So, I've come to my senses and want my guitar to be a strat again, sort of along the lines of Gilmour's black strat (I was previously running 2 seymour duncan humbuckers in the thing). Now I'm going to drop 150 bucks and want to make the right decision.

I want a warm, vintage, bell-like fender tone. I'd would like to avoid a treble response that drives an ice pick into your ear, which would only probably be an issue with the bridge pickup (I like the tone of 'yellow leadbetter', 'crazy diamond', 'while we cry').

I also want the pups to work well with pedals and also sound good with some overdrive or a bit of distortion(robin trower, old and new Pink Floyd material). So, I want my own tone and playing to shine through...articulate, without the mud.

I also want this to be 'The Set' right off the bat - I don't want to have to go back and switch out a bunch of things to get it up to my specs.

So, respected Strat players, I need your advice.

*CS '69: I've heard great reviews of the cs '69's, but I've also heard the bridge pickup is too weak. If it's too weak, I'd probably swap it out for a SD ssl-5, which I'd like to avoid doing. I'm not sure that the '69 and the ssl-5 in the bridge would play nice in the #2 position. Plus I'd be using pickups from two different manufacturers, and I'd like the set to be a bit balanced. Thoughts?

*CS -54: Sounds like a good pickup set, though brighter and thinner than the CS '69 (so I've read). I do like that the bridge pickup is wound a bit hotter than the CS '69 (which makes me think I won't have to swap it out), but some say that the '54 bridge sounds like a tele...not what I want. What are your thought when comparing the '69 and the '54. Would the '54 fulfill my needs?

*And finally, the solution that seems the easiest, but I'm not sure if it'll give me a tone that's quite as good as the '69 or '54. What are your thoughts about seymour duncan ssl-1's? I was thinking I'd put a ssl-1 in the neck and middle, and then a ssl-5 in the bridge. Since they're all ssl's and seymour duncan's, I thought that they'd play nice with each other in all positions (especially position #4). Also, the ssl-5 would get me closer to that elusive Gilmour tone so many of us seem to be enamored with. The ssl-1 also have a little more output than the fenders. My past experience with duncan's have been that most of them are good, but I wouldn't consider the ones I've used truly great.

I'm at my wits end reading online reviews, so I'm very much looking forward to what you all have to say. Thank you so much for the assistance! I appreciate your expertise and your insights.







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You'll be very happy with the '69s. As for the SD's, well, its a different tone, a little more base tone than your typical strat. Cool sound too. Personally, I'd rather have N3 pickups, but they don't sell them yet.... I've been told by a studio guitarist the best pickups are American Standard's from the 90's. Not made the same as they are today, but they sound better than anything in the market today. Don't forget pickup height adjustment is uneven between the E strings. The low e is typically set lower than the high e. Makes a big difference in tone...

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Gutted! I read your post title, and then your initial post... and it was as if I'd written it myself... after reading what feels like x,000,000's of articles posts etc etc on replacement strat pups I got very excited when I got to your post, as I've got down to picking one of 2 sets, like yourself...:

the CS54's or the SSL-1/SSL-1/SSL-5 combo....

Have you come to a decision? tried and tested them..? Plumped for one or the other?

I've noodled around in Guitar shops on different guitars with different pickups, but have come down the coin flip between the two. And your post is the most articulate one I've come across that directly targets comparing the two....

There must be more that one person with some more info on these two side by side....

Consider this a very excited BUMP!

There’s not much in the pricing of the two, so it really comes down to the tone & the versatility....

I vote for cs 69s,
sound great clean and drives very well,
the bridge pickup is very weak but in a good way.
When the amp is driven I get a very nice "if the house
is a rockin" tone SRV.
I initially wanted to replace that pu but found a sweet spot.

The mid pickup is not reverse wound so it will not cancel
hum. However it sounds awesome. Just gotta play with the
pickup height.
I have those on my cp 60s strat and love them.
Bluesstrattone .......

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

I'd go for the '69s if you are going more for the Gilmour type tone as the '54 bridge pup can be very bright opposed to the '69 which is somewhat less trebly.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I was torn between a few different pickup options. I decided after listnening to many mp3 that what I wanted was:
Neck: CS69
Middle: CS57/62
Bridge: Texas Special

Only problem was that You have to buy them in sets up 3, so what was I to do with the extra 9 pickups? I told my wife I could buy and equip 3 more strats, but that did not fly very far yea, I hear ya I don't understand it either. She told me that I don't need more than on Strat, I used logic and told here she doesn't need more than 1 pair of red pumps...any how I digress.

My solution: Rumplestiltskin Pickups. http://www.rumpelstiltskinpickups.com/

I was intrigued by what I read and heard on their site. I spent several weeks trying to dig up dirt and couldn't find any. I don't know if his pickups sound exactly like the CS69's because I never owned them, but they do sound exactly as I imagined them sounding. My "CS57/62" is RWRP also (which the CS69, 57/62 is not) and the pole pieces have a modern stagger to them instead of the vintage stagger so no problems with an overbearing G-string (lol G String, I love this hobby of mine). So I ended up, using the Rumple model names.

Neck: Gypsy
Middle: Custom would to 6.5-7.10 K with 3.58 Henries and RWRP
Bridge: plain enamel wound to Texas Special specs

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2012 American Standard Strat Charcoal Froast
2009 Standard Strat Sunburst Brown
Blues Junior Tweed NOS
2007 Line6 Spider Jam

For a set like the CS Gilmour I'd go with,
Neck--CS Fat 50
Middle--CS 69 (not real sure here as the CS Gilmour specs just says custom hand wound single coil)
Bridge--SD SSL-5

Check out the specs on the CS website.

http://www.fender.com/customshop/instru ... reg%3B+NOS