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Best clean, ringing, chimey, glass like noiseless strat replacements?

I recently bought an L-290TL so those are probably still available. It's getting matched with an L-500C.
 
amigarobbo said:
Street Avenger said:
Dimarzio Area 67.
There's nothing more chimey & glassy. It's not a "compromise". Those days are over.
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Not what ears are sayin'

https://youtu.be/Ub5VlXkW4p0?t=8

https://youtu.be/Ub5VlXkW4p0?t=93

Your milage blah blah.
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Nothing wrong with my ears. I use my 1990 Fender Strat single coils as a reference.
The 67s nail that tone, and without any of the noise. There are still fools in the guitar
world who think that somehow noise makes a better tone. Well it doesn't. And that whole
"vintage" thing was a design flaw. Nothing magical about it.
 
Ilitch Electronics is the guy Cagey was probably trying to think of. I've spoken with him on the phone a couple of times and he was very informative. At some point I would like to give his stuff a try. Otherwise, I recently bought an Electro Harmonix Silencer to try as a gate for my strats and I have one with MojoTone Quiet Coils, which I like but they do differ from my Kleins.
 
You want info on the Lawrences? Wilde or Lawrence USA - but don't buy them from the website. Go to Squeebay or Treeverb - you'll get them faster.
 
I'm in search of noiseless pickups, too - budget ones.
So far, based on endless youtube-ing, the ones I liked and can afford are:
Fender hot noiseless - they do not sound like SC at all, but sound really great in their own right.
Fender gen4 noiseless - almost SC sound. Not quite. But close.
The most budget option would be Kiesel's twinblades - if bought as a preassembled pickguard ! They don't sound bad. They don't sound amazing either. Looks like decent deal for the money.

I loved demos of zexcoil. But they quite outside my reach. ((
And somehow totally missed those Lawrence stuff  - more youtubing to do . ))
 
barber76 said:
I'm in search of noiseless pickups, too - budget ones.
So far, based on endless youtube-ing, the ones I liked and can afford are:
Fender hot noiseless - they do not sound like SC at all, but sound really great in their own right.
Fender gen4 noiseless - almost SC sound. Not quite. But close.
The most budget option would be Kiesel's twinblades - if bought as a preassembled pickguard ! They don't sound bad. They don't sound amazing either. Looks like decent deal for the money.

I loved demos of zexcoil. But they quite outside my reach. ((
And somehow totally missed those Lawrence stuff  - more youtubing to do . ))
Click to expand...


Recommendation:  If you want glassy, chimey Strat sounds, do NOT do the Kiesels.  They're great pickups, great midrange, quiet, and much beefier than a traditional strat.  But they do NOT do your conventional Strat sound. 


Take a look at the Guitar Fetish site for GFS NeoVins.  Budget minded, well regarded by some folks on this board whose opinions I think are solid - Cagey, for example.



 
Bagman67 said:
Recommendation:  If you want glassy, chimey Strat sounds, do NOT do the Kiesels.  They're great pickups, great midrange, quiet, and much beefier than a traditional strat.  But they do NOT do your conventional Strat sound. 
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No, they don't, agree 100%. They don't sound bad, but not like traditional strat at all.
Btw, I didn't like a single demo of (supposedly famous) Lace sensors. Watched demos of their different combos (they mark them with colors), and they all sounded dull to my ears.
 
I just built a Warmoth Tele with Bill Lawrence (wildepickups) Twin Blades and really like them for the sound I'm after.  Having said that, I don't think they are the glassy noiseless sound the OP is after.  No experience with BL's other pups.

Of the Stat type pups I've used (not that many), the only ones I've used that got me there are the Lace Sensors.  I have an MIM Strat loaded with a Lace Sensor Gold pickguard from a Strat Plus I had eons ago and really like the sound.  Clean Stratty sounds that are great, and also noiseless.
 
Bagman67 said:
barber76 said:
I'm in search of noiseless pickups, too - budget ones.
So far, based on endless youtube-ing, the ones I liked and can afford are:
Fender hot noiseless - they do not sound like SC at all, but sound really great in their own right.
Fender gen4 noiseless - almost SC sound. Not quite. But close.
The most budget option would be Kiesel's twinblades - if bought as a preassembled pickguard ! They don't sound bad. They don't sound amazing either. Looks like decent deal for the money.

I loved demos of zexcoil. But they quite outside my reach. ((
And somehow totally missed those Lawrence stuff  - more youtubing to do . ))
Click to expand...



Take a look at the Guitar Fetish site for GFS NeoVins.  Budget minded, well regarded by some folks on this board whose opinions I think are solid - Cagey, for example.
Click to expand...


+1 on the GFS NeoVin's.  Never mind the price and just evaluate them as a pickup, and the price bias won't subjectify your opinion of them.  They are great pickups!
 
I'm planning to put Seymour Duncan Classic Stack Plus pickup(s) on my upcoming build - didn't see them mentioned in this thread, so thought it might be worth adding, maybe 🙂
Based on the demos I've heard on their site and YouTube, they sound great - especially the neck pickup.
 
Pete Thorn recently did an interesting video about the use of germanium fuzz pedal, turned down, to get a glassy tone....  :dontknow:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puisIlr6Jqc[/youtube]
 
Thought I would chime in here and recommend the mojotone quiet coils. They do recommend 500k pots with them though and that may be more of a pain than you would like.

I play a lot of HSS strats, so for me, having the humbucker and two noisless pickups relatively close to single coil in tone without sacrificing anything is huge.
 
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