Fender 69' Strat Pickup Sets

[Lefty Lou]

I used to have a set of these pickups, and noted that the mids were extremely lacking. At the time when I owned the set, I wasn't able to plug into a vintage Marshall head to hear the full range of these pickups. What are your experiences with the Fender 69' strat pup set, or other comparable strat pickup makes, especially the ones that lack noticeable midrange? Did your vintage Marshall head, speakers/cabinets, coily chords, KT66's, fuzz face, etc., make up for this noticeable loss of mid-range?

[Tone Slinger]

I've got a buddy who has these in his '76 strat. I've also played several '69 custom shop strats,etc. The whole thing about these pu's, imo, is thier 'polar opposite' to humbucker sound.These are real deal single coils for sure. With Fender amps you get scooped, spanky cleans, and through a loud Marshall or moderate MV types, you get precise, tight tone that is scooped but gets great upper mids when pushed. These,or any other single coils in the 'vintage spec' realms (5.5k to no more than 6.5k-7k), really need a modern type amp with mucho gain&eq options to get a sound meaty enough for hard rock. Of course a Super Lead with a nice overdrive/distortion (that has a good eq circuit) does the trick.

[Lefty Lou]

I've got a buddy who has these in his '76 strat. I've also played several '69 custom shop strats,etc. The whole thing about these pu's, imo, is thier 'polar opposite' to humbucker sound.These are real deal single coils for sure. With Fender amps you get scooped, spanky cleans, and through a loud Marshall or moderate MV types, you get precise, tight tone that is scooped but gets great upper mids when pushed. These,or any other single coils in the 'vintage spec' realms (5.5k to no more than 6.5k-7k), really need a modern type amp with mucho gain&eq options to get a sound meaty enough for hard rock. Of course a Super Lead with a nice overdrive/distortion (that has a good eq circuit) does the trick.

I'm very familiar with pickups having obsessed over them since Seymour first came on the scene in the 80's. I just never got to try out my 69' set with my Marshall amps. I was wondering if all or part of the variables I mentioned "offset" the lack of mids which are noticeably absent with 69' strat pickup sets. For "scooped" sounding pickups, Jimi was able to boost those "absent" mids of his low output late 60's strat pickups (typically @ 5.5K/per pup) to become more notably pronounced in his mixes.

[Tone Slinger]

Yep, Hendrix had the Super Lead grunt goin on that helped his strat-tone's midrange . I know you have tried more pu types than me,I always talk in terms of those that might not know (you already know bout most of this stuff) You know how he sounded on tunes where he was using a fender amp(like 'Long hot summer night'), THAT, is clean,mid-less pu's for sure. Almost pure glass. The weaker the single coil (with the '69's being fairly weak for sure) the BETTER a loose goose bottom end heavy fuzz (like a Fuzz face) works. You get more definition as compared to hot singles or especially hb'ers. Those Japanese Fender '68 reissues back in the 90's had THE BEST most authentic Hendrix tone, even though they were clear ash bodied (the basswood versions, imo, werent as good) they had those weak pu's. They sounded great with the reissue red Dallas/Arbitor(Dunlop) germanium transistor fuzz face reissue of that day (mid-late '90's). I used to go to my fav. shop (now defunct 'Reliable Music' Charlotte NC) and play through everything.Miss that place

[Lefty Lou]

Yep, Hendrix had the Super Lead grunt goin on that helped his strat-tone's midrange . I know you have tried more pu types than me,I always talk in terms of those that might not know (you already know bout most of this stuff) You know how he sounded on tunes where he was using a fender amp(like 'Long hot summer night'), THAT, is clean,mid-less pu's for sure. Almost pure glass. The weaker the single coil (with the '69's being fairly weak for sure) the BETTER a loose goose bottom end heavy fuzz (like a Fuzz face) works. You get more definition as compared to hot singles or especially hb'ers. Those Japanese Fender '68 reissues back in the 90's had THE BEST most authentic Hendrix tone, even though they were clear ash bodied (the basswood versions, imo, werent as good) they had those weak pu's. They sounded great with the reissue red Dallas/Arbitor(Dunlop) germanium transistor fuzz face reissue of that day (mid-late '90's). I used to go to my fav. shop (now defunct 'Reliable Music' Charlotte NC) and play through everything.Miss that place

Thanks Tone Slinger, I didn't intend to sound brash or know it all about pups. I missed out on the true Jimi setup thang (using the exact same equipment he did) so I was curious as to how one or more of the variables mentioned in Jimi's equipment "cocktail" made more of a difference to mid boosted tones. One thing I liked about the 69' set I owned was the "ping" tonal quality it had on the wound strings, almost like the hammer of a piano striking a piano string making that "ping" tone. My Tokai 56' strat had those same "ping" tone qualities and I loved those pickups.

