I'm thinking of switching out the pickups on my '99 MIA Delux Strat. I can't seem to find any listing for pickups on this websight. Can anyone lead me in the right direction? Thanks All

Well, I can tell you how I went. I went though 6 different single coil type pickups between 2 strats over the last year or so, and this is what I found. I had SCN's on an American Deluxe. I did like them, but they have a real different tone from your typical single coil, they have a more modern sound with a hotter output. They also have cobalt magnets, which have a real strong magnetic pull, so you have to keep them relatively far from the strings, or they'll kill your string vibration, and hence, the sustain. I played vintage noiseless a while ago, and didnt like them at all. While they dont have any hum, they dont have any personality either, and tend to sound really shrill, especially with gain. I had some Rio Grande Vintage Tallboys, which while they did have a vintage type tone, it came across to me as more of like a sample of vintage tone, they also didnt have much personality. I went through a set of Texas Specials, which really do sound cool, especially I also used some Custom shop 57/62's whch obviously hit the vintage tone spot on. Real dynamic response, great shimmer, and handle gain quite well. I took those out also, for the real reason when you come down to it that i removed the TS, HUM. My place has old wiring in it, and allot of flouresent lights, so they came through the amps when i was practicing. So i ended up with the last set I believe I'll put in that strat; Dimarzio Area 58/58/61. They're awesome! Sound as close as you can get to the 57/62's, they have everything the vintage pickups have that make them so good. Real dynamic, respond to pick attack perfectly; hit them softly, and the sound comes out clean and glassy (without being shrill), hit them hard, and the volume jumps out, and they drive the tubes on my amps. They're also REALLY responsive to small adjustments to very small height adjustments. The further away from the strings, the more open/airy they sound, closer gives them more output and increases the compression a bit. Best of all, the alnico II magnets have a really low magnetic pull, meaning you can get them real close to the strings, without killing the sustain. The only other pickups Ive ever used that you could sit this close were Lace's. Im planing on getting another set for another strat im putting together. Though Im probably goint to go with another type. Im thinking of taking out the area 58s and putting area 67's in that strat, and putting the 58s in the other strat with a Dimarzio Pro 54 in the bridge. Which is much like the area 61 output wise, with a slighly rounder tone, and gets more compressed with a stronger attack, good for blues. Im sure other people here have other ideas, but thats what ive found myself over the last year or so of trial and error.[/quote]

There is another option if you might want to consider and that is active pickups. Yes I know, this is considered sacrilege going from passive Fender to foreign EMG actives but at the end of the day you need to decide what you want to achieve on stage, or garage or in the studio.

You decide is noiseless important, warmth, control, massive output or unique hamdwired passive pickups that have a one tone design. One negative is you need to replace batteries every year or based on playing time.

Hard to just borrow a EMG kit but if they come up cheap on Ebay at between US$150-$220 or better, it may be a good option. Go try the David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) EMG kit. This is a completet active pickups with full electronics bolted under a std Strat pick guard http://www.emginc.com/products/index/56.

Kinman Blues set or Kinman Traditional MK=III set. My standard answer. A little pricey but you'll be happy you paid a little bit more.

Thanks for the imput guys. I can see how I can easily drive myself crazy in my "Quest for Tone". I went to the DiMarzio sight 1st. All three versions of the noiseless p/ups looked great. Or combinations of all of them. Then I went to the Kinman sight. Even more choices. I especially liked the K7 diy harness set. It's looks like the MKIII's are in the lead with that harness set. An amazing choice of tones. I also looked at the Lindsey Fralin sight. Then I checked a lot of clips on You Tube and listened to all of them in action. As for the EMG's, I'm no purist or I wouldn't be considering noiseless p/ups. I had a set on a Les Paul Custon I had awhile back. I just could never get the tone I wanted from them. I guess it sort of spoiled them for me. They were the loudest units I've ever heard though. Just not what I was looking for. I've had this Strat since new and I really bought it because I really love the neck. It fits my hand and playing style perfectly and it looks great. (It's an SSS in transparent crimson with a rosewood neck). I just always thought it lacked the proper tone. I want the tone of the CS 57/62's without the hum. Hopefully, thanks to the forum, I'll get it right the 1st time. Thanks again, Vince

