I currently have one strat: the Clapton sig.

Hopefully I will soon get a MIM to try modding, but in case I don't, I was thinking about changing the pickups on my Clapton strat.

From my understanding, this strat has an active circuit but the VN pickups are not active pickups, which means I will have no problems when installing other passive pickups such as the CS '69.

Now is that correct? Also, I've heard those pickups can be noisy...will any of that problem be releived by the fact that the guitar's active circuitry?

I don't have nay knowledge on the inner workings of an electric guitar...

I'm trying to learn hehe

, your modding the clapton strat?
that is my #1, pickup wiring combo.
but hey, cs 69s are great pickups too.

if i were in your shoes, id get a used or new mim strat and mod it.
but its your guitar ultimately and your situation.
im only speaking on my behalf.

the answer to your question.
vintage noiseless are not active, theyre passive.
i guess you can say the wiring is active, tone 2 has an "active mid boost".

good luck with your project.

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That's correct you can drop other passives in.



Vintage noiseless are not the hottest pickups by any means. The Mid boost will bring them out a bit. The general idea is to buy a Clapton Strat to achieve the same sound.

Heres the run down on essentially what you have. This is from the upgrade kit.

Vintage Noiseless™ Strat® Pickups
Bridge/Middle/Neck:
DC Resistance: 9.8K ohms
Inductance: 3.0 Henries

Fender Mid Boost Pre-Amp Kit:
1 ea 0028617000 PCB ASSY Clapton Pre amp
1 ea 0021682000 Control 50 K Audio
1 ea 0028531000 Control 250 K Special Taper
1 ea 0024832000 Poly Film Capacitor MPF RDL.022uf
250v 10%
1 ea 82k Ohm 1/4 Watt Carbon Film Resistor 5% Tolerance
4 ea 0016352000 Nut Hex 3/8-32x3/32 TK NI
1 ea 0016436049 Washer Lck Intrl 3/8
3 ea 0022384000 Washer Lck Intrl 3/8 x .500 x .040 Ni
1 ea 0031153049 Dress Washer 3/8 x .614 NI
1 ea 0992035000 Tone Knob White
1 ea 0039432000 Jack Output OPN Stereo Urge
1 ea 0992052000 TBX Tone Control
1 ea 0057578000 Schematic Wiring Diag Mid Boost Circuit
1 ea 9903320000 Bag Zip Poly 10x13 2m
1 ea Body Cavity Grounding lug with fastener

Only if I don't get a MIM to put CS '69s on.

I'd leave it bone stock ... but that's just me.

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I think you are picking the wrong ax to do this with. I have a Clapton and a Beck which has Hot Noiseless pups which I like better so I threw a Hot noisless in the bridge position, but to tell you the truth you dont get a true chance to see what the pups can do because the TBX and Mid Boost Mask the true tone of the pups. The guitar sounds great but it does not sound like what we think of when we think Strat. If I play my Clapton with the Beck bridge pup it sounds nothing like my Beck as it is over powered by the TBX and Mid Boost which gives it that thick creamy almost humbucking tone. I would deffinetly get a MIM to do what you want to do.

We're only talking about changing pickups folks. It's not like the old ones can't be put back in to "undo the mod".

I have to agree with this. I really think your wasting your money putting 69's in. I put a dimarzio FS2 in my clapton boosted guitar. The dominant factor in that guitar is the boost. The midboost in that guitar is constantly on. The FS2 I put in sounds great, it doesnt sound like a FS2 though. Infact the whole reason I put the midboost circuit in was to get away from the sound of the VN's. You wont get anymore benefit from 69's than you would from stock MIM ceramics. I did that too, not liking the VN's.

Other than that your going to incuur a hell of a lot of noise should you use a regular singlecoil set. You need some form of humbucking or noise reducing pickup. I also put the boost in my jackson with EMG 81/89's in. That sounds tremendous. They lost the sterility they usually have when used with a clean sound.

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No no and no

Personally I have been staying away from the noiseless pickups. I believe the EC used to come with lace gold sensors or something. May be worth considering also. You can put any passive pickups in, and they should not be too loud if the control and pup cavity is shielded properly.

To me vintage and noiseless don't really go together, especially in a pup made by fender. I'm partial to the seymour duncan antiquity 'texas hot' pups. John Frusciante has a set in one of his vintage strats. It's also a true single coil.

If you don't really know anything about wiring a guitar, I wouldn't learn your about it by digging around in a clapton model. I think you would be better off replacing the pups in MIM and going from there.

Leave the Clapton Strat as is and if your budget allows get yourself another Strat to customize to your liking.

Passive. I'm not a metal player, why have such high output. Not to mention a lot of people who put active PU's don't realize they need to change the POT's too. 250k for single coils, 500k for humbuckers. Active pickups? 25k.....

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I've never been a great fan of active electronics on electric guitars (unlike acoustics, where they're great on peizo pickups)

My favourite for a Strat - passice, but Lace picups.

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thanks for your advices!

I was indeed very doubtful for the idea of digging around in the clapton, and wanted to keep it stock.

Hopefully I'll get a MIM or something like that...

what do you guys think about buying parts off ebay and making one from those? is that going to be overwhelmingly hard for someone without much modding experience or would it be a good summer project?

To quote my friend and pickup maker Bill Lawrence ( www.billlawrence.com ) "batteries belong in flashlights".

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

I hope this is not to off topic, but in regards to the mid-boost up grade. Could I add a switch somewhere to simply switch from active to passive? Where would be the best spot in the wiring to do this do you think?
Would it work if I added a simple toggle between the mid boost circuit and the 9v, have one path coming from the toggle to the battery and one from the toggle to the output socket to be able to go back and forth? I understand it will be a bit of a frankenstein with an extra toggle on the pickguard, I'm ok with it.
I will be running the VN pups with the boost set up on an AmDeluxe. I assume I will have to change from the AmDeluxe 5-way seeing the new set up will not have the s-1?
I'm new to this, just stuck in Afghanistan with soldering equipment and need a project. Have the boost kit and VN pups on the way...

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05 AmDeluxe, 50th anniv strat gold hardware, custom pickguard, Gold "F" knob from 80s era strat