Deacci Pickups - Review

peteri

All

A while back I posted a request, for suggestions on what to do with my mid 90s USA Standard Strat, I've had it from new and can't really part with it but don't play it anymore since I got an old Strat.

Someone on here mentioned it had the soapbar route, which I'd forgotten - so I decided to make it HSS, which I don't have.

Original plan was to go with Oil City pickups, and I had a good chat with Ash and was tempted by his sale pre-Christmas. Unfortunately an unexpected bill came in and I didn't feel confident just before Christmas.

Then I came upon Deacci pickups - another member on here, I had a good chat with Declan and he offers a sale or return basis - meaning all the risk was out of it for me and I felt a bit safer.

I described how I wanted a really hot strat - and a rock humbucker, Declan worked over Christmas and came up with a custom set of two single coils (9.1k on the middle and 8.3k on the neck) plus a humbucker at 12.6k. Position two wired with the bucker coil split.

All came nicely wired up on a sparkly scratch plate.

Installed them easily on the strat and the single coils were/are amazing - very full and round with lots of power, and a small amount of compression, nothing too much - you can still hear the pick and the strings beautifully. Great clean and really punchy with some gain.

In my maple necked strat the bridge was a little too trebly - it sounded great with the tone most of the way down, but normally too bright, so I spoke to Declan and he posted me two different magnets to try, along with very detailed instructions (and the offer of a Skype call to help out).

I tried an alnico 5, and this didn't make much difference - but the A4 was spot on.

I now have a very nicely balanced set, the pickups remind me of a set of Lollar I played in a relic'd Nash strat last year. Modern and very, very slightly compressed but still very strat.

This set has completely regenerated my guitar - I love the guitar, but haven't played it for ages - now I have a genuine alternative to my old strat. The vintage one is still better - but the USA Standard is not a poor relation and I'd be very happy to take it out, say I wanted to take one guitar and didn't want to risk the old one.

What's also impressive is how quiet the pickups are, definitely an upgrade there.

Declan is a great guy for a chat too, so if you're looking for replacement pickups - I can recommend him, and with the money back offer, there's not much to lose.

I've actually ordered another set to replace the Seymour Duncans in my 2000's Ibanez, and am looking forward to trying them too 

Give him a go!

(Oh and sorry if this is gushy, just really impressed!)