Hello,

I know that the CS '69 pickups are made to vintage specs, so I'm assuming they were created for the old strat 7.25 neck radius. Since the pole pieces are staggered, will this cause a problem if I put them on my 9.5 radius Mexican strat guitar?

Also, I was looking at all the custom shop pickups, reading reviews, etc. I want a classic Fender tone (a glassy, bell-like 'yellow leadbetter', 'little wing' type of tone), but I also want to be able to push the pickups with some overdrive and some distortion and have my tone not be lost or muddied up. I'm also a big Gilmour fan as well.........Do you think the CS '69's will fit those bills in my alder body, rosewood neck strat and my tweed blues deluxe amp?

Is the CS '69 bridge pickups as weak as some of the reviews I've read? I've read that a number of people have been swapping them out. And is the relative low power from all three of the pickups an issue (knowing that I'm not interested in getting any 'hot' pickups)?

Any and all feedback is appreciated...thank you very much!

Yes the staggered pickups were designed with the 7.25 radius in mind, but they work just find on different radii. The Classic Player 60s strat comes with CS 69s and it has a 12inch radius. I owned one, it sounded terrific . My John Mayer strat has a 9.5 radius and staggered pole pieces, sounds great. Many modern fenders have staggered pole pickups and larger radius.

and Yes the pickups are "Weak" so to speak, but that is so you can really push the amp to get that really raunchy tube saturation and not have the input signal pushing the amp if that makes sense. Most of the CS vintage sets are weak compared to the modern high output stuff but thats the way the pickups were originally

Actually, I like the bridge pickup on the CS69 set-esp. with some OD-classic Strat sound. The neck is luscious-yet I'm not as into the mid position, which is my fave one with Gold Laces or 50s pups. Also a convert to the non-RW style-a bit more consistent.

I have them in a MIM standard and they are just excellent, my best sounding strat on clean.
You have to play with the pickup height adjustment screws to get the proper (level/volume) balance. I also wired a tone knob to the bridge pickup to shave away some treble.

If you did not know already the CS 69 set does not have RW/RP middle pickup, so no noise cancelling in the position 2 and 4. Quack is still there.