Sorry if this has been addressed, but I can't find it on any of the forums.

The question is - Is there any difference between the Texas Special pickups used on the MIM strats and the ones used on the USA strats? or those sold as Custom Shop?

It is hard to believe Fender would use $149 ($249 msrp) pickups on a $599 ($899 msrp) guitar.

I purchased a MIM Roadhouse with Texas Specials. While the pups are "ok", I am not overly impressed with them. I certainly wouldn't pay $149 to upgrade a different guitar to these pups.

Texas Specials are Custom Shop pickups and will be the same no matter which guitar they are in. The pickups in the Roadhouse Strat are one of the things that makes it different from a Standard mim Strat. Remember it doesnt really cost Fender alot more to use those pickups in that model than it does any other pickup. The end user is the one who pays 149.00 when they are purchased separately. And you are right about the pickups. They are not for everyone. I think they are better than most single coils when you are playing with distortion, but played clean I dont like them as well.

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"My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." Blazing Saddles...

The only time there were different Texas Special pickups is when they were putting them in the MIA Texas Special strats in the old American Series.Those pickups were "custom staggered " rather than "vintage staggered".Today they are all "vintage staggered".I actually like the way they sound clean once they are lowered a bit especiallly in the middle /bridge position.JMHO.

I've had them in a Lonestar and currently have them in American Special, and I like the one's in the Special better, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with differences from one model to the other though. Maybe it's partly attributable to other differences in the guitar, but it could also just be the difference that you would expect from one set of TS pickups to the next. I haven't tried enough sets to really know.

In the Lonestar the balance btwn the poles was really uneven. At fender specs it wasn't as obvious because the poles blended better, but as soon as I lowered the pups to a tolerable mid range it became really obvious that the balance of the treble strings were uneven. Strange, but the American Special doesn't seem to have this problem- at least mine doesn't.

They say you either hate Texas Specials OR love them- I wish it were that simple. I love them AND hate them!

I know I have a Texas Special Strat and a SRV.The pickups are more balanced on the TS strat,but they sound way better on the SRV.I dont know what it is specifically,but the SRV has a 12" radius ,a 6 point trem and it has the SSS instead of the HSH cut out in the body.I would think the added wood and more contact with the trem might be why .The SRV has some serious wood on it for sure.

It used to be that the Texas Specials that came in guitars didn't have the Custom Shop stickers, but when purchased alone did have the sticker.

Your prices just show the incredible mark up they have on the pickups when purchased separately.

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

I think the MIM Strat's have TexMex pickups, which are different. (Notable on the Jimmy Vaughan Strat) The most visual difference being the Texas Specials have vintage cloth wiring and TexMex are plastic wire and I do believe are made in the Mexico plant. They both are Alnico 5 magnets, and they both are relatively similar in output. The Texas Specials just cost more and sound ...different.

The Jimmie Vaughan Strat does have Tex-Mex pickups but the MIM Roadhouse and Lone Star Strats have Texas Specials. The Roadhouse is SSS while the Lone Star has Texas Specials at the neck and middle positions and a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates Plus humbucker at the bridge.

John