Seymour Duncan California '50s Strat Pickup Set of 3, White

Really good set of pickups. Clean, crisp and great tone. Not too hot - perfect for clean strat style tones with some real punch. These were what Fruscianti used on the Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication album.They have staggered pole pieces which gives a more authentic vintage balance between the strings. Also if you get the heights set right (or just slightly wrong strictly speaking) you can induce a quasi-chorus effect on the middle two strings while the others stay clean which I've been enjoying. I'll correct that soon, but for now a nice side effect.The pickups are vintage cloth wired and wax potted (both the coils and the wire). All works well.They do come with bright WHITE pickup covers which are SD branded. You'll need to buy aged cream or black covers separately.Also supplied are the installation guide (with more options available for download from the SD website) and mounting screws and rubber tube section spacer pieces. No mounting springs are included. I swapped these across from my old pickups as I prefer the springs over the rubber tube.Coil resistances (OCR) are typically 6.5k ( I measured 6.47-6.78k) and bizarrely the middle pickup in my set had the highest resistance. Usually it is the bridge. I didn't measure impedance - that also contributes so the OCR is only one indicator of the coil output.NB The box lies. They are all 52mm pole spacing NOT 49.5mm as the packaging suggests. This is for all 3 pickups. That is the better way round for Fender stratocaster and similar guitars with a vintage trem (Yamaha Pacifica, Squire, etc). Strictly speaking they should be 49.5mm neck, 52mm bridge, and in-between for the the middle pickup. Using 52mm throughout is as the Fender default spec and is better than having the outer strings outside of the end pole pieces like you'd get at the bridge with a 49.5mm spaced pickup. Why the packaging suggests the bridge is 49.5mm spaced baffles me. I've measured it by ruler and by vernier callipers and it is definitely 52mm.A bit of an impulse buy but glad I bought them and a big step-up from the default pickups on my cheap Pacifica 112V.Note these are not shielded and not hum-cancelling. (Nor were the original pickups I swapped out) To improve resistance to hum shield your pickup cavity with copper foil. I tried it and the amount of hum I get from electrical interference is much reduced making these much more viable and the cost saving over Stk4s well worth it.Edit 2021: Pic added of the back of the packaging confirming these are SSL1s (and the spurious comment about pole spacing!)

These are a good buy at £135. Prices vary so much and Amazon was the cheapest by a long shot. I replaced a set of Lace Golds that I had in a Tokai TST50 with these as the golds were 5.8k and under-powered when used with a 20w amp for small pub gigs. These have a higher output, averaging 6.5k and are hotter and thus louder than the sensors. Very Hendrix sounding.....Update March 2019 - I still feel the same. Great PU's,roll the volume off a little and they clean up real nice, run the guitar wide open with a little overdrive and the amp sings.Update December 2022 - Still fantastic. Almost double the price now though. Amazing with an ODS style amp.

I purchased these for a mexi strat I have that while it is very comfortable to play, it did not give that 60's strat sound that suits my playing. I popped these in and while it may not have turned it into a custom shop start it has vastly improved the tone of the guitar. I play a lot of RHCP and it suits that sound perfectly.

I got these pickups for my 1988 Japanese Squier Strat, which has great build quality but has always been let down by the tone from the original pickups. These SSL-1s have absolutely transformed the tone. A fuller sound with more grunt and tonal range, and with the classic early Strat characteristics. Recommended.Update: I've now had the chance to try the guitar through my usual Fender 60w amp at a decent volume. Fantastic! Also, these pickups seem to provide more output than the originals, and the tone controls on the guitar now seem more responsive. Thinking of replacing the lace sensors on my other Strat.

Lovely strat pickups. Middle is reverse wound to negate most hum and they sound like a strat should. The tone is beautiful and tonally balanced across all 5 positions, chiming and glassy etc. They are, in my opinion, outstanding, especially for how relatively cheap they are.

