With the revamped Deluxe sporting newly designed pick-ups I thought it proper to take a little stroll thru the "Forest of Fender Legend" and remember innovator, inventor and performer Bill Lawrence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHIZMuNhF5s
Dan Smith http://www.stratcollector.com/newsdesk/ ... 00098.html
says of the then new Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pick-up Bill Lawrence invented, that in testing the new pick-up against Fender's Gold standard benchmark (the '56 & '63 pick-ups) in some cases it out performed the originals! Read the whole story here...
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/SCNHistory.htm
Here's an interview with "The-Man" himself...
http://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/bill-lawrence

Here's an in-depth view and reason for the SCN in this U.S. Patent page...
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/All_A ... atent2.htm

Here's Pickupology 101..
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/All_A ... pology.htm

Here's a great link to an article from a German magazine translated into English of Bill Lawrence in his own words...
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/BillL ... graphy.htm

Thank you Mr Lawrence for your contribution and probably one of the finest set of pick ups to ever adorn a Strat.
For me, I found a spanking new '09 Deluxe recently and bought it.
Maybe I'll put it in shrink wrap........'nah.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... AQ:US:1123

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An object at rest tends to stay at rest...
and an object in motion tends to stay in motion

I don't love them, but I certainly don't hate them.

I put a set on my Highway Strat and they were better than stock, But they're relatively unsophisticated in tone. The dont seem to have any sense of movement going on after the initial note strike. Truth to tell they seem a little..well.. bland I guess.

Absolutely noise free though.. can't dispute that. So a technical achievement rather than artistic one perhaps.

I replaced them with SD Alnico 2 Pros.. much better.. Now left wondering what to do with the SCNs..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

I've got a 2007 Deluxe with them that gets all kind of great sounds. I love mine. Not my only Strat, but love having it in the arsenal............ Mike

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

I like them,no love or hate, They do exactly what they were designed to do. Another tone in the pup arsenal!!

I love em. Yeah their flat, they dont favour bass, mid or treble. Makes em great if you find yourself using a ton of effects. I find i'm never battling the pickup to get the sound I want because its giving of a load of treble or bass or whatever. I can shift sounds easily. I do think they could do without the deltatone, it just makes em spikey sounding. I constantly have my deluxes deltatone rolled onto 9 to combat it.

I'm not too worried about them leaving the catalogue soon. After all Vintage noiseless are still with us and a great deal of people despise them. Theres a whole load of expectation and marketing hype going on about the N3's. It wont be long before some gang of bedroom dwelling 'tone hounds' are running them down too. I dont base that on what I have heard of the N3's. I havent heard em. Some snotty kid always ends up running something down though and people with no experience side with em because what they say seems reasonable. It's the basis of all internet mythology.
Your never going to get a pickup that does everything. Having a flat eq'd pickup is the next best thing.

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No no and no

Bill Lawrence is a great guy (yes, I know him personally). He moved his shop from PA to CA to work with Fender. I'm sure Bill is still designing Pickups for Fender guitars!

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Chet Feathers

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

i love my scn's, they sounds amazing. they are truly a great set of pickups!


heres a little pic of em' for ya'll.

They just lack the character of true single coils.

They remind me of a teenager who is confused about life and not sure where he's going. Are they single coils or humbuckers, I amost expect them to jump out of my guitar and start slashing at their wrists emo style.

I'm sure the N3's are an updated improvement on the SCN design and should sound great!

Nikininja-Whats wrong with "Bedroom Dwelling Tone Hounds"??? That should be turned into an acronym "BDTH"

Grum

The vast majority of BDTH have little experience of playing with anyone aside from themselves. Therefore dont really know what works and what doesnt in any band scenario.

What is the true single coil character? Thats something I'd like cleared up. Is it the electromatic, p90, lipstick, broadcaster bridge, strat flat poled or staggered?

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No no and no

Here's a real "politician" type response but it is the truth: Regardless of the pickup manufacturers and specific models within, there will always be players who swear by certain brands and models, others who loath the same and the remainder will have an anything and everything in between opinion. I've seen players whom I think sounded fantastic and all the way to awful with certain pickups. In this (my) context it means nothing as pickups are like guitar picks and strings in the sense that the individual player is the one who has to use them and be comfortable with them, no one else. Yes, many brands/models of pickups have solid legacies and pedigrees attached to them but again, what's the bottom line? It is the individual player whom they have to satisfy. Clearly, this is a case of where everyone's MMV.

