can anyone suggest noiseless pickups that have a sound similar to the Fender Vintage Noiseless, but higher volume?

Fender Hot Noiseless.

http://www.fender.com/products//search. ... 0992105000

+1

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i'd like them to have alnico magnets.

Alnico's typically aren't the loudest and aren't supposed to be. If you want that alnico tone and higher volume, crank your amp up or look into a new amp.

thanks for the suggestion, by the way has anyone used the lace pickups combination of blue-silver-red?

They may not sound just like noiseless vintage, but I'd recommend Dimarzio Area 58/61. Ive gone through 6 different sets of pickups over the last year, and these beat everything I've tried out of the water. A bit pricey, but worth it. They also use Alnico II magnets instead of Alnico V, or cobalt magnets, giving them a much lower magnetic pull, and it really improved sustain. Plus they are very sensitive to small height adjustments, allowing you to really customize the sound that comes out. Farther away is more airy, closer is louder and a little compressed. I used vintage noiseless (which I didnt really like at all), SCN's which I did like, but they definitely arent a vintage sound, texas special, Rio Grande Tallboys, and the standard fender single coil, befor putting in DImarzio's, and they surpassed everything Id heard or read before Iused them.

you placed the area 61 in the bridge and the area 58 in the neck and middle?

windwalker did you have to make any changes in pots or anything, or did you just remove the old pickups and install the new ones?

I have the Lace but all gold( 50's)...they are very quiet and no they are not a "hot" pick up but like someone said, lean on the amp a little and its all good!
Great for blues......loud blues.

http://lacemusic.com/electric_pickups/l ... _specs.php

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Hey, I'd like to ask another question. I'm contemplating new pups for my mim strat in the not too distant future. I thinking of going with either the Texas Specials or the Dimarzio area 58/58/61 combo. If anyone has feedback either way, I would appreciate your input. Also, are the Texas Specials quiet ? I love the sound of a strat but not the hum. So, please...let me hear from some folks. Sorry, I'm not trying to hog the spotlight here. Thanks in advance.

oops, I thought I should add that my musical taste leans towards, classic rock, country, southern rock and Texas blues. Nothing too heavy and not the "death metal" type for sure. I'm also running this through a VOX AD15VT amp.

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2008 Fender MIM Stratocaster
2010 Epiphone Masterbilt
2009 Fender Super Champ XD

I did pot changes a few times, once when I put a hot rails in the bridge, and 3 times when I installed the Dimarzio's. I initially put 1 meg pots in the tone position, and a 500k in the volume. I then went down to 500k in the tone, then eventually back down to 250k. I had been told you should put 500k when using the Area pickups, and that 1 meg was even better, but IMO it isnt true. It's the other Virtual Vintage with the alnico V's that need the bigger cap. I find they sound perfect with the 250k. Although, i did put a treble bleed in the volume. These pickups are the first time with a strat that i dont feel it necessary to keep the tone pots dimed, or close to it for them to sound good. I mostly play with the neck tone at around 7/8, and the bridge between 6-9, although this changes depending on what Im playing. Its also the first pickup where I actually find myself playing the middle pickup on its own. The only other way I ever used it was in the 2 and 4 possition, but these just sound so damn good. Plus I can use more gain in them, and more volume. I live in an old building, with old wiring and apartments kind of close, so 60 cycle hum was always an issue, hence I didnt continue to use Texas Specials, which is a great pickup.
I had the SCN's in an American Deluxe that was stolen in a break in, so I dont know what those had for pots in them, Im assuming they're not 250k. I know that Fender used to give 1 meg pots when you bought a set of Vintage Noiseless, but I dont believe they do anymore, and from what I understand, they were overly bright when used.

Yes.

[quote="BigTufGuy"]Hey, I'd like to ask another question. I'm contemplating new pups for my mim strat in the not too distant future. I thinking of going with either the Texas Specials or the Dimarzio area 58/58/61 combo. If anyone has feedback either way, I would appreciate your input. Also, are the Texas Specials quiet ? I love the sound of a strat but not the hum. So, please...let me hear from some folks. Sorry, I'm not trying to hog the spotlight here. Thanks in advance.

The strat I put the Area 58/61, and Texas Specials before is a MIM Reissue. LIke i said in my other post, they're great. To answer your other question, No, Texas Specials are not quiet, in fact they are probably more suseptable to hum than a regular Fender singlecoil that comes in MIM's and American stnds.. I agree with the other posts saying to go with a less output pickup and make the necessary adjustments at your amp. Hot output is great when you're using gain, the problem that comes with them is clean. A lower output pickup will sound better clean, and if you want gain, you can use it. I have some settings where I'm using quite a bit of gain, and tweak the EQ accordingly, and the distorion just sounds soooo....... well, silky. I can get a much more refined OD or distorion on the Area's that I couldnt really get with the Texas Specials, which are a relatively high output pup, and I can still get really high gain, and because Im not forced to lower settings to combat hum But that's just my opinion the TS are a great pickup in its own right. But like it was said by countless others on this Forum, although conventional wisdom is the SRV used hot pickups, he actually used low output. So all that tone came from him, and his amps.
WHatever you choose to get, do yourself a favor, and get the whole set, i wouldnt recommend getting one pickup for one postion, another for another, and so on.

I have a JB JR/Silver Lace/ Blue Lace combo on my strat. I've been happy with that for about the last 10 yrs or so. I can get more great tones out of this combo than I could ever use.