Has Fender ever produce a strat with three EMG single coil sized pickups?

I can't say I've ever seen a stock Strat with EMGs so I really don't know if they ever came from the factory that way, but I have heard a couple of Strats with EMG's over the years (as well as a couple of Strat clones) and every one has sounded VERY sweet. The -only- reason I went with Duncans in my '96 MIM over the EMG's is simply because the Duncans were less expensive. The Duncans still sound great but not as good as the EMG SA's....but that's strictly my personal opinion.

Just my $.02 worth.
Jim

Thanks for the info. The reason I ask is that I've seen strats for sale on the bay and asked if the pups were original and they answered "yes" yet I never recall seeing a production strat with 3 EMS SAs.

Im not 100% sure on this but i think they made a HM strat with three single EMG's...I also thought i remember that they have just put out a modern strat with emg's in it

In that case...where the seller says "yes, they're original" what I would do is ask for the serial number (assuming they haven't already provided it) and then check with Fender. In fact when buying a guitar off Ebay, Craigslist, etc., it's -ALWAYS- a good idea to get the serial number anyways to verify the authenticity of the instrument. If you read thru the forums here you'll see where a few people have indeed got burned by bogus instruments because they didn't check first.

Another thing to remember is that there are quite a few folks out there who will say the pickups (or whatever) are original because that's how they bought the instrument. The tiny detail that they fail to tell you is that they didn't purchase the instrument "new" so the previous owner may have altered it and the seller was just "unaware" because they never verified it themselves. They aren't trying to deliberately rip you off or anything, they just didn't know themselves. Earlier this year I purchased a Strat body off Craigslist and that was the case...the seller said it was a "pre-80's American body". I took one look at it and despite the horrid paint job, it was pretty easy to tell from the machining alone that it wasn't a genuine Fender body...American or otherwise. I purchased the body anyways because it was alder, it was what I was looking for for the project I was building and it was only $25. Once I got it home I took some measurements and asked some questions and sure enough everything turned out to be metric, which proved it wasn't American. When I called the guy on it later and was able to -prove- it wasn't a Fender body, then he told me that he had really bought it used and that's the way he got it....he had assumed it was genuine because the guy at the music store where he bought it said it was (at least that was his story). He did apologize profusely and offered me a refund but again it was what I was looking for anyways so it all worked out...and incidentally, it turned out to be a really sweet axe once she was finished .

Anyways, personally I've never seen a Strat come with EMG's stock either but I'm not the guru that some of these folks are and it is certainly possible, although if so I would expect it to be rather rare as well since Fender has always made their own pickups. Either way I would definitely get that serial number and do so further checking...if the seller refuses to provide the number then just walk away.

Good Luck,
Jim

I don't think Fender has ever installed EMG's at the factory.

As a side note, my electric guitar is loaded with SV's (Strat Vintage) and they sound real good.

Lace sensors came stock as you probably know. I am a big proponent of EMGs, and can highly recommend them. Besides, you can set your axe up with what you want from EMG as far as mix and match different pickups. My favorite Strat has a set of SA single coils. They are sweet.

Thank you all for the great info!