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You dig?

I personaly don't think that you can say one specific construction of single coil over another is going to change the true character of a single coil. A single coil by nature will sound like a single coil!

Everyone has a different perception of what would define single coil character over say a humbucker. My personal opinion is that a single coil has more of an airy, open sound than a humbucker, some might say a single coil has quack or jangle, in the end the construction difference between a humbucker and a single coil is going to cause certain tonal or character differences.

SCN pickups are a stacked humbucker design aren't they? So technically a humbucker in a single coils cover (wolf in sheeps clothing)! But still it doesn't have the same qualities in a humbucker than any humbucker I've heard and in my opinion it sits somewhere in the middle. It doesn't sound like a traditional humbucker but at the same time it doesn't have the same character or qualities that a single coil delivers.

It is my preference that if I have a single coil equiped guitar, it'll have the character I expect to be delivered by single coils, and as far as I'm concerened the SCN's didn't quite cut the mustard with respect to this.

Thanks for the reprise. You've read me writing about the company's yadayada, you know, the best thing since sliced bread that comes down the pike every time something new is marketed. Well that's the Lawrence line we were hit with and why the Clapton I had built was outfitted with SCN's which, by the way, were really well matched for that circuit IMHO. So glad to have had the opportunity to be able to have referenced an example of my favorite thing. Now we have the N3's., but at least I have my Deluxe VG to keep me warm. The king is dead. Long live the king. Ta Daaaa

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"Another day in paradise!"

Wow a lot of great replies here and great points made. I am totally with Niki in regards that I feel a lot of people who throw bad comments out about them dont even own a guitar with them. They just read what someone says in a forum and spread it out all over the place without ever having spent time with them.

I own 4 guitars with noiseless pups with all three type covered from Vintage to Hot and I like them all. I am in no way qualified to dissect the inner workings like Martian or Niki but I have a good pair of ears. I know that it is said they are more of a stacked humbucker but if I compare my Tele that has Dimarzio Fast Tracks to say the Hot Noiseless in my Beck Strat the out put level of the Fast Tracks would be about 3 -1.

I really trip when I here guys who actually say they like 60 cycle hum as the 60s must of have been really good to them.lol I hate it and would have to believe the vast majority does at well or they would not be continuesly working on finding a better pup with out it. Do I think a vintage single coil sounds better, of course I do but sometimes you sacrifice a little and the difference to me is not enough to deal with it.

Tone will always be the most important aspect of a player even over chops. I have heard guys who do not have the greatest chops in the world just slay with what they have and there tone. On the other hand I have heard many players blessed with incredible chops who sound like $@!&.

The latest fad seems to be trying to cop John Mayers tone as that is all I see by just about everyone under 30 looking to get what pups he uses. What a lot of guys dont look at is the other end-his amps. You can have him give you his guitar and you are not going to nail his tone exact unless you have $11,000 to lay out for a Dumble and Two Rocks. I cant believe 30 plus years down the road guys are still trying to cop Vanhalens Brown tone. Give it a break already, it is like being an Elvis impersonator.

I respect a player who might actually be short on talent but is at least original. And tone is your musical DNA so no matter what guitar or pups you use if it sounds good to you then it is. Unless you are playing in a cover band your focus should be creating your own sound. As I stated there are guys who have spent over 10 grand trying to sound like Vanhalen who spent under $200 on parts.

Readers ought to take some time to listen to the NAMM interview with Bill when he starts getting into impedance, resonance, capacitance and the lot. His most interesting comments refer to the length of the guitar cable. What about all the tone freaks chasing after artists who play wireless. Oh yeah......read that patent. That ought put it all to bed for ya.

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"Another day in paradise!"

Well heck I will throw my 3 cents in.
I have my 1988 Strat plus with Gold lace sensors and I have a 2005 FSR MIA players deluxe vintage strat with SCN's with the S-1.
I love the sound of my lace's as they sound very much like the old strats I have played and owned and even take to effects very well. The sound is very strat to me with good tube amps and through my Roland JC120 and Marshall lead 100.
The SCN's sound quite good to my ears through a good tube amp. I am a little less in love through the Marshall Lead 100,but still great through the JC120. I also agree that the SCN's take to effects well all very strat like to me.
As always you should play and decide for yourself.