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Old 05-23-2019, 11:43 AM   #41
toleolu
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Came up with a workaround for my amp situation. But I'm still gonna get a set of those Seymour Duncan Red Devils!!!!
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Old 05-23-2019, 01:10 PM   #42
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Bullshit.

How long have guitar players been hearing that? Which strat tone, by the way? There are many. All of them? Even better than the real thing? Marketing...
Please there are so many good noiseless pickups now its an embarrassment of riches. Dimarzio Area's, Bill Lawrence L200's, Kinman, Fender N4, Mojotone quiet coil, Zexcoil and Fluence to name just some. The Fluence are among the most authentic sounding because they dont use a dummy coil at all. They provide 2 switchable tones: a traditional 50's glassy tone and an overwound 60's tone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3Rk2FWQCc

If the fluence were passive I'd already own them. But being a fuzz guy, active pickups kinda ruin the Guitar volume > fuzz interaction.

My next set will be Zexcoils which are as good as the Fluence but passive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9VdAykGjQY&t=

Last edited by Magicbuss; 05-23-2019 at 01:23 PM.
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Old 05-23-2019, 06:05 PM   #43
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If the fluence were passive I'd already own them. But being a fuzz guy, active pickups kinda ruin the Guitar volume > fuzz interaction.
Precisely and exactly ^that.
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Old 05-23-2019, 08:10 PM   #44
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How do they make them so quiet? Are they super high output pickups then just turned down?

I saw the dethbuckers, those looked pretty interesting!
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Old 05-23-2019, 08:43 PM   #45
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Volume turned down works just as it does on passives on these. I also have active EMGs in my Schecter and passives in my LP and Washburn, I know what you mean by volume turned down scenarios - the volume knob actually affects the response of the guitar (and Tone knob does sound differently at different volume levels, as it should), it's not just a "master volume" control like on a lot of EMGs, where it just has this amped, buffered, often clipped signal from the get go, and just turns that down.

Alas, I have no fuzz pedal to check it out. But indeed that might not work with them. Not sure, haven't tried


To summarize, I think Fishman did an absolutely kickass job with their Fluence design. Best pickups ever (not just for Strat). I can have higher gain tones with my Strat without a noise gate - there's no hum, and the actual noise is at extremely low levels. It really obviates the need of using a noise gate. It is bliss.
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That's a good point... Fuzzes kind of suck unless it's the first thing the guitar plugs into and is a hi-z guitar PU - because the guitar is sort of part of the fuzz circuit. Not even plugins can properly replicate that sudden clean up and getting brighter when turning the vol knob down on the guitar, aka real fuzz because they can't react to the impedance changes as the knob turns. Plugins can do a decent job of replicating a full on fuzz to an extent but much of fuzz goodness is that guitar/pedal interaction.

I've been seriously thinking of getting pre-wired set of Fluence but being a fuzz fan, this sort of deal-breaks it a tiny bit.
On this...

I came across a pretty involved run through Joe Gore did. While they were really impressive, he breaks down the issue with actives and certain fuzz pedals near the end of the video(just after 11:00). Maybe I came across this already, and it was tucked away in the back of my mind? Anyway, that one thing seems like it could be a pretty serious issue for a certain cross section of players. Other than that, I was very impressed.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVEtgqFwK2g
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Old 05-23-2019, 08:55 PM   #46
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I'm pretty sure I'd love them except for the fuzz thing. That whole fat puffy melt your face sound on 10 to twangy bright country by 6 on the volume control (and everything between those two) is tough to give up.
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Old 05-23-2019, 09:56 PM   #47
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Please there are so many good noiseless pickups now its an embarrassment of riches. Dimarzio Area's, Bill Lawrence L200's, Kinman, Fender N4, Mojotone quiet coil, Zexcoil and Fluence to name just some. The Fluence are among the most authentic sounding because they dont use a dummy coil at all. They provide 2 switchable tones: a traditional 50's glassy tone and an overwound 60's tone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC3Rk2FWQCc

If the fluence were passive I'd already own them. But being a fuzz guy, active pickups kinda ruin the Guitar volume > fuzz interaction.

My next set will be Zexcoils which are as good as the Fluence but passive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9VdAykGjQY&t=
I think you are being dazzling by the playing and the amp. With that quality of recording (and being dazzled by the player), I seriously doubt that you could tell much difference (if any) between a set of cheap ceramic pickups and the most expensive pickups that you could find to buy.

For what it is worth, I think that lace sensors sound good in their own right. I also think that they do not sound like classic strat single coils.

