Hello,
What is the difference between the vintage Alnico v noiseless pickups and the cobalt samarium noiseless.
What was the reason behind the change to the samarium as standard in the new instruments.
I understand that the Alnico v are quite good with that vintage sound and can still be purchased aftermarket.
Cheers,
Ronald Denis

Well the alnico pickups are pretty standard these days. Theres a huge range of pickups using alnico 5 magnets. Their said to give the most accurate vintage sound. Vintage noiseless are a love or hate pickup, there seems to be little middleground with em. You either adore or despise them. Scn's can be the same way too, though I find they offer the best of all worlds. Noiseless, nice sounding and versatile too. I havent tried hot noiseless yet. Miami Mike has them and loves them and he's a bloke who's ear and playing I stand in awe of.

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No no and no

I've got SCN's on my Deluxe and love em.... Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

It seems most of the owners who have them love their SCN's. At least it sure seems that way...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

dunno mate, I've read a few posts lately of people with deluxes wanting to change them. Myself I love em, can hand on heart say I've never heard a better strat sound coming out of my marshall. They seem to handle that kind of el34 mild crunch (not dirty not clean, somewhere inbetween) really well. I cant say I like them purely clean though. Now that could just be the amp I use for clean sounds, they seem a bit thin sounding or scooped when the amps cleaned up. Great and wonderfull for strumming chords but a bit lacklustre on clean lead.

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No no and no

I have an Am/Dlx with SCN pups and a Hiway One with Alnico III pups. Both are wonderful guitar, if I had to give one up, my personal choice would be to hold on to the Highway One over the Am/Dlx though in dollar value it is half the price. The Am/Dlx is beautiful and has a near-phenomenal tone capacity. But I enjoy the sizzle of the Alnico III pups to no end. I'm stomping on my wah like it was the 70s again! Yes I'm that old. But that's just my taste. In terms of a date, the Am/Dlx is like virgin Catholic School girl and the Highway One is the skank dragging you into the back seat of her car.

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"If I don't see you no more in this world I'll meet you on the next one and don't be late... don't be late." -Jimi Hendrix

I dig the SCNs in my Amer. Deluxe. They are more suited to a crunch rythm or dirty lead style though. However their clean tone is nothing to sneeze at. If you're looking for a noiseless Fender single coil style pup, I believe the SCNs are the way to go. Nikininja did mention the Noiseless Hot winds that Miami Mike raves about. Jeff Beck may know a bit about guitars too. These Hot Noiseless' may be worth a go as well.
As always this is only my opinion.

If you are not having trouble with noise then you might want to investigate some other traditional type of pups. I've never been really that bothered by the hum produced by sc's and have a variety of vintage style single coils in my Strats. Just a thought.

Russ

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'08 Amer. Dlx. Strat, '98 Amer. Std. Strat, '10 Squire CV Tele Custom, '96 Seagull S+6 Cedar
Deluxe Reverb RI, Tweed Blues Jr., Champion 110, Champion 600, Mustang I, Line 6 Vetta

Spot on, only for me it's the Deluxe and American Standard. Somehow the Standard can get nice and dirty in a way you wouldn't even ask of the Deluxe.

Mind you, I once lived with an ex-convent girl who was a perfect lady in public, but in private... I'll leave it to your imagination!!! If I could find a guitar like that...

Very insightful VSH.I guess my Texas Specials could be compared to Marisa Tomai in "My Cousin Vinny", mouthy and brash and has nothing to hide, and doesnt care who knows about it.