I have a American Deluxe Stratocaster 2010. It came with N3 pick ups, after using these pick ups for a while, and using them live, I'm finding that they just give out way to low out put for my playing style/tone.

I've been thinking about replacing them with higher output pick ups...I was checking out DiMarzio noiseless pick ups, but I have noticed they all have four wires...I'm pretty sure that the N3's have 3 wires.

Does anyone know if there are any hotter pick ups that can be easily changed with N3's, my main problem is I want to keep the S-1 switch.

Thanks

Check out Lindy Fralin. They have some good stuff and they're up to Fender specs too.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

Welcome.

You can easily use the DiMarzios for your purposes in spite of the fact that they have 5 wires which includes a bare (ground) wire. For your purposes, the DiMarzio's black and white wires would be soldered together and taped off, thus you'd only be dealing with three wires as well. Here's your conversion:
- The red wire of the DiMarzio would be the yellow or white wire of the Fender.
- The green wire of the DiMarzio would be the black wire of the Fender.
- The bare wire of the DiMarzio would be the green wire of the Fender.

You're welcome.

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I knew Mr. Pickup (Martian) would come to help!!

That's what they pay me the big money for (NOT)!!!

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Thank Martian. Helped a lot. Was just wondering if it would be possible to put a dimarzio in the neck, and keep the other N3's and still have the S-1 switch?

You're quite welcome.

Yes, and yes. The only thing you need to know is, if upon installation, you find the DiMarzio is out of phase with the two N3s, reverse the DiMarzio's red and green wires.

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Sorry for all the questions, but if i end up putting pick ups in like DiMarzio Chopper and the Tone Zone S, which are a lot hotter than the N3's, would it be bad for the pots or anything like that?

Thanks

Ask all the questions you want.

As to the pots, nah, you're fine. The after-market pickup manufacturers who make these high output, single slot Strat pickups presume the vast majority of players will only be changing the pickup and not the OEM pots in their guitars. Therefore and to a large degree, said pickups are designed premising 250Ks as the value of the pot(s). In reality, it is the 250K pots which give these pickups their extra "oomph". If you did in fact, replace your 250K pots with 500Ks, the DiMarzios would tonally lose their identity and merely be louder than most OEM pickups whereas your remaining N-3 pickup would sound like a cheap import of a Strat pickup.

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Sorry to revive a dead thread with my 1st post, but I've searched the lounge in the faint hope of figuring out a very similar N3 pickup swap. I am trying to replace the bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Injector, it's a 4 conductor stacked single coil, but there's no Bare wire! how should I go about wiring this to retain all the S1 functions? or worst case, how would i wire this PU with other N3's period ?! I'm stumped, I would appreciate any help Thanks!

Welcome.

See my Fender/DiMarzio wire color conversion above and wire accordingly.

The lack of bare wire is irrelevant in this particular situation.

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Thanks! all S1 functions are working and the pickup sounds strong! Thank you so much!

Glad to be of assistance. Enjoy!

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