If any of these noiseless pickups did sound the same as classic strat pickups, everyone would be all over them, including guitar manufacturers. They would be standard equipment. Who doesn't want to kick the single coil noise? But they don't sound the same.
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Last edited by brainwreck; 05-23-2019 at 10:01 PM.
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Old 05-24-2019, 08:37 AM   #48
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How do they make them so quiet? Are they super high output pickups then just turned down?
Most noisless singles (Area, kinman, Wilde, etc) use a small dummy coil stacked below the actual coil. Thre dummy coil is reverse wound so it cancels the noise much like a side by side humbucker.

The Zexcoils and Fluence are RADICALLY different designs from dummy coils . Zexcoil uses 6 small coils (1 per string). 3 coils are wound in one direction and 3 are RWRP. When summed the pickup is noisless. It a brilliant and elegant solution.

The Fluence are equally brilliant in that they don't have a traditional coil at all. They print a single "wind" on a wafer thin PCB and then stack many of these wafers to construct the "coil". This gives them unbelievable consistency and control over the sonic qualities of the pickup. They can make it sound like almost anything including 2 switchable variations on authentic single coil tone.
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Old 05-24-2019, 08:43 AM   #49
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I think you are being dazzling by the playing and the amp. With that quality of recording (and being dazzled by the player), I seriously doubt that you could tell much difference (if any) between a set of cheap ceramic pickups and the most expensive pickups that you could find to buy.

For what it is worth, I think that lace sensors sound good in their own right. I also think that they do not sound like classic strat single coils.

If any of these noiseless pickups did sound the same as classic strat pickups, everyone would be all over them, including guitar manufacturers. They would be standard equipment. Who doesn't want to kick the single coil noise? But they don't sound the same.
I've been through several iterations of noisless pickups starting with Bill Lawrence L280's 20 years ago. Those dummy coil type pickups have gotten REALLY good in recent years. Still only about 95% of true singfle coil tone but good enough for rock and roll as they say. IMO the Fluence and Zexcoils get the last 5%.
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Old 05-24-2019, 11:12 AM   #50
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You guys are gonna think I'm nuts!!!

After hours spent with with Ignite Amps and finding a cabinet IR that I really like, (Orange Custom 4 X 12) I'm back to where I was with getting the Texas Specials and the Hot Noiseless pickups to play nice together. Both sound great, especially now thanks to Pipeline turning me on to Ignite and the IR's, but I think an additional set will give me a bit broader tonal pallet.

So I'm ordering the Fralin Steel Pole 43's today.

That never ending quest for tone!!!!

Last edited by toleolu; 05-24-2019 at 11:18 AM.
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Old 05-24-2019, 11:43 AM   #51
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I've been through several iterations of noisless pickups starting with Bill Lawrence L280's 20 years ago. Those dummy coil type pickups have gotten REALLY good in recent years. Still only about 95% of true singfle coil tone but good enough for rock and roll as they say. IMO the Fluence and Zexcoils get the last 5%.
Which single coil pickups have you directly compared any of these to?
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Old 05-24-2019, 12:18 PM   #52
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Originally Posted by pipelineaudio View Post
How do they make them so quiet? Are they super high output pickups then just turned down?
It's not coil-wound wire, but copper printed on PCBs, that's the trick. Much more control in getting the tone you want out of pickup (also extremely consistent sound from one pickup to another on the assembly line), less inductance issues...
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Old 05-24-2019, 04:39 PM   #53
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It's not coil-wound wire, but copper printed on PCBs, that's the trick. Much more control in getting the tone you want out of pickup (also extremely consistent sound from one pickup to another on the assembly line), less inductance issues...
Yup. Besides being noiseless, the Fluence technology can be easily tuned for tonality and output which is why they can offer 2 switchable single coil voices. Another big plus is that the tonality does not change when you roll down the volume on the guitar. With passive pickups when you roll back the volume you lose alot of high end. You can put a treble bleed cap on the volume pot to maintain the treble but you'll still lose some bass as you roll back. Not with the fluence: same tone at any volume.

The only real draw back is that they need a 9V battery (or the expensive battery pack) and they wont interact with fuzz the way passive pickups do.

This is because fuzzes are very sensitive to the output impedance of your guitar. With passive pickups the output impedance CHANGES as you lower the volume knob giving you a glassy clean tone on 7 and full on fuzz with a fuzz face for example. But active pickups like the fluence have a FIXED output impedance regardless of the volume knob setting and I also believe they have a buffered output. Both of these qualities will interfere with the interactive nature of some fuzzes.
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Old 05-24-2019, 05:34 PM   #54
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With passive pickups when you roll back the volume you lose alot of high end.
Well now we are up to two strikes, because if I'm reducing volume, I want the highs to tuck just a bit, this actually works in ones favor much of the time in getting things out of the way YMMV. I put treble bleed circuits in my guitars when I was younger, then years later ripped them all out.

