Are the Texas pick ups in the new American Special Strats the same as the Texas pick ups in the Mark Knopfler artist edition Strat?

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Yep,and the same in the SRV and the Bonnie Raitt.

not a bad price then for the guitar if you consider what the pick ups cost on their own

They are not from the Custom Shop though.

That may mean nothing, so why did I post the comment ?


It's too early to ge eat lunch.

does that mean that there are Texas pick ups and Custom Shop Texas pick ups?

They are Texas Specials


Sometimes Fender USA sends the parts to Mexico and they wind the pickups and assemble them there, so if that is the case with these, then they are basically the same SPEC wise, just not made in the Custom Shop.


Would a person know the diff.............tone wise............. ???

It's a cost savings deal.

to my knowledge all texas specials come from the custom shop.The only ones that have the cs logo are the aftermarket ones.

thx. would be interesting to hear the two guitars played through the same set up. maybe sth will pitch up on YouTube

this is interesting....

this cat that goes by the lounge where i perform replaced his Texas Special single coil with a Seymour Duncan mini-humbucker on the bridge position - he said he replaced it for tone not because the pup was bad, he stated that he really liked the tone

he passed it to me and said i could have it to spice up my MIM Strat...that said...

should i replace my ceramic pup with the Texas Special?? what's the difference in tone?? i do play blues, but what kind of pups did the cats at Antone's play on those Strats?

choices.....

Stevie Ray Vaughan used mainly vintage 50's & early 60's fender pups in his axes. Number had old Fender sc's that were peeled, repaired and overwound at Seymour Duncan's shop.

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60th Anniversary AD Strat, Deluxe Nashville Tele, Player's P Bass. Mesa/Boogie Mk IV combo, Marshall JCM800, 1960A cab, Genz Benz El Diablo 60, Genz 2x12" cab, too many neat little practice amps and kit projects!

The bridge pickup of the Texas Specials has a tendency to be very bright and twangy, which is good for country but most people don't want that much bite. Before replacing the pickup he could have tried wiring the bridge pickup to one of the tone pots, that way you can roll it off a little for a more pleasing sound. I opens up more tonal possibilities. Ever since I modded my strats that way I've been using the bridge pickup much more than I did before.

I have Texas Specials in my Squier and stock ceramic pickups in my Fender MIM. I play blues too, and I use both regularly. Neither is really my main guitar, although I may play the Squier slightly more. The Texas Specials are twangier, warmer and they're a little heavier on the bass, while retaining clear and audible mids and treble. Which makes it something sound something like a vintage strat on steroids. lol They're also more responsive to your picking dynamics. In comparison I like the ceramic pickups better in a high gain, modern rock setting but in comparison to the Texas Specials they lack the clarity.

If by cats at Antone's you're talking about SRV and Jimmie Vaughan, then I know a thing or two about the subject. Being a crazy obsessive guitar playing fan and tone freak does have it's advantages.
SRV used stock Fender '59s in his Number One, although the neck was dated '62 and the body was dated '63. SRV referred to it as a '59 because of the pickups. I do seem to recall a story about them being rewound, but I can't remember where I heard it so it may or may not have actually happened. SRV never heard Texas Specials in his lifetime, nor did he ever use them. Fender made Texas Specials for his signature guitar in '92, but they won't make you sound any more like SRV than your fingers allow.

Jimmie Vaughan doesn't use Texas Specials in his guitar, he uses Fender Tex-Mex pickups, which are sort of the same idea only made in Mexico. They have about the same output, and they both sound like hotter than normal vintage strat pickups and they both sound very good. However, the Tex-Mex pickups lack a bit of the Texas Specials bass to mid range punch. I slightly favor Texas Specials, but Tex-Mex pickups are some of the best in their price range and which one you like best is really just a matter of opinion.
One more note on Jimmie Vaughan, his bridge pickup is wired to one of his tone knobs too. But he leaves his middle pickup open, which the neck pickup only being wired to the first tone pot.

Well that was quite a speech. What was this thread about again?

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so could you get that classic Dire Straits sound with the Texas Specials - just like with the much more expensive Mark Knopfler Custom ?

If it were me ,I would be looking at fender 57/62 pickups to get that clean Dire Straits sound.Texas Specials have quite a bit of bite to them whereas the 57/62s are more vintage sounding.Option 2 would be to try the Texas Specials and lower them closer to the pickgard.This will give them more of a vintage tone,but they wont sound as defined IMO.

I'd go with 57/62's, Seymour Duncan SSL2's (what Knopfler supposedly used on the first 2 albums), or BareKnuckles.

I have the bare Knuckles sultans set. Very very percussive sounding. Texas specials just do not sound bright enough or have enough attack for that sound to my ear. I did try them on a modded squier though.

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No no and no

it was about the dire straits sound/tone but because the topic was texas pickups i figured it'd be ok to bring it because it was still within context of the pickups....anyway

yeah, i'm going to keep my electric stock, next one i get will get a helping of texas specials, or simply overwound single coils