Stratocaster neck pickup shootout: Standard, Texas Special, SCN. Recorded with Pod X3.

Did some recordings to find out the differences between the pickups on my Stratocasters:
- '99 AM STD
- '97 USA Lone Star with Texas Specials
- '96 AM STD with SCN Noiseless pickups.
Maybe this is interesting for somebody, so I thought I might as well share it. Recorded with a Pod X3.
Sorry for the boring music.... :-)

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[GazzaBloom]

Love the POD X3 patch. What's the amp model you used and did you use any stomp effects?

[DasinuMusic]

@GazzaBloom Amp model is the 1967 Class-A 30 Top Boost (drive 11 o'clock, bass 1 o'clock, cut 4, treble 2) . No stompbox except a little X3 compression (threshold 40, gain 60).

You can get this patch ("Jazz") on my site (Google 'Dasinu', go to XT patches). Originally it's an XT patch but you can use it with the X3 without problems.

[mateo2006]

I liked the sound of both the standard and specials better than the SCN which seemed to have a little less sparkle to the high end.

This kind of comparison is really much more useful than the typical way people present the pickups.

Do you find the SCNs best for the higher gain stuff though?

[DasinuMusic]

@mateo2006

The SCN sounds a bit like a humbucker (more compressed, fat and indeed less sparkle). I love it for high gain, it's very suitable for that.

[mateo2006]

@DasinuMusic Yeah, true to form, for sure. i just used some recording software to record 3 of my strats, one with vintage flat duncans, one with fender alnico Vs and one with cheap squire bullet pickups in it. Put some moderate grit on it and recorded over the backing tracks & I was surprised that in a blind test I couldn't properly distinguish between them at all! Many of the nuances that we love playing clean, unaccompanied make little difference in the mix! You'd pickup a SCN, though, I bet.

[DasinuMusic]

@mateo2006 Did you record with a miked amp? I think they sound more different when I play over an amp instead of a Line6 Pod.

[johnrussom]

Man I just bought the SCN noiseless. I have taken a year to research pickups and gone CRAZY listing to people claim they hear this or that.

Want to hear the truth? I am finding my sound by adding pieces that help what I want. I find most players that go gaga over this tone or that spend less time playing and more time arguing and really? I am so sick of it. PICK THAT GUITAR AND PLAY, the tone is found in the wood shed not the wood.

[UKToneKing]

@cbappa2 SCN pups are fenders noiseless pickups, that they stick in their USA deluxe strat's. they changed to another kind of noiseless now I think, mine has the SCNs in, and they use colbait magnets, which are a rare magnet, better suited for less hum I think

[MuseXXX]

Thank a bunch 4 that demo !! Every pickup demo should be like that!! I notice nobody ever does one to compare how well they can handle effects though... Yeah Im poking aroud looking for a neck pu that handles reverb and effects well

[mateo2006]

@DasinuMusic Wow, that's pretty intuitive! I was going through gearbox, yeah. I have an old ampeg I play through in the room and the sounds are certainly a lot more nuanced there. Out in the air, my feeling about the duncans are that they are warmer, mellower sounding, the Alnico Vs have a fatter clean sound and the cheap bullets with the ceramic magnets have a bit more gain and break-up a little sooner but maintain good clarity on the bass strings. Recorded they sound better than you'd think.