[bill bokey]

I love those CBS style strats through a Superlead, in fact they're the only strats I like. Here's a song I recorded last year with '78 Fernades Strat. I replaced the stock pickups with a Fender CS '69 set and I use two coily cords between the guitar, pedalboard and amp. No fuzz, no OD, just a '68 Superlead clone (volume 8, treble & presence 5, bass & mids 10) :
https://soundcloud.com/beaujolais-hills ... eavy-blues" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Same setup with a different guitar, a '78 Ibanez Silver Series strat :
https://soundcloud.com/beaujolais-hills ... eavy-blues" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[chrisom]

I don't know about the Fender 69' set, but Greg Koch really puts the Fender Fat 50's set thru it's paces in this thin-skin nitro Strat demo. Says he used a set for many years. I may get a set for my EJ Strat...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqL9fEadRxA

[Lefty Lou]

I love those CBS style strats through a Superlead, in fact they're the only strats I like. Here's a song I recorded last year with '78 Fernades Strat. I replaced the stock pickups with a Fender CS '69 set and I use two coily cords between the guitar, pedalboard and amp. No fuzz, no OD, just a '68 Superlead clone (volume 8, treble & presence 5, bass & mids 10) :
https://soundcloud.com/beaujolais-hills ... eavy-blues" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Same setup with a different guitar, a '78 Ibanez Silver Series strat :
https://soundcloud.com/beaujolais-hills ... eavy-blues" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I like it Bill!!! The Super Lead is capable of making up for "scooped" mids without and overabundance of same when using the 69' strat pickup set. In your clip the midrange is clearly there but not taking over in the mix. I've been trying something recently that I heard Howard Gee of Catalinbread say regarding their "foundation pedals" like the Dirty Little Secret pedal which is the Marshall Super Lead/Marshall Super Bass in a pedal. Howard says that he sets the EQ's of his "foundation pedals" typically with the treble and mids at about 6 to 7 each and runs the bass at about 3 to 4. Ive tried this with my Marshall 1959 Super Lead, JTM 45/50, and my Fender BFSR amps using my Les Pauls and the EQing works out great!!! At least as far as the Les Pauls go this works out extremely well. I've tried it on my friend's Fender SFSR amps to great results also.

[Tone Slinger]

Chrisom, those are very clean and pure pu's that guy was demoing for sure, very nice indeed.

Bill, loved the tone and playing bro, but as much as I'd like to go home with a hot school girl (like that line in your song) I could imagine what the parents would say after I told them I was a schoolboy,probably "So, just how many times have you repeated 12th grade" . Seriously though, loved the lead lines, very tasty playin there

[Lefty Lou]

I don't know about the Fender 69' set, but Greg Koch really puts the Fender Fat 50's set thru it's paces in this thin-skin nitro Strat demo. Says he used a set for many years. I may get a set for my EJ Strat...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqL9fEadRxA

I love the Seymour Duncan SSL-1 vintage staggered strat set that Andy Aledort uses in his strat for his Hal Leonard Hendrix DVD's.

[chrisom]

bill bokey- "Mellow Down Easy" was some great "Strat" sounds to be sure, but what I really liked was when the Jack Bruce-style harmonies kicked in at the beginning of the vocals. You ruled it man!

Lou- I also love those Seymour Duncan Vintage Staggered Strat pickups.

TS - Any lg. pics of those Jackson J-100's?

[Lefty Lou]

My son has the SSL-1's in his strat but they're upside down ala Hendrix being he's a lefty like myself.

[stef]

My son has the SSL-1's in his strat but they're upside down ala Hendrix being he's a lefty like myself.

I have it in the middle position of my Azusa, with the HS-3 in the neck. The SSL-1 is hotter and louder than HS-3

[Lefty Lou]

My son has the SSL-1's in his strat but they're upside down ala Hendrix being he's a lefty like myself.

I have it in the middle position of my Azusa, with the HS-3 in the neck. The SSL-1 is hotter and louder than HS-3

Seymour gives 6.5K average DC resistance for the SSL-1 which we all know is not really a true measurement of performance with any pickup. A good example of that would be any pickup wound with 43 AWG or smaller (very misleading) when it comes to output. The SSL-1's do seem to have more "girth" whilst retaining that classic strat "quack" in the 2 and 4 positions of a 5 way switch. There are two pup guys that I've dealt with, that can do wonders with just about any single coil, and that's Don Mare and Peter Leonard of The Pickup Wizard. I've got Don Mare's "ZepOtone 2" Live Version Tele pup set (for which I can't say enough good about), and I've got a 60's Tele pup rewind set, and a slightly modified 69' Strat pup set from Peter Leonard aka The Pickup Wizard. What's cool about Peter Leonard's custom wound 69' set is that I wanted more mids that 69' strat sets were lacking but I still wanted the crystal clarity and output while being balanced at the same time. For awhile Rod McQueen of Sliders Vintage Classic pups was publishing pup specification data on eBay, and his 69' sets were around 6.0K average so I asked Peter Leonard to up the DC resistance of the pups from 5.5K Ohms average to 6.0K Ohms average, use the Kinman Flat Stagger for balanced output for use with a compound radius neck, vintage relicing, etc. I don't know how Peter did it but he managed to do just what I asked, retain the vintage tone and clarity of 69's, balancing output between switch positions of the 5 way, and adding just the right amount of mid "girth". I was turned on to Peter Leonard through a auction listing on eBay in which Peter advertised rewinds for $25/a single coil. Also, at that time Peter already had 20 to 25 years of experience in winding pups and (sold/sells) his pups to musicians all over the world. Peter's prices have gone up but, in my opinion they're still worth every bit of the money for his attention to detail, construction, and overall sound quality. ** This is not a paid announcement**

[Lefty Lou]

Just read this interesting little excerpt in a review of Chris Kinman's Impersonator 54' Zero-Hum pickups:

When creating the Impersonator 54, Chris Kinman discovered that the tonal changes in old Strat pickups are due to changes in the insulating coating on the wire, not to any ageing of the magnets themselves. He proved this by rewinding a very old Strat pickup, using the type of wire used when it was manufactured in the early '60s. Before rewinding, the aged coil had a reduced resonant peak and depressed inductance, which translated to softer attack, lower dynamic range, dull high end and low output level. The rewound pickup had all the snap, shimmer and bell‑like tones of a brand new one.