I may be double posting as I forgot to put in a subject. I have a 96 American Strat that I'm happy with but have become curious about prewired pickguards. Stewart Macdonald has prewired Golden Age pickups and Carvin has prewired Carvin single coil pickups. Has anyone changed to either of these pickups or know anything about them?

Hi dkratz, welcome to the Forum.

Forum user Russianracehorse was looking into Golden Age pickups a few months ago, so maybe he has thoughts to give on that.

What's catching my eye is that you say you have a '96 Am Strat that you're happy with. Immediately that makes me wonder why you want to change it, therefore?

The pickups you mention are towards the lower end of the price scale, and that you're looking at pre-wired pickguards makes me think you're not too confident at electronics and want to give yourself the least work possible.

All of that's absolutely fine, of course. But you know, there's no requirement to tinker with guitars. Playing them is what counts, not modding them. Fender make a pretty fine instrument, stock. Unless there's a special reason for messing with the innards then leaving well alone and concentrating on your playing is a very respectable option.

Not trying to preach, honestly. Just trying to encourage you to feel confident about not going in for mods if it's not really necessary. I'm an inveterate tinkerer with guitars. Yet all of my Fenders bought new have remaind stock - no need to change 'em.

Good luck - C

I'm quite familiar with both these aftermarket sets. Surely, you'd be taking a significant step down with either of them.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

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You dig?

Thanks so much for the info. I think I;ll take your advise and leave my Strat as it is.

FWIW - I got a Highway one a couple of years back and was not 100% on the pickups. I switched to a Seymour Duncan SSL1/SSL-5 set. Awesome. If you are going to do pickups swaps, make sure you put in the best out there, not just any old pups just to do it. Fender USA pups are more than respectable.

Reinforcing your point, indeed, the OEM Fender USA pickups are quite versatile and cover a lot of tonal ground.

FWIW, recently, I took the step up myself and installed the SSL-2/SSL-6 set in my Deluxe Player's Strat. I don't use nor like the RW/RP middle option though.

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You dig?

I agree with you Martian but I'm sure you will also agree there is no character to the many OEM pickups. Ones just like the other and so on. The one thing you get when you buy the after market hand wound pickups is variety and the chance of finding your Holy Grail. That pickup that you say WOWwhat tone and vibe.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

I agree with you 110%!

I always felt that just like OEM string sets, the guitar's manufacturer, no matter how prestigious, presumes to a significant degree that the owner will definitely not use their strings and probably remove their pickups down the road somewhere in favor of other brands. I've also been of firm commitment that just because, "Brand Grade A" always did and still does make the best guitars, it does not necessarily follow that their pickups, etc, etc, etc. are the best as well.

On a directly related matter: Regarding that couple of SSL-2s I put in one of my Strats, one of the pickups read, 6.8K ohms on the nose. No biggie, right? But when I metered the other one, it read, 7.02K! So here, reinforcing YOUR point again, we now have an anomaly, clearly outside of the 10% tolerance range. I put this one in the neck and it mates really well with the bridge (SSL-6). I haven't had a chance to really put the guitar through its paces yet but it should be most interesting with a 7.02K SSL-2! For all I know, this might very well be a most special, vintage voiced, bridge pickup in its own rite!

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You dig?

Martian said,
"I always felt that just like OEM string sets, the guitar's manufacturer, no matter how prestigious, presumes to a significant degree that the owner will definitely not use their strings and probably remove their pickups down the road somewhere in favor of other brands."

Interesting thought here. Hundreds if not thousands of people will read this and the seed will be sown. As much as I respect your posts Martian, "I always felt" is not the same as 'take a look at my video where I A and B stock pups with aftermarket ones.'

Unfortunately for most of us, buying and comparing pups is not a financial reality. BTW, I installed Seymour Duncan Phat Cats and new wiring in my Epiphone Dot because the tone was unacceptable to me, and the difference is very tangible, even to the casual observer. With my American Standard I'm left with a dilemma if I subscribe to your intuitions. To me they sound worthy of professional recordings and gigging. Does Fender really make the pups and expect us to yank them out the first chance we get?

Again, I respect your posts and insights, I just have to address you on this point.

