Noiseless strat pickups: What's good these days?

fretmeister

In the past I've had Dimarzio stacked singles and some Kinmans (when Kinmans were pretty new), but presumably the tech has moved on a bit and there are newer designs that sound closer to genuine single coils?

What is good now?

I'm going to assemble my first ever partsocaster and I think I'd like to go with noiseless singles if they sound good enough,

Ideally as good as my Lollars in my strat... or at least as close as possible. More Hendrix than SRV.

ta

Funkfingers

fretmeister said:

… presumably, the tech has moved on a bit and there are newer designs that sound closer to genuine single coils

I have yet to hear them.

DiMarzio Area pickups are pretty good but still not exactly the same sound as true single coils.

fretmeister

I've had some Dimarzio Areas - the hotter ones, and wasn't really impressed for anything other than high gain.

ToneControl

I like the newer Kinmans better
They also do a P90 approximation in a single coil format,
ideal for bridge, or for an all-round beefy sounding strat

I did like Fender SCN

If you want active, I love the DG20 EMG set (David Gilmour set with active EQ)
EMG now also do passive-design but with a preamp on each pickup, they do SC ones with 6 poles
I have a set, but think it needs active EQ

Don't forget the Lace sensors

OilCityPickups

Funkfingers said:

fretmeister said:

… presumably, the tech has moved on a bit and there are newer designs that sound closer to genuine single coils

I have yet to hear them.

DiMarzio Area pickups are pretty good but still not exactly the same sound as true single coils.

What the man says ... just like religions, every pickup manufacturer claims to have found the one true answer to noiseless SC pickup. Sadly the beast doesn't exist. It's physics ... and physics are a bastard because you cant chop around the laws to match the blurb of your marketing department. What makes a Strat pickup sound like s Strat pickup is around 8500 turns of 42awg wire and a row of rod magnets. 
The only way to hum cancel a pickup is with a second (or even third) coil, but the penalty is that with a stack, one coil does next again to dick-all  so you have to wind virtually double the wire to get the same output ... so you end up with instead of a 6k Strat single coil, a 12k stack which is basically a medium output humbucker with one non working coil! If you take the rails route then folks don't like the 'look' ... even though the sound can be is much closer to an SC than a stack. People want the poles! 
I recently built some experimental  Strat pickups based on the design Mojotone use for their Quiet Coils .(basically a tiny Firebird pickup) .. great sound ... but just like the Mojotones, very underpowered compared to a proper single coil. 

It's like nailing a jelly to the moon .... 

fretmeister

So..... just buy a Zuul noisegate then?

OilCityPickups

fretmeister said:

So..... just buy a schecter then?

I gate my single coils if I play live (I don't much these days mind). Or I go for blade SC sized pickups.

LionAquaLooper

I've got Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles in my strat and I love them.  Better than the subsequent iterations that Fender released after this one.  Got enough pop and twang for my needs, and I've compared them to my Suhr V60LP and Suhr ML Classics singles and they're on par with them.

OilCityPickups

LionAquaLooper said:

I've got Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles in my strat and I love them.  Better than the subsequent iterations that Fender released after this one.  Got enough pop and twang for my needs, and I've compared them to my Suhr V60LP and Suhr ML Classics singles and they're on par with them.

Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles are stacks ... so you have the parasitic coil issue. 

A little while ago I built a noiseless prototype that I thought was pretty close ... then I A/B tested it with one of my Pre-BS 62 Strat pickups wound with NOS Heavy formvar wire (early 70s).
I put the noiseless prototype in the bin. The subtlety, harmonic content and general strattyness of the real thing convinced me to stop reinventing the wheel. 

Philly_Q

fretmeister said:

So..... just buy a Zuul noisegate then?

Is that an actual thing, or a Ghostbusters reference that I'm not understanding?

Jetsam1

OilCityPickups said:

LionAquaLooper said:

I've got Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles in my strat and I love them.  Better than the subsequent iterations that Fender released after this one.  Got enough pop and twang for my needs, and I've compared them to my Suhr V60LP and Suhr ML Classics singles and they're on par with them.

Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles are stacks ... so you have the parasitic coil issue. 

