player opinions
Fender Custom Shop ‘54 Pickups
Name: Richard
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Band: -----
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Model Year: -----
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Price Paid: $129
Performance
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Very easy to install if you diagram where everything is before you replace it. Comes with white pup (pickup) covers, and they are easy to take off and replace with aged or whatever you like as long as it is single-coil size. The pole pieces are Alnico 5’s and are hand beveled. Each pickup is progressively more so. The neck is less beveled, the bridge more so. The bridge pup is rated at 6.5K, and the neck and middle are 5.9K. The middle pup is not reverse wound. The wire for the coils are Formvar insulated. Each pup uses black wax for potting, and has cloth covered wire. Each wire on each pup is the same color. Black and white. So, mark each with a code at the ends so as to easily know which is which after you’ve braided them together. The usual hype found in the Fender Frontline states that they “Researched the sweetest sounding Strat pickups from late ‘54-‘59 and faithfully reproduced the tonality, output and construction.” Fender has never let me down before, and they haven’t done so now. If planing to replace your pups with these, screw in the pup height adjustment screws before you do anything else. This procedure will remove the wax from the holes and threads for easier installation later.
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Performance Rating: 8
Sound Quality
I knew full well that when I purchased my MIJ Collectible ‘60’s Stratocaster, I was going to replace the pups. After all, going into the local G.A.S. Station to get a cheap back up axe that I could experiment with was my main objective. I found the quality of workmanship to be as good or better than my other MIA Strats. The neck joint was so tight that you couldn’t get a thin piece of paper between the body and neck! The whole guitar resonates extremely well. So in go the new pups. I knew any pups would be an improvement over the MIJ’s. After playing a ‘98 ‘60’s Relic, I inquired at the Fender Discussion Page in the Custom Shop thread as to what type of pups were in the Relic. And if they were available to the public. One of the Fender guys there (Duncan) gave me the answer. So I purchased them. Great presence, shimmer, definition, bell like sweet tones. So much tone that the tone controls (which I always set on max) became useful tools! Sounds great through my Pro Jr. For quiet to not so quiet use, and perfect for the Twin Reverb. I would imagine that these pups would sound great through most amps. Definitely a pro set of pups. All my axes are shielded. I would recommend shielding as these are not reverse wound pups.
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Sound Quality Rating: 8
Construction
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Very nice product INDEED!
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Construction Rating: 8
links
Average Ratings
- Performance: 8
- Sound Quality: 8
- Construction: 8
Ratings Key
- 10: Excellent
- 0: Useless
Available At Guitar Center
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Fender Custom Shop '54 Strat Pickups Set of 3 Standard
Company
- Fender