK Mule in the bridge. My other has a Traditional v3 set. I found them too bright for my taste, so fiited the spare Woodstock into the bridge and the Trad bridge pickup into the neck position. 

Philly_Q

JCA2550 said:

I have a couple of Strats. A beaten up 90s MIJ Squier with Fender Hot Noiseless pickups in and my rather special SVL 61 which sports a tasty set of Amalfitano single coil jobbies. The Fender pups sound pretty good when playing through a cranked setup not quite as shimmery clean . The Amalfitanos sound gorgeous clean but do my head in cranked if it's a hummy stage. So which should I go for,pros and cons?

When you say which should you go for, haven't you got both already?  So you can pick whichever suits a particular situation.  Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding.

I used to be obsessed with noisless pickups and I've tried various over the years (even though I only play in the house!).  Kinmans, DiMarzio Virtuals and Areas, Duncan Stacks, EMGs, Lace Sensors, Fender Noiseless, Fender SCNs, Joe Bardens... I haven't tried some of the newer models on the market, like Fralin Split Blades or Fishman Fluence.

Ultimately I don't think any of them sounded exactly like a vintage Strat but a lot of them sounded good, in different ways.  I'd probably be happy to put hum-cancelling pickups in a modern, American Standard Strat or similar, and I'd put proper single-coils in a vintage style Strat. Just seems like a natural fit. 

Ancient_Mariner

Noiseless tend to sound a little lacking in character clean, and will often take drive well. If you normally mostly play with drive or most stages you're on are noisy then go noiseless, but if absolute tone is important then stick with true singles.

JCA2550

Gassage said:

I have to say- Amalfitano's are amongst my favourite ever pickups.

High praise indeed from our resident DG expert. I do like em maybe I should be looking at somehow screening them bettr?

ToneControl

always

mike_l

Yes.


I particularly like the noiseless singles in my Charvel model4.

They sounded nice and stratty through a Laney LC15 at last nights jam. Fat without being overbearing. Admittedly the amp wasn't the cleanest of cleans (like a Marshall clean, not a Fender clean) and they would have covered anything needed.

olafgarten

Ancient_Mariner said:

Noiseless tend to sound a little lacking in character clean, and will often take drive well. If you normally mostly play with drive or most stages you're on are noisy then go noiseless, but if absolute tone is important then stick with true singles.

I'm not sure they are lacking in character, one of these tracks is with a Noiseless and one with a True Single, I doubt you can tell the difference.