well I am on the other side of the fence on this issue.From the moment I bought my first fender it drove me up the wall.I really hate it. I have heard a lot of complaints about noisless pickups from day one unless you had a Clapton with the tbx or the Beck which has a hotter pup.Well I just happen to have both those axes.I Bought my first fender in close to 10 years last week a Deluxe tele which is just a beautiful guitar and though the noisless pups in it dont seem to be as dead quite as the Clapton or Beck they are great after adjusting the height a bit,now tis does have to bother a lot of players or thay would not still be looking for the holy grail of noisless pups but thank God I dont have to deal with it and I have to play with a guitar that is and stays in tune and one that has a great tone.as for my other Fenders my 72 mij thinline reissue no problem there .My 85 mij 62 reissue has Dimarzzios and is my fave ditto for my Honey blond mij,My Strat Ultra is a blue burst great playing and looking ax but then lace sensors are not quite to me.In 13 years I never got a mark on the guitar but if Iever switched out the pups which I would not do that would probably be the best guitar I have. I wonder why Fender does not bring that guitar back with some hot pups because it is like the perfect guitar for shredders.

I think that it's a very fair trade off.

_________________
Custom Shop '59 Strat with John Cruz Master Design Pickups
Vibro King
Fulltone Clyde>Deja-Vibe>TS-808>TS-9>Boss Tuner

hi i have an 89 std with dimarzio. noiseless pickups great wide tone.big dave gilmor sound in the neck pos. have no problems with them. i have a artist series with texas specials and as long as you stay away from your amp and floros your rewarded with top tone PS. they both do the job for me.

I have had 60 cycle hum for all of my playing life (41 years). For the most part I am oblivious to it. As for as I'm concerned it's a non-issue.

I played Kinman Woodstock Plus noiseless pickups for the past 8 years and loved them.
A few months ago I decided I needed to have a "blackie" strat so tried a Clapton with vintage noiseless p'ups. Didn't care for that guitar for a variety of reasons - the vintage noiseless pickups being one of them. Then got a black EJ strat and the tone I discovered was amazing! These are some SWEET pickups -- even the middle pickup has a distinct personally and tone worth exploring.

However, after nearly a decade of no hum the 60 cycle hum was an immediately noticeable nuisance to me, and I play with few to no effects and at lower volumes. No lighting or wiring issues to create extra interference. I can't imagine what that hum sounds like thru a lot of pedals and with mega gain + lights, etc.

Solution: shield the guitar. Until someone told me different I thought these single coil pups' produced the hum. Then I learned that they simply pick up that frequency like a radio antenna. Shielding intercepts the 60 cycle frequency and runs it to ground before it reaches your pickups, wiring, etc.
I shielded the EJ and am in tone heaven! Never did a shielding project before and found it is not hard, nor is it expensive. Check out this link for a good intro to how to shield a strat:
http://www.stewmac.com/tradesecrets/pro ... _shielding


Another good link to a very thorough shielding technique that I did not feel up to trying, but learned a lot here:
http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php
the author of this site really explains the electronics very clearly. An example:
"Good practices and principles improve the noise resistance of any circuitry. These practices are almost universally applied by all electronics manufacturers except those making electric guitars! Manufacturers routinely sell expensive guitars containing wiring that a manufacturer of $25 cassette players would never tolerate.

The practices and principles almost universally ignored by electric guitar makers are simple and have been known and practiced by manufacturers of other electronic items for decades:

* Shield components that are susceptible to noise – especially long wire runs, coils of wire, and high impedance circuit paths.
* Avoid ground loops. "

YOU CAN HAVE TONE + QUIET!

I'm on the noiseless side. I have a Malmsteen Strat and the DiMarzios that came with her are incredibly quiet while keeping the tone you'd expect from single coil pickups.

Absolutely no hum and great Strat sound, the best of both worlds.

I'm curious as to how the Area 67s sound compared to the HS-3 and YJMs I have on my guitar.

It all depends on your environment.
It's a lot noiser now than in the 50's-80's
Computers and florescent lights as well as all kinds of other electronic gadgets emitting noise.

For me, my house is especially noisy, so I had to use noisless (the Dimarzios are great).

I did try the EH Hum Debugger, but absolutely hated it.