Seymour Duncan California '50s Strat Pickup Set

Nothing I have to say about these pickups! Seymour Duncan are a great company and make the best pickups in my opinion. In an interview John Frusciante said that he replaced original 50s pickups with these and nobody could tell the difference!

Colocadas en una Starforce coreana de los años 80, no tiene nada que envidiar a Fender de gama media-alta. Sonido Fender de 'toda la vida'. En el puente nitidez asombrosa con el 'campaneo' típico de una buena strato, que permite solos brutales y definidos por mucha distorsión que le metas.

Montés sur une squier deluxe améliorée, c'est déjà énoooorme ! La définition est les possibilités sont cool. Sur un circuit 50', c'est Byzance pour moi. On retrouve toutes la palette de la strat. Du son 50, au fameux son à la dire straits. C'est très défini et velouté. je recommande +++ Pas la peine de taper plus cher.

I bought a MIM Fender Stratocaster, and though I was happy with the tone I felt like it was missing a little punch, specially compared to the American counterpart, so I went for this pickups and I was definitely not disappointed. The bridge pickup sounds crystal clear with a gnarly bite once you crank up the gain and though it doesn't handle very well if you put too much distortion (and I wasn't expecting that for a "50's style" pickup) it still shines through all other instruments on a live gig. The middle pickup has fantastic definition on all possible frequencies, but the jewel of this crown is the neck pickup, creamy, shiny, fat, dazzling tone that in my opinion even tops that of the American strats, it sounds so good, the first time I tried it I had to double check my pedalboard to see if I accidentally switched on any EQ/COMP/FX. Installation is relatively easy if you know to handle yourself around a guitar's components. I tested this pickups against several amps, from cheap and small to big vintage tube ones and it delivers fantastic tone no matter the conditions. The only con I could think about them is that the poles on each pickup are staggered, which means their height is different to respond to each string, but this implies that the pickups are designed to fit a right handed guitar. Being a lefty, it would be nice if Seymour Duncan offered a left handed version, but to be honest, I don't think it made a difference in the tone at all. So, if you have a Mexican strat because you're on a budget (like me), or because you liked the neck profile better (like me again) and you want to upgrade it, this is definitely the way to go, you won't be disappointed.

Really good set of pickups. Clean, crisp and great tone. Not too hot - perfect for clean strat style tones with some real punch. These were what Fruscianti used on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication album. They have staggered pole pieces which gives a more authentic vintage balance between the strings. Also if you get the heights set right (or just slightly wrong strictly speaking) you can induce a quasi-chorus effect on the middle two strings while the others stay clean which I've been enjoying. I'll correct that soon, but for now a nice side effect. The pickups are vintage cloth wired and wax potted (both the coils and the wire). All works well. They do come with bright WHITE pickup covers which are SD branded. You'll need to buy aged cream or black covers separately. Also supplied are the installation guide (with more options available for download from the SD website) and mounting screws and rubber tube section spacer pieces. No mounting springs are included. I swapped these across from my old pickups as I prefer the springs over the rubber tube. Coil resistances (OCR) are typically 6.5k ( I measured 6.47-6.78k) and bizarrely the middle pickup in my set had the highest resistance. Usually it is the bridge. I didn't measure impedance - that also contributes so the OCR is only one indicator of the coil output. NB The box lies. They are all 52mm pole spacing NOT 49.5mm as the packaging suggests. This is for all 3 pickups. That is the better way round for Fender stratocaster and similar guitars with a vintage trem (Yamaha Pacifica, Squire, etc). Strictly speaking they should be 49.5mm neck, 52mm bridge, and in-between for the the middle pickup. Using 52mm throughout is as the Fender default spec and is better than having the outer strings outside of the end pole pieces like you'd get at the bridge with a 49.5mm spaced pickup. Why the packaging suggests the bridge is 49.5mm spaced baffles me. I've measured it by ruler and by vernier callipers and it is definitely 52mm. A bit of an impulse buy but glad I bought them and a big step-up from the default pickups on my cheap Pacifica 112V. Note these are not shielded and not hum-cancelling. (Nor were the original pickups I swapped out) To improve resistance to hum shield your pickup cavity with copper foil. I tried it and the amount of hum I get from electrical interference is much reduced making these much more viable and the cost saving over Stk4s well worth it. Edit 2021: Pic added of the back of the packaging confirming these are SSL1s (and the spurious comment about pole spacing!)