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Post subject: Seymour Duncan APS-1 vs. Fender CS '69
Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 9:24 am
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I have a Fender Lite Ash Strat, made in Korea, with all original hardware. It has stock Seymour Duncan APS-1 pickups, but 500k pots as opposed to the normal 250k. I want to get a more vintage sound out if it, something more mellow as opposed to the ear-piercing highs I get on it now.

I've basically already decided I want to switch out the 500k pots for 250k ones, since I've heard that will lower the highs and make it sound more like a vintage strat. However, I'm still undecided whether I should go ahead and install some Fender CS '69 pickups in it. I'm going to be bringing it to my local shop to get serviced, so I'd rather do both the pot upgrade and the pickup upgrade at the same time to avoid extra costs. However, I also don't want to shell out 100+ bucks on pickups if the ones I have installed are pretty similar.

So my question is, how do the seymour duncan APS-1 pickups compare to the fender CS 69's? They seem to both be "vintage, pole-staggered, single coil" pickups, which to me seems to indicate that they are more or less the same. I'm by no means trying to "copy" someone else's tones, but I love the vintage strat sound from players like Hendrix, Mayer, and Frusciante. So is it worth biting the bullet and getting the CS 69's, or will it just be a waste of money?

Thanks!


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Post subject: Re: Seymour Duncan APS-1 vs. Fender CS '69
Posted: Thu May 13, 2010 4:27 pm
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BCGuitarist wrote:
I have a Fender Lite Ash Strat, made in Korea, with all original hardware. It has stock Seymour Duncan APS-1 pickups, but 500k pots as opposed to the normal 250k. I want to get a more vintage sound out if it, something more mellow as opposed to the ear-piercing highs I get on it now.

I've basically already decided I want to switch out the 500k pots for 250k ones, since I've heard that will lower the highs and make it sound more like a vintage strat. However, I'm still undecided whether I should go ahead and install some Fender CS '69 pickups in it. I'm going to be bringing it to my local shop to get serviced, so I'd rather do both the pot upgrade and the pickup upgrade at the same time to avoid extra costs. However, I also don't want to shell out 100+ bucks on pickups if the ones I have installed are pretty similar.

So my question is, how do the seymour duncan APS-1 pickups compare to the fender CS 69's? They seem to both be "vintage, pole-staggered, single coil" pickups, which to me seems to indicate that they are more or less the same. I'm by no means trying to "copy" someone else's tones, but I love the vintage strat sound from players like Hendrix, Mayer, and Frusciante. So is it worth biting the bullet and getting the CS 69's, or will it just be a waste of money?

Thanks!


In terms of the mellow, smooth, sweet, vintage tone, the APS-1s are it. Like you are planning though, they must have 250K pots which is what they were designed for.

You will literally be going to the opposite end with the CS69s. They have a tight bass, scooped midrange and have a tremendous to the point of excessive high end vs the APS-1s. These are very transparent sounding pickups. Here too, they were designed with 250K pots in mind.

As I'm sure you know, the APS-1s have Alnico II magnet slugs whereas the CS69s have Alnico V magnet slugs. So, you'll be experiencing two distinct voicings here.

Based on the aforementioned players you like the sound of, the CS69s would be your best bet.

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