OK, so I feel I don't know that much about pickups. I am basing that on the fact that I have only ever played at low/home volume so I don't really know what it is to play loud and really hear them.
I've had various strat pickups over the years, and I do often like a sound with quite a bit of gain. So far my favourite pickups have been Kinman noiseless, I prefer them to all the other non-noiseless ones I have tried thus far, including BK, fender, diMarzio. It seems to me that quite a lot of 'purists' don't like noiseless pickups and turn their nose up at them, so I was wondering what the general opinion around here is?
I'm veering towards the idea of making a strat, and my gut instinct is to get Kinman pickups again, but I'm wondering if I should ditch that idea and get something that is more of a pure strat sound?
Comments
However, as a traditionalists, I've never heard any that can match the 'organic' voice of a traditional vintage flavoured pick-up - They all sound to pure and somehow 'clinical' to me - Not sure why - As it happens the original Lace Sensor models on a late 80's Strat are my favourite, but they don't sound pure vintage at all, but I do like them - More smooth and less crisp then a pure vintage model
For home use I'd question why you need them - fine if you like the voice, but I don't see any back ground hum as an issue at home - Simply roll down the volume pot when not in use - Hum is less of an issue when you are actually playing, as you don't really hear any back ground noise over the actual note
Any ‘classic sounding’ noiseless single hasn’t worked for me, on guitar or bass. But I do like EMG single width pickups a lot
Bandcamp
I'd say make that all purists, pretty much.
In the past I've tried a lot of the different noiseless pickups - Kinmans, DiMarzio HS and Virtual Vintage, Duncan stacks, EMGs, Lace Sensors, Fender SCNs, Bardens. Some I liked, some I didn't, none sounded exactly like single-coils - I think partly because of the lack of noise.
I don't know much about the newer products on the market, like Fralin Split Blades or Fishman Fluence. They seem quite interesting.
I also really like EMG singles in a strat ( I had a DG set), but they're there own thing rather than a noiseless single.
For me it is that my rehearsal venue has terrible electricity and so many devices working in a tiny space that the noise even without gain is ridiculous.
I was thinking that having some option for when it is worst in the bridge (which I don't use really anyway) would at least give me something to use for those occasions.
Not sure how freely available they are these days - but definitely a good solution.
I asked the same here a while back and after advice and much surfing I got a set of Mojotones. To me they're great, the chime is there, the overtones, whatever. They look OK too with dummy poles staggered.
Liked 'em enough to nab another set that came for sale here, though I need to build something to home them. Both sets have the hot bridge option which fattens it up nicely without needing to hit the tone pot.
The live vs home not mattering, doesn't work for me, mostly use bone clean or fuzz and always working the vol pot. The noise of normal pickups really bugged me. So much nicer now for me. Downside is the price.
That said I haven't owned others apart from SDs with the bar mag, so no idea how the Mojotones are vs Kinmans and the others.
67s
http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=0w594aBvWhU
58's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO7K1mZl_C0 .
Kinman Woodstock are great: nice full-fat Strat tone, and match quite well with a bridge humbucker (both PAF-style or hot).
Kinman Traditional Mk 3: I didn't get on with these at all. They were overly bright and thin, certainly in comparison to the Woodstocks and nowhere near as nice as a genuine single coil. I tried them in several guitars with the same results and adjusting the heights etc. didn't help much. Moving the bridge pickup to the neck (with a spare Woodstock in the bridge helped, but not enough to stop me moving them on.
Kinman '48 Tele neck (original version): quite bright, almost Strat type tone.
Kinman P90s: I'm not convinced these truly hit the mark for P90 tone as they seem to venture a little towards the humbucker side of the fence but I guess that would depend on the reference P90 that Kinman based them on. I've only modern Gibson ones fitted to lower-priced Gibsons to reference against. They're by no means a bad tone though.
Duncan Vintage Tele Stack (bridge): Quite possible my favourite pickup. Good fat tone with no hint of Ice-pick. Almost has a hint of P90-ness about it
Duncan Vintage Tele Stack (neck): just simply awful flat flubby tone, did I mention it's awful?
Fender SCN Strat: A bit too polite and smooth for my ears, but not bad.
Bill Lawrence(ish) OBL 450R: dual blade pickup, very smooth and work well with a bridge humbucker. Not particularly Strat sounding. (I'm on the lookout for another of these but not at the prices on Fleabay )
Bill Lawrence(ish) OBL 450L: As above but quite a bit thinner and lower perceived output than the "R" variant.
Dimarzio Virtual Vintage: I've had a Blues and two '54s in a Japanese Strat for the best part of twenty years. Warm tone but still recognisable as Strat. I use 250k pots as I didn't like the DM recommended 500k and I believe that the VV series started life as Kinman rip-offs. They do seem to have very similar construction to the Kinmans.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!