Noiseless Jazz

What pickups should i get for my stratocaster?

I am redoing a squier strat, and I’m replacing the neck and the pickups. I play rock, jazz, country, blues, — pretty much anything. My budjet is around $150-$230 i want versitile pickups with absolutley no feedback, unlike the ones the strat came with. Any suggestions/links? Thank you all in advance.

So your choices are….

1. Noiseless single coils. aka stacked humbuckers. Fender Lace and Seymour Duncan Hot Rails are the prime movers and shakers in this category. Very close to the single coil sound, but hotter. Probably the closest you’ll get to a single coil sound without the hum.

2. Minihumbuckers. Seymour Duncan JB jr, etc. Halfway between the tone of the humbucker and single coil. Gives you a few more options, no hum, with plenty of output.

3. Active single coils. The first ones that come to mind are the EMG SA’s. Gilmour (Pink Floyd) used ‘em, if that helps. Active pickups, as long as they are properly wired, have the lowest noise and potentially the highest output of all options presented.

The site below has el cheapo active single coils, fwiw. I’ve purchased their active humbuckers, and they’re okay. Great for distortion, not as compressed as the EMGs, but not as good of tone. A lot cheaper, though!

Muy importante… don’t forget to make sure that your guitar is properly shielded and grounded. If you google “shielding the beast” or “quieting the beast”, something like that, you can find the guitarnuts.com page that talks about how to properly ground and shield your guitar. It focuses on the Strat specifically, so that probably helps. I cannot overstate how important this is if you want to have the least noise, hum, and interference.

The last two links are to the two different Seymour Duncan strat pickup sets that I would suggest you look at. The “Everything Axe” set is versatile and going to be closer to the “Strat” sound. The Hot Rails set is … well, hotter, and going to be better for higher gain.

I know there’s at least a few more sets out there, including a set with Hot Rails in the bridge, Cool Rails in the middle, and Vintage Rails in the neck… that will be closer to your “strat” sound, but not everything is super hot.

Saul

Great jazz bass pickups’ comparison/review.4 sets demoed.

The Fender Bass: An Illustrated History $12.93 (Book). When Leo Fender added a bass to his growing family of instruments 50 years ago, he created a new world for musicians and revolutionized an industry in the process. Using hundreds of photographs, this exciting release chronicles the evolution of that instrument from 1951 to 2001, providing background, history and highly researched facts vital to understanding everything about this remarkabl…

Blue Book of Electric Guitars, 9th Edition (Blue Book of Electric Guitars) $29.95 After years of continual research and updating, the 9th Edition Blue Book of Electric Guitars is now over 1,000 pages! Hundreds of new B&W and color images have been added, and once again, the Photo Grading System™ continues to be the only printed reference on guitar grading. Over 1,000 manufacturers and trademarks are listed, and major sections like Gibson and Fender are now large enough to be …

Blue Book of Electric Guitars $23.04 Looking for guitar values and information? The Blue Book of Electric Guitars, 11th Edition is now expanded to 1,168 pages including the 16-page color Photo Grading System. This ultimate reference guide includes guitar reference information and values on over 1,200 guitar manufacturers and distributors including Gibson, Fender, Paul Reed Smith, Epiphone, Gretsch, Guild, Ibanez, Dean, Washburn, Ya…