A little while ago I built a noiseless prototype that I thought was pretty close ... then I A/B tested it with one of my Pre-BS 62 Strat pickups wound with NOS Heavy formvar wire (early 70s).
I put the noiseless prototype in the bin. The subtlety, harmonic content and general strattyness of the real thing convinced me to stop reinventing the wheel. 

Just wondering as I have no idea. I have the Seymour Duncan Yngwie Malmsteen Strat set of pickups in a Strat (came with the guitar) and I was under the impression these were noiseless in the way described above? Or are these something else?

Philly_Q

As I've said many a time, I think the question should not be do they sound exactly like '57 or '62 or whatever Strat pickups, but do they actually sound good?

Jeremiah

I think the DiMarzio Areas sound a bit closer to single coils than the Cruisers (low output rails-type humbuckers), but either is preferable to hum.

If noise cancelling "single coils" didn't exist, I'd probably put Firebird pickups in my guitars, or maybe Filtertrons.

robinbowes

If I were buying Strat pickups, I'd be buying Kinmans, regardless of their noiseless capabilities.

LionAquaLooper

OilCityPickups said:

LionAquaLooper said:

I've got Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles in my strat and I love them.  Better than the subsequent iterations that Fender released after this one.  Got enough pop and twang for my needs, and I've compared them to my Suhr V60LP and Suhr ML Classics singles and they're on par with them.

Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles are stacks ... so you have the parasitic coil issue. 

A little while ago I built a noiseless prototype that I thought was pretty close ... then I A/B tested it with one of my Pre-BS 62 Strat pickups wound with NOS Heavy formvar wire (early 70s).
I put the noiseless prototype in the bin. The subtlety, harmonic content and general strattyness of the real thing convinced me to stop reinventing the wheel. 

Pardon my ignorance but what's parasitic coil issue? 

fretmeister

Philly_Q said:

fretmeister said:

So..... just buy a Zuul noisegate then?

Is that an actual thing, or a Ghostbusters reference that I'm not understanding?

https://fortinamps.com/products/zuul-plus

LionAquaLooper

In some other forums where noiseless singles are discussed as well, some people have said they don't care at all if their noiseless don't sound exactly like vintage singles. The fact they're noiseless at gig levels far outweighs the cons. Sage advice I thought.

Then i heard even better advice from J Mascis on how he gets around the noise from his single coils + stacked fuzzes: "I just keep playing"  

rhinofeet

+1 for fender scn.

Seziertisch

OilCityPickups said:

LionAquaLooper said:

I've got Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles in my strat and I love them.  Better than the subsequent iterations that Fender released after this one.  Got enough pop and twang for my needs, and I've compared them to my Suhr V60LP and Suhr ML Classics singles and they're on par with them.

Fender SCN (Samarium Cobalt) noiseless singles are stacks ... so you have the parasitic coil issue. 

A little while ago I built a noiseless prototype that I thought was pretty close ... then I A/B tested it with one of my Pre-BS 62 Strat pickups wound with NOS Heavy formvar wire (early 70s).
I put the noiseless prototype in the bin. The subtlety, harmonic content and general strattyness of the real thing convinced me to stop reinventing the wheel. 

My experience with Kinmans is that they sound close enough on recordings but the feel under the fingers is completely different and not as enjoyable as the real thing.

If you approach it expecting the same as the real thing just without the noise you will be disappointed.

ICBM

I like the DiMarzio Area 61 - I haven't tried the others - but I accept that they don't sound exactly like 'real' Strat pickups. But given that I've never been entirely happy with any original Strat pickups - even some of the most desirable original ones (I had extensive use of a '64 Strat for a long time) - that isn't necessarily a bad thing. To me, they sound similar, sound good... and don't hum.

I am disappointed in myself that I prefer them to Kinmans, because DiMarzio did a bit of nasty corporate legal bullshit to Kinman over the design, but I just do... sorry.

timmypix

-1 for Fender SCN. 

Stock pickups in my Deluxe Strat and just a bit bland and lifeless. They sound like a Strat enough for live use, but then you play a real Strat pickup and the difference is night and day. I much prefer to use a noise gate with a true single coil.