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-Kirk

GUITARS
'12 Sonoran Acoustic - black (dated 10/31/12)
'13 Standard Strat
AMP
Vox ac4c1-bl
PEDALS
Compressor
Big Muff
Vox Stomplab 1G
Carbon Copy Delay

If we took a poll right now, I doubt very strongly that the vast majority of players would say they use the specific OEM set which each and every one of their guitars came with. This doesn't imply the OEMs are trash as they are not. Rather, said players have other options more to their liking. In the same vein, many, many, many players are perfectly happy with their OEM pickups of which, these should NOT be automatically construed as, "Grade B" by any means either. Also, if you read through the plethora of threads anywhere, you will see people with constant intentions of changing the pickups in their various guitars due to a personally felt shortcoming like yourself with them or, they just want to "see if the grass is greener on the other side of the hill". If you've read a lot of my posts too, you'll see that I've always said, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Notwithstanding, I do see your point so, I will additionally say this: The player, not some poster nor a group of kiddies hanging out in Guitar Center, etc, etc. should sway the guitar's owner on his or her selection of strings, pickups, picks, jacks or anything else for that matter, especially if the owner is perfectly satisfied with what he or she presently has. Further, I'm sure there are those who change from the OEM string sets and pickups for other alternatives where some switch back too, disappointed with their albeit, temporary departure from the OEM stuff. Lastly, I base my opinions on my life's experiences (vis a vis, "I feel"). So agreed, I present no, "scientific method". And of course, others' experiences surely may vary greatly, are equally valid and maybe, totally contradictory to mine. For the record, in terms of the, "big picture", I am a nobody and should never be presumed to be, 'the final word' on guitar related topics or ANYTHING ELSE for that matter.

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You dig?

One thing i see is too many people are so eager to swap out pickups without knowing what particular sound they are looking for.I always recommending leaving the pickups be and give them a chance,maybe adjust the height first.Change the amp settings a little.Maybe even change to a different amp.At least know what you are looking for in a pickup before you swap them out.

Martian believe me what you have to say is well respected on this forum.Especially when it comes to pups and electronics. I just dont understand how all these kids on Harmony Central buy a 2 grand ax and switch out the pups right off the bat. Or they say there new ax is coming and they already have the new pups for it and one or two other mods it is puzzling to see someone buy a guitar at that price and rip it up like it was a project ax . I buy a guitar for the way it plays and sounds. I have only swapped pups twice, on two teles years ago because I wanted humbuckers and that worked out great thank you Dimarzio but just like Ceri every other ax has the pups that came stock.I also have to count my blessings for all the guitars I played then bought on ebay I never got a dud. Thank you Fender

Martian,
Here's a partial quote from the Fender product page...
American Standard Stratocaster®
Icon. Not a word to be used lightly. But the Stratocaster is just that. The new American Standard Stratocaster guitars are beauties to behold in sound, look and feel. We kept the hand-rolled fingerboard edges, alnico V pickups and staggered tuning machines for playability, tone and stability, and added several new features, including, etc, etc.

Now, I'm no dummy. I understand marketing. I understand the marketing of Seymour Duncan and Callaham Vintage Guitars and parts as well. Where does it end? Who can we believe? Icon? The word standard means something, doesn't it? Does Fender really produce pickups with the notion that the majority of players will replace them with aftermaket stuff? If so, shame on them. If not, why advance the idea?

If Fender hasn't put the effort in to insure quality and tone in their flagship model after all these years, I've been had. Shame on me and shame on Fender.

P.S. I'm not as serious as i come across. I do enjoy a good discourse. This forum gets a bit tiresome and silly at times. I do find this an important subject and admire your insights.

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-Kirk

GUITARS
'12 Sonoran Acoustic - black (dated 10/31/12)
'13 Standard Strat
AMP
Vox ac4c1-bl
PEDALS
Compressor
Big Muff
Vox Stomplab 1G
Carbon Copy Delay

I honestly dont know too many people who swap pickups on a MIA strat.I know it happens.Now the MIM, thats a different story.

I have a 1996 American Strat, too. I was reasonably happy with the stock pickups.

Until I put in a pre-wired Dimarzio pickguard with Area 58, 61, and 67 pickups. WOW. These are not hot pickups, but are intended to give the sound of Strat pickups from the early years. They also happen to be noiseless. They're more balanced, have more sparkle. MUCH better bass...that nice "piano" bass sound.

Having used stock 96 pickups and these replacements, I don't think it's any stretch to say that the stock pickups were crap. Let's face it, Fender has used a lot of shortcuts over the years, and pickups have often suffered when costs needed to be cut.

That silly putty material they used for sustain blocks for years was a definite tone buster, just to give another example.

Do the pickup upgrade. I did the pickups and the steel sustain block and my Strat really came alive.