1. Really noiseless?
2. How do they do it? Humbuckers?


Just wondering because I am thinking of getting them for my blue flower stratocaster. To replace the "noisemore" pups that came stock in it.
Switching from positions 1-5 sounds like "EEE-mmm-EEEE-mm-EEE"
Thanks for any help.

I don't know. But if you do, I'd buy em.

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

1. No.
2. Yes, "Noiseless" is just Fender's name for their stacked humbucker line.

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You dig?

Martian,

While I normally agree with you, or at least respect your opinion when I don't, I think you are doing a disservice to the OP and others when you tell people that Fender "noiseless" pickups are not.

lungimsam, here is my take on your question.

First of all, Fender has made several types of "noiseless" pickups: The "Vintage Noiseless" (I think they still call them that. These are the ones uses in the Clapton Strat.); the "Hot Noiseless" (Supposedly designed or Jeff Beck); the "Samarium Cobalt Noiseless" (SCN. Designed by Bill Lawrence for Fender and used on the previous generation of American Deluxe guitars); and the N3 (Designed in-house and used on the current generation of American Deluxe guitars). Fender also announced (earlier this year, I believe), a noiseless version of their 50's style pickups, but I have never seen them in the market place. Perhaps they were not quite ready for prime time and Fender pulled them back for more work.

All of the Fender noiseless pickups are a "stacked humbucker" design and are as quiet (or noisy) as any other humbucker when installed. It is really irrelevant with a humbucker if the coils are side by side or stacked. The key is the winding of the two coils in opposite electrical polarity and the magent orientation.

I will agree with Martian on one point: no pickup is completely noiseless/noise free. However, when properly installed, these pickups can be amazingly quiet. The key to acheiving mimimum noise with any guitar is proper pickup and wiring installation: Clean soldering, solid grounding, and shielding around the wiring and controls (pots and switches). It does no good to shield the pickup cavity of a humbucker equipped guitar (whether stacked or side-by-side). The pickup design takes care of that. However, a great deal of noise can be picked up by the wiring and switches where body capacitance (your body) acts as an antenna to feed ambient signals to the guitar where they are picked up, sent to the amp, and amplified.

My home is a veritable RF "swamp". I live in Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the National Reconnasiance Office headquarters, various large CIA buildings, and the many contractors that support them (I am a contractor supporting the National Geospatial Agency, NGA). There is also an outer marker remote transmitter for Dulles Airport within 1/2 mile of my home. I sometimes feel like I live in a microwave oven. In fact on weekends after about 11:00 pm, there is something in my area that transmits a signal that is picked up by all of my guitars. It is not 60 cycle hum or a ground problem as it only occurs at that time and lasts for about an hour or two. It is a very harsh buzz that nothing I have done can reduce. I just quit playing when it occurs.

Because of my environment, 4 of my 5 guitars have noiseless/humbucker pickups installed. My quietest guitar is a 2009 MIM Standard Strat with Fender SCN pickups. The pickup and wiring cavity are factory shielded. That guitar is as close to dead quiet as it can get. There is no noise and no change in noise whether you are touching the strings or not. I also have an Ibenez with Guitar Fetish Recotron (their version of Filtertrons) that is factory shielded and almost as quiet as my Strat. My AVRI 52 Telecaster is equipped with Seymour Duncan Vintage Stack Noiseless pickups. There is no shielding anywhere in the body cavities, nor do I intend to install any. It has a very slight buzz (much less then you get with regular single coil pickups) that goes silent when you touch the strings. I have a Lyon by Washburn that is equipped with GFS humbuckers. There is also no factory shielding in the body. It picks up a slight amount of hum/buzz from the control area due to the proximity of my body. I placed a sheet of aluminum foil on the inside of the control cavity cover and grounded it to the back of the volume pot. The noise has been greatly reduced. I could probaby reduce it more by completely shielding the control cavity, but I am lazy. My noisiest guitar is my homebuilt Squire "Esquier". I used the bridge pickup out of my AVRI 52 Tele. I shielded the pickup cavity which reduced the hum from the pickup somewhat, but did not shield the control cavity. The result is there is some 60 cycle hum and buzz that goes away when you touch the strings.

So the bottom line is, if you live/play in a noisy environment and have taken all precautions to reduce/eliminate ground loops, noise from lights and other sources, then noiseless pickups would be a good thing to try. Take care in installing them, as you would with any pickup, and you should see a noticable difference in noise level. Will they be completely quiet? Maybe. Maybe not. But unless you did something wrong, they should be much quieter than the regular single coil pikups you have now. Good luck. Let us know how things work out.

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Bill

Bill,

You've actually reinforced my point as many believe these pickups are literally noiseless. I feel I have done no disservice to anyone here. Rather, I don't want anyone to be disillusioned, expecting a totally noise free pickup. Hum reduced, yes but completely noiseless, no.

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You dig?

I don't think anyone would be disillusioned if they heard a properly installed noiseless/humbucker pickup. The level of noise is so low compared to a standard single coil that it is effectively noiseless in the environment. What little noise there may be is nothing that should scare off the OP or any other user. Is "Noiseless" a misleading name for a product? Well, to be absolutely noiseless from a technical/scientific standpoint, the pickups would have to operate at zero degrees Kelvin (−459.67 °F) at which point your fingers might get a little chilly.

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Bill

Maybe instead of "noiseless", they should call them "lessnoise". (pronounced "le-nwa")

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Being a defense contractor engineer, I prefer acronyms. QTONP ("Quieter than our noisy pickups") strikes me as appropriate.

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Bill

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

Works for me!

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You dig?

Ok. Cuz' I'm a nice guy, I'll copywrite the name, sell it to Fender, and split the profits between the three of us.

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Bill

Bill for President in 2012!!!

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You dig?

No thanks. I wouldn't want to take anything away from the "serious" candidates.

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Bill

Thanks for the info, guys. That clears it up for me. I will let you know how it goes if I get them installed.

If your guitar is an original "Blue Flower" Strat, I would suggest building up a complete new wired pickguard with the noiseless pickups and keeping the original pickguard in a safe place.

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Bill