Great for what they are meant for.Much lower output than standard strat pickups, but that is the "sound" I wanted. The staggered pickup can cause bad stratitis if string action is too low.If you like 50s vibe and a medium string height, these are absolutely for you

Replaced the original stock pickups in my 1985 Stratocaster after reading lots of positive reviews. I have to say I haven't heard it sound so good and I've owned it since new! I thought it sounded good before, but now it produces even lovelier bell tones and with a little dirt added sounds very bluesy... think Hendrix and you're not far off the mark. Would I buy them again... yes - and several friends have also said they are going to replace their Strat stock pups too.

As a guitar repair tech I have installed nearly every type of pickup going. I can honestly say that these pickups are fantastic and have completely transformed my Fender Strat!! Check out my other work at James Bragg Guitars.

Colocadas en una Starforce coreana de los años 80, no tiene nada que envidiar a Fender de gama media-alta.Sonido Fender de 'toda la vida'. En el puente nitidez asombrosa con el 'campaneo' típico de una buena strato, que permite solos brutales y definidos por mucha distorsión que le metas.

Montés sur une squier deluxe améliorée, c'est déjà énoooorme ! La définition est les possibilités sont cool. Sur un circuit 50', c'est Byzance pour moi. On retrouve toutes la palette de la strat. Du son 50, au fameux son à la dire straits. C'est très défini et velouté. je recommande +++ Pas la peine de taper plus cher.

Installati su una Fender Stratocaster American Standard del 2008. Rispetto a quelli originali, il suono risulta più equilibrato, con una medio alta presente ma non fastidiosa e dei bassi corposi. Dal mio punto di vista suonano come dei single coil per Stratocaster dovrebbero suonare

Nothing I have to say about these pickups! Seymour Duncan are a great company and make the best pickups in my opinion. In an interview John Frusciante said that he replaced original 50s pickups with these and nobody could tell the difference!

I purchased these for my first custom build Stratocaster. I own a Chinese Fender and an American Fender, the difference is night and day. I considered purchasing Fender pickups for this build but after reading reviews decided to go with this Seymour Duncan trio of pickups. I must say I am very happy I did.After taking my time and building an unbelievable (I think so anyway) custom Stratocaster with the best of everything, I soldered in these pickups. After filing, sanding and buffing the frets all level and adjusting everything right by the book I tentatively plugged it in. To my surprise, silence.... no humming feedback as with some guitars. I touched a string and had sound. After going through all the switch selections and tone adjustments to make sure everything was working properly, I started playing.The very first thing I noticed was that it sounded smooth and toned down a bit from my other Fenders. Going through the pickups I noticed they had great range, reminded me of my Gibson Les Paul a bit. I could make it twang and bark, but could also bring the blues and rock mellow tone in easily.I prefer this OVER my Fender American HSS. It looks better (maybe that's a stretch) and sounds superior to either of my other Stats or my American Telecaster, although the Telecaster is still one of my favorites.I like these so much that I am going to purchase another set for my Chinese Fender and make a few other upgrades to it as I love the fit and finish of the guitar, it just doesn't sound and react like the American Stat. For 130 bucks, that's a lot of bang for the buck. I plan on upgrading a few other parts as well with it.I am working on a Les Paul build and already have a set of Seymour Duncan Humbuckers ready to install in it, hoping for the same results. I have another cheap off-brand Strat done up in red, white and blue (I'm a flag loving disabled veteran) and I hope I can do a few upgrades to it to make it sound as good as it looks.I am excited about this product and won't hesitate to install these in any of my future projects. Personally, I don't know how anyone could say anything bad about Seymour Duncan's except "you can't please all of the people all of the time". I think 9 out of 10 people would probably agree with me.I'd like to mention a few more things about the product. I got the Seymour Duncan covers and installed them over the pickups, made them look awesome. The also came packaged VERY well in a nice plastic container with the pickups set in foam molds, making it impossible to damage them in shipping. I'm going to use them to store old pickups in. These came with plenty of wire to make connections and great installation directions for soldering too, for use in any application. I am very happy with the product. I wish I could post a photo of my guitar, I'm so proud of it.5 stars all day long and I will and already have bought more of these for a future project. I wish they were a bit cheaper, but you get what you pay for. It's a small price to pay to make a $400 guitar sound like a $2000 guitar.