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This is because fuzzes are very sensitive to the output impedance of your guitar.
It may be semantics but I'd word it the other way, the fuzz doesn't have a sufficient hi-z input so it loads down the guitar (where other pedals have buffers to present hi-z) - when passive, it's also not necessarily bad to say the guitar and the fuzz together comprise the circuit.
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Old 05-26-2019, 10:32 AM   #55
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Well now we are up to two strikes, because if I'm reducing volume, I want the highs to tuck just a bit, this actually works in ones favor much of the time in getting things out of the way YMMV. I put treble bleed circuits in my guitars when I was younger, then years later ripped them all out.



It may be semantics but I'd word it the other way, the fuzz doesn't have a sufficient hi-z input so it loads down the guitar (where other pedals have buffers to present hi-z) - when passive, it's also not necessarily bad to say the guitar and the fuzz together comprise the circuit.
Yup. I agree with your more technical description of the guitar > fuzz circuit.

To me the passive treble rolloff is WAY more than a little bit. To my ears It goes from clear to mud and I cant stand that. Of course with a fuzz face its a moot point as part of the magic is that it keeps the high end intact when you roll back. But if youre going straight to the amp or any other non fuzz pedal the treble dies as you roll back. Most of my guitars have treble bleeds.

If you want that treble rolloff then the your best bet are the zexcoils as they are passive and sound fantastic. The one drawback for me with the zexcoils is that they don't look traditional (more like emg or lace sensors).
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Old 05-26-2019, 10:58 AM   #56
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Yea, I don't get a huge amount of roll off in any of my single coil guitars, not sure why or I've just gotten used to it and ended up liking it. It's enough that when I turn down a bit in a live setting to tuck myself in, the little bit of treble loss means I don't turn down quite as much to achieve that and just seems to fit better minus the extra brightness, IMHO/YMMV of course. Its not that much different than the reason I like my delays to filter repeats for similar purposes. I'm also a fairly heavy user of the tone knob so that probably drives my liking it in general - years ago I hated it but I was a different player then as well (not worse/better, just different).
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Old 05-27-2019, 12:36 PM   #57
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Originally Posted by toleolu View Post
You guys are gonna think I'm nuts!!!

After hours spent with with Ignite Amps and finding a cabinet IR that I really like, (Orange Custom 4 X 12) I'm back to where I was with getting the Texas Specials and the Hot Noiseless pickups to play nice together. Both sound great, especially now thanks to Pipeline turning me on to Ignite and the IR's, but I think an additional set will give me a bit broader tonal pallet.

So I'm ordering the Fralin Steel Pole 43's today.

That never ending quest for tone!!!!
That's great! Let us know how the Fralin works for you!
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Old 05-27-2019, 01:13 PM   #58
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Will do.

Having Fralin wire the pickguard, priced it out and it came to about 20 bucks more than me doing it myself. Got the 4 ply pearloid guard, 500K pots, and 2 different tone caps, forget the values, it was pretty much the standard setup.

Be about a week or so, can't wait. 😁😁
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Old 05-30-2019, 10:00 AM   #59
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The Fralin pickups will arrive tomorrow, nice thing about Fralin is their 30 day exchange policy if I don't like the tone of these pickups.

Found a 96/97 American Standard Strat on Craiglist, the guy is asking too much for it, but if I can get him down to around 450 or so bucks, I might buy that if the neck is OK and the frets aren't too jacked up.

Guitar Center just opened their first store here on Oahu, planning on going by and seeing if they're having any grand opening bargains on Am Standard or MIM Strats. I can hear the wife now, "YOU BOUGHT ANOTHER GUITAR!!!!"
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Old 05-31-2019, 06:03 AM   #60
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Default Strat Pickups

When I was looking to choose a set for my Strat, my criteria was that the neck pickup had to be the best at emulating Jimi Hendrix's songs like "Wind Cries Mary", "LIttle Wing", "Castles Made of Sand".

After a long and comprehensive listening to clips of pickups all over the internet I found that Lindy Fralins "Vintage Hots" nailed that tone the best over the others. There were plenty of others that would have been fine but, something about the richness and complexity of the Vintage Hots got my attention. So, I put them in.

VEry a nice!

Phil
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Old 06-05-2019, 10:18 AM   #61
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Got the Fralins installed, still dialing them in but so far so good, here's a taste:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7jes3gxs9g...alins.wav?dl=0

Guitar connected direct to the interface, no effects. Started at the neck pickup, went through all 5 switch positions, rolling the tone knob(s)on each one.

Wanted to post a picture, but can't figure out how to embed images.
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Old 06-05-2019, 10:41 AM   #62
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