Fender Generation 4 Noiseless Stratocaster Single-Coil Pickups - Set of 3, Vintage White

I tried a lot of different alnico magnet sets, and even a ceramic set, and finally gave up and got these because I have excellent tone and low noise from my Gen 4 equipped Tele. These pickups didn't disappoint; they have the right combination of strat push, lack of buzz, and lack of shrillness that you can get in some single coil strat pickups. The tone is exactly what I want. Beware that YMMV, because if you like the brittle (I call it shrill) nature of some pickups that are especially good at ear piercing, you may not like these.One note about positions 2 and 4, they quack, but not as much as other pickups I've tried. There is also a bit of noise in positions 2 & 4, which is consistent with my experience with Gen 4 in my Tele in position 3. I will use these pickups as part of my live arsenal, and use it for recording in positions 1, 3, and 5, but probably use non-hum-cancelling pickups for recording positions 2 & 4.Pickups are subjective only in that we like what we like; these are excellent pickups in terms of construction, responsiveness, and doing what they do best. Some of us will love the tone, like I do, others will not, but I finally felt the guitar they went into is something i'm comfortable taking on stage week after week after I put them in.

Installed these in my '93 american strat, replacing the original pickups, as I was sometimes playing in rooms so noisy I wasn't able to play anything other than 2 and 4 positions.In terms of noise - they are pretty quite, just like humbuckers.Soundwise - they sound ok and have the single coil sound, but they are a little compressed and lack the clarity of true single coils, especially in the high end on clean tones, at least compared to the original pickups I had. In high gain stuff I don't really hear a noticable differece apart from the lack of noise.I've never played noiseless before, so can't compare to other ones, and I guess there will always be a compromise in sound if you want to get rid of the buzz and hum.They are very tall/deep pickup. It wasn't a problem on my strat as it has one big chamber for all 3 pickups with plenty of room, but some other models might be a tight fit.

These Gen 4 noiseless pickups are Fender''s best noiseless pickups to date. They do not sound "just like" single coil pickups, but they do get closer then any of the previous versions of noiseless pickups from Fender. Plus, of course, no annoying 60 cycle hum.The issue for most people will be installation. Here is why, the pickups are about 3/8" taller than standard single coil Strat pickups. This means they will not fit in a standard routed Stratocaster as the holes for the pickups are just not deep enough. You''ll need to remove the neck and deepen the pickup cavity and the wire channel with a router all the way to the control cavity.For most people this will mean needing to have them professionally installed -- which can get quite pricey -- on top of the cost6 of these pickups.But, they sound supurb. For me, I have the tools and know how to pull the guitar apart, do the necessary woodwork and reassemble a Stratocaster. For me, it was definitely worth the effort.

I bought these assuming that the dimensions would be the same as “normal” pickups. They are taller than normal pickups and you cannot change the pickup covers. The normal rout of a fender body is not deep enough to accommodate these so you’ll need to deepen the channels by at least a quarter of an inch. If you don’t have basic woodworking skills or the right tools, you’ll have to get someone to do this for you. The wiring is also a little more complex with each pickup having a specific orientation and 3 wires: 1 hot and 2 ground. If you’re building your first guitar like I was I don’t recommend picking these up. Stick with standard height plug and play. They sound amazing though! So it’s worth it in the end if you want a unique strat sound with very little hum.

I upgraded this LE strat I had - the pups in it were fat 50's and even though they sounded greated, they were noisy as heck! So I lifted the entire pickguard assembly and bought a custom pickguard and installed these N4 noiseless pups along with the Fender S1 Push-Push volume pot and the superswitch and wired it just like my deluxe. Wow! It now sounds like a monster - great tone, volume and completely noiseless.

Just received this today via the Amazon Drop Box in my neighborhood. Right out of the package I noticed what many people have been saying here. The quality control of these high end Fender pickups is terrible! Look at the photo #1 I attached. The bottom pickup, center green wire is not soldered to the pickup. This is totally inexcusable. Absolutely no quality control.I’ve listened to these pickups on a friends Strat and they are sweet sounding with an incredible reduction in 60 cycle hum.There is a printed sticker that’s on the side of the of the hard plastic box that the pickups reside in and it says that they are “Made in America”. Is this what Fender USA has stooped to?I’m going to return theses and keep requesting another set until I get ones that are soldered correctly and function correctly.My 2nd attempt and this set has missing parts. See photo #2. The middle pickup is missing the receiving nuts for the screws that hold it to the pickguard.Absolutely NO Excuse Fender Musical Instrument Inc!You should purchase them at a big box music store. They're the same price and you can see them before you leave the store. SO DISSAPOINTED!!!

Installed in Sire vintage S7, and they work great.

YES. I am picky about two things: a) Tone; and, b) grammar. With this pickup set, Fender has finally succeeded in coaxing faithful single-coil tone from stacked humbuckers. The set produces the tone of an actual Strat (albeit not "50's"), minus the extraneous noise. And, they come in aged white! Bravo, Fender.