I just reread my post, and realized that I had words missing from it, (the laptop I typed on has a real sensitive mouse pad, and i tend to brush it with my thumb and it moves the cursor everywhere on the screen. Anyways, the pickups that i ended with where Dimarzio Area 58/61's, which i did mention later in the post. Anyhoo, good luck.

So, what do you think you're going with? Another option are the new Seymour Duncan noiseless vintage pickups. I havent used them, but have heard great things. I do have to say it again though, if you're looking for Vintage with no 60 cycle hum, I guarantee you wont be disappointed with the Areas. Fralin makes a pickups that sound so good, they're stupid, to me its just the price that makes them something I dont go with. I gotta tell you, ive done so many mods on my strat, that the only thing on it thats original is the body and neck. Tone-wise, next to the pickup, and pot/capacitor changes, the best thing I did was wire a mini-toggle to my bridge pup, so I can play it in a neck/bridge configuration, or neck/middle/bridge (which I dont use because it sounds way too scooped and compressed). I can get tones out of my partsocaster that people cant get with their custom shops. I use the neck/middle allot, it adds a bit of the bridge pickups cut to the the necks warmth and sustain. Im thinking of putting in one of those wiring setups that replaces the 2 tone pots, and 5way switch that allows you countless choices (making the 2nd tone pot a blender, so I can adjust how much bridge goes with the neck, putting the pickups in and out of phase, series/parallel, etc.) Anyways, let us know what you ended up doing, and how you like them.

Hi Again,
Couldn't sleep last nite worth a damn. So I got up and played around with my Tele. It's a stock '00 and probably the only guitar I've ever owned that I've never wanted to change a thing on. It has perfect (to me) tone. So this got me thinking. If I'm having no problems with hum with this guitar, why not just go with the 57/62's in the Strat? I have a Peavy Delta Blues 115 amp that I play when the mood strikes me and the hum is almost non existant. But the setup I usually use is my Line 6 Guitar Port. My PC is hooked up to a big set of Infinity speakers (1 15, 2 4" midranges and a soft dome tweater in each one). I drive them thru an Onkyo 400 watt amp so I can get them pretty loud if I want. The cool thing though is that I can pop in the headphones and not bother anyone. It's almost 5AM and everyone else is asleep and I can make my ears bleed if I want. I can play along with any cut in my PC collection or use one of line 6's no guitar tracks and add my own stuff. Lots of fun.I know the tube amp is pure ect, ect., but I can use an almost infinite selection of amps, stomp boxes, equalizers, speaker cabs etc with this toy and come up with any tone that sounds right to me at the moment. But even with all that stuff the Strat is still very boomy on the lower strings and doesn't have the right sound to me. Well after running off at the keyboard for awhile, my decision (for now) is this: 57/62's in all three holes. 250ohm pots and wire it up like an EJ with the tone pots on the bridge and neck p/ups. What do you guys think? Once again, thanks for all the imput. This forum is a lot of fun.

If you dont have a hum problem(and you don't have noiseless in there now), than the 57/62's will be a good pickup, and cheaper than the Dimarzio's. Good pots and caps are a must have to get the best tone out of the pickups. The first thing I did with mine is wire the second tone pot to control the middle/bridge. I never understood why they had it going to the middle only. I know thats how they were on the vintage ones, but if there's one pickup that need to have the highs rolled off, its the bridge more than the other two. If you can do it, I highly recommend putting in a push/pull to allow you to turn on the bridge pickup up independent of the 5 way blade switch. It gives you a couple really useable pickup configurations,