Hi Everyone,
I'm looking to upgrade my Strat with noiseless pickups. Does anyone know why the vintage noiseless comes with 3 pots and a cap, but the "hot" vintage are just the pickups? Do I need to buy upgraded pots with the hot? If anyone knows what either of these sound like, please let me know!
Thanks!!!!!!

The schematic that fender ships with the hot noisless set shows 500k pots. I beleive it is recommended that you upgrade your 250's. I had my hots in a 60's reissue but didn't care for them. I got them thinking i would get something that sounded like the Jeff Beck strat. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The scn pickups are decent but i really like the vintage noisless pickups. Hope this helps.

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"New Guitars Have No Soul"

Fender used to ship vintage noiseless with 1meg pots. Be carefull you dont get a older set that has those in the pack. The 1megs provide way too much treble. I'd seriously look to try a guitar with them installed as they are an aquired taste. Very much like plugging an acoustic guitar into a hifi. I struggled like hell to like the ones i bought and ended up putting a midboost in the guitar to combat their unusual sound.
The hot noiseless pickups are ceramic magnets and have the usuall ceramic 'rasp' to the sound. Jeff beck uses hot noiseless with a minimum of effects. He's noted for turning up at studios with a guitar a boss OD pedal and saying 'get me a marshall. What do you mean what model? Any'!
So if you listen to his stuff you'll get a good idea of their sound. No offence to son of a gloin but its about the only chance tohear them before buying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uwvBizKAwc&feature=related

The only reason i can think for VN's coming with pots and HN's not is that VN's need a certain set of values to operate at their best.

I wouldnt rule out other types though. I prefer SCN's try em on an american deluxe. The dimarzio range are well applauded by everyone that comes into contact with them.

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No no and no

I put the vintage noiseless in my strat. I love them. they sound really good, especially with some overdrive.

they do have a good amount of bite to them, so if that is what you are after, then they will be great pickups for you.

I put my Area 58's/61 with 1 meg pots, I love them. they do have more treble on them, but I just put in a higher value cap on them, so I can roll off the highs, and I dont hear the loss of mid range like i did on my 500k pots I had on them.