Stratocaster Pickups

[Cactus Jack]

Do you want noise cancelling humbuckers that are pickup sized, or real single coil pickups?

For real single coils I'm a fan of Seymour Duncan SSL-2s in the neck and middle of a strat - they sound like what a classic strat should sound like to my ears.  Prefer the beefier SSL-6 in the bridge though.

I dropped that exact combo in a Strat last week. Awesome tone, extra little heat in the bridge, but crystal clear sparkly pups for sure. I bough singles used and pieced together the set for $135.

 

[arealken]

60's? Lollar. Maybe Klien. IMO, and its just an opinion, Lollar hits the sweet spot on 60's pickups with their "blondes", but the Fender 57/62's are right up there for way less money.For 60's, Also consider Duncan Antiquites, they got it down. Also Van Zandt Vintage Plus.
There are so many good botique winders winding 60's vintage style piuckups, its hard to say, many good pickups out there.

 

[arealken]

Thanks for all the input, i ended up with two seymour duncan ssl 1s in neck and middle and an ssl 5 in the bridge

SSL-1's are more of a 50's wind..the only 60's period specific Duncan wind AFAIK is the Antiquities Surfers( Texas hots are 50's also). At the end of the day all good Strat pickups sound similar within the same basic wind  range ( early 50's , late 60's/70's are low wind pickups for instance)
Unless you are going for an all out period correct guitar with period correct woods and stuff( which is what I happen to do),you are best served by knowing the difference between 50's vintage, 60's vintage, Blues style, and hot wound.That is where the sound can make the most difference.
50's have the classic early Buddy HJolly sound that most folks identify as THE classic Strat sound, then you move on up to the grail of Strat tone, which is the 57, which is similar, but a bit refined in balance and has probably the best
eversweet spot of all-Think Clapton lay Down Sally...then to the 62/63 which has more girth, has a solid but not over driven  midrange and a really nice balance of bass to mids  and a clear present treble  , then move to the 65 CBS, which is the iconic Lenny/Hendrix at Monterrey tone, which is clucky and bluesy with a solid  bass and  a beautiful sort of dark  round treble and , then move to the 69 which is the iconic Hendrix tone-  think Little Wing..pretty much the 70's Strats are patterned after that late 69 tone which is similar in many repscets to the original 1955 tone. This is off the cuff from what I know or don't know, so take it with a grain of salt, I'm no expert.
I'd say this..if you want low wind early 50's sound, get a set of 1955 pickups period specific, maybe Dimarzio True Velvet  , IF you want 60's tone, go Fender 57/62, that would cover the most ground for the least amount of money.

 

[Bob Hoover Ross]

Most people start with Seymour Duncan’s and dimarzios and work their search out from there.

...or don't even, just stick w/ the Duncans or DiMarzios.  :icon_jokercolor:

I've had a set of Seymour Duncan Vintage Rails in my Strat clone for at least 20 years now, and it's never even occurred to me to look for something different; they just seem to do exactly what I want out of a Strat pickup.

But just recently I started revisiting this whole issue, because I ordered a new body and neck from Warmoth because my Strat clone was falling apart, and I figured I'd re-use the Vintage Rails in the new build
...and then I discovered that guitar wasn't actually falling apart! So now I have a new neck and body incoming, and maybe I should keep the old Strat intact and just build up a whole new guitar? But then the question: What pickups? Am I just gonna buy another set of Duncan Vintage Rails?

Well, maybe...
But then I stumbled across the Lindy Fralin Split Blade Strat pickup, and now I'm thinking...

 

[BroccoliRob]

yo i'm gonna recommend the dimz (dimarzio) Injectors until the day I die. Which might be soon seeing as I'm like a reverse benjamin button. or maybe not soon. I dunno. death lurks around every supermarket ranch display and in every hidden valley

 

[Strat Avenger]

yo i'm gonna recommend the dimz (dimarzio) Injectors until the day I die. Which might be soon seeing as I'm like a reverse benjamin button. or maybe not soon. I dunno. death lurks around every supermarket ranch display and in every hidden valley

Yep, I'm  big fan of the Injectors for neck and middle position. I hated their bridge model but you could always use the neck model at the bridge as well. I prefer a 'bucker at the bridge in most cases.

 

[Tyrannocaster]

Anybody know of any good demos of the Lawrence microcoils? I still have a letter from Bill he wrote me in 1972! I have a lot of respect for him, but that said, I got a set of Keystones for one of my Strats and I don't like them at all.

 

[Random Stranger]

If you go to this link, and click on "Sort by loaded resonant frequency" you'll understand more about how pickups relate to eachother than 99.9% of guitarists. It was made by a person who goes by "Antigua" on various forums. He's done lots of pickups recently that for whatever reason arent on the chart yet.

http://echoesofmars.com/pickup_data/viewer

Basically you can tell 90% of how a pickup will sound like by the loaded resonant frequency and loaded resonant peak. If you're having a hard time understanding this, click "plot" to compare multiple pickups. Also, you can tell how "hot" a pickup is by the inductance.

Here's a few selections that almost everyone should be familiar with.

Seymour Duncan JB Bridge: 1.96k loaded resonant frequency. 1.6 dB peak.

Average P90: 2k loaded resonant frequency. 1.5 dB loaded peak.

Gibson 57 Classic: 2.33k loaded resonant frequency. 0.6 dB loaded peak.

Seymour Duncan SSL-5 (Or SSL-6): 2.36k loaded resonant frequency. 4.3 dB loaded peak.

Seymour Duncan SSL-1 (Or SSL-2): 3.81k loaded resonant frequency. 5.5 dB loaded peak.

Fender 57'/62': 4.25 loaded resonant frequency. 5 dB loaded peak.

TV Jones TV Classic Filtertrons: 5.3k loaded resonant frequency. 0.1 dB loaded peak.