Does anyone know the tonal difference between the N3 noiseless pickups in the 2010 vs the SCN pickups in the older American Deluxe models?

To accurately explain that you've gotta understand that passive pickups operate almost like a seesaw. What you add on one end you'll take away from usually the two other parts of the sonic spectrum.

[To very loosely quote Martians succinct explanation that made sense of it all to me]

So if you add treble you'll likely take away from bass and as you push the treble further take away from the mid range response. Opposite if you add bass, you'll take away from the treble then the mids as you push further.

To my ear N3's sound a bit like Vintage Noiseless pickups. A accentuated treble and diminished middle.

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No no and no

I own a 2004 american deluxe stratocaster. The pickups in this strat are samarium cobalt hand wired pickups. The cobalt magnets created a very clean vintage yet high output tone. They are personally the best pickups I have ever owned in any of my guitars. The new deluxes do have a nice noisless pickup but I have been playing a friends 2010 deluxe and they just don"t compare to the older cobalt hand wired ones. Don't get me wrong the new pickups are fantastic sounding great working noisless pickups but there is a very disticnt tone difference.