Strat Pickup Comparisons | Suhr, Kinman, DiMarzio, & Seymour Duncan

[@drewsleyy3836]

5:43 - Dimarzio Area 61 NECK 10:25 - Suhr single coil NECK 13:16 - Kinman noiseless NECK

[@frantisca]

Hi, thanks for the upload. I just finished a HSH with 2 Alnico II Humbuckers, one SSL2 in the middle, push-pull for single action on the HB's and a push-push to connect the neck PU in any position. Gives a lot of versatility and intersting tones: from Gilmour to Jazz, Tele and classic Strat style ;-) I also have a Strat with an HSS Suhr pickguard featuring 2 Michael Landau singles and an SSV+ in the bridge. The latter can be split which gives a total of 7 very workable positions. The single coils are not noiseless types, but the hum is really minimal, depending on the orientation of the guitar in front of the amp. Totally manageable in my opinion. This set is very versatile and really sounds good, offering a great compromise of classi and modern Strat styles. Cheers

[@PsionicAudio]

After this video, with the owner's permission, I removed the rest of the fake yellowing from the pickguard and other plastics. I de-urinated it.

[@IL2TXGunslinger]

You did the world a favor. 10 years from now - I’m hopeful that all this relic’ing will be consigned to the dustbin - like 12 bit sampling

[@rjschmirler3794]

I was wondering how long it would take for you to address the pickguard etc... my OCD was killing me.

[@robertsguitarsandgear]

I have an Area 58 and 61 on my ‘87 Strat. Great noiseless pickups.

[@musicrepairs]

I brought a set of Kinmam pickups when he had his shop in brisbane. In fact Chris picked them from the workshop floor. For noise canceling pickups I have played many, and the Kinmans I still have. As a audio/amp tech of nearly 40 years I’ve pretty well seen everything on the market. Kinman pickups is a sad story as he was ripped of buy a very large music instrument manufacturer. A lot of his design work was used by other companies. I haven’t purchased any new kinman pickups but I would like to think they are as good as the originals. So the question would i part with mine. Not a hope.

[@desvega5849]

Larry really did the man wrong.

[@joachimlindback]

Thank you. A how to video on maximum shielding and noise reduction of a Stratocaster would be appreciated.

[@jkf9167]

This confirms my suspicion that one should never A/B noiseless single coils with real single coils. The Suhrs sound better than the DiMarzios, and they also sounded slightly fuller and more responsive to me than the Kinmans. IRL however, I had Dimarzio Areas in my Strat for years and never had a problem with them. Eventually they started to sound a little compressed to me, but that was after I'd played them for years.

[@oldguy5381]

No delay in the demo of Strat, I like that. Thanks

[@angusorvid8840]

These are all very good pickups. The DiMarzio area singles are terrific. I also love the Duncan Pearly Gates. I still haven't tried Lollars but just about every demo I've heard are terrific. I tried Bartons but I find them a bit stiff for my taste.

[@scottwilcox6313]

Great comparison my favorite was the kinman pickups and the pearly gate (heffalump)

[@Siam_Thai.]

Because there are 2 models of Pearly Gates pickups: the nornal Pearly Gates model with Alnico 2 magnets and Pearly Gates Plus model with Alnico 5 magnets, you put What Pearly Gates pickups were on that Fender guitar?

[@michael_caz_nyc]

Great comparison. I have Lollar Dirty Blonde-set (love-em) in my Suhr SSS (thinking about installing an Ilitch?). In this video I preferred the Kinman's. Always enjoy your informative content. For a Humbucker - look into the Lambertone "Crema"

[@IL2TXGunslinger]

Kinmans sound fantastic. Thanks for doing this

[@kosmicwizard]

The Kinman humfree pickups sound the best to my ears. Thanks for this video, Lyle? Btw, the Excalibre sounds fantastic, especially through an Alnico blueback speaker! Cheers.

[@matthewf1979]

All of the guitars sounded good to me(using my headphones through my IPhone, through KZbin) I actually liked the Thornbucker more. That guitar is just so familiar by now. I have had good experiences with Klein Strat and Tele pickups. The hard part is picking which model year you’re after. The Mojotone 59 Clone PAF’s are my favorite set of humbuckers right now. Their Strat noiseless pickups get high praise, might be worth a shot.

[@TheAxe4Ever]

Definitely wire the humbucker to parallel in the second position. Personally, I love the way your home bucker sounds when it is wired in parallel as an option. I need to look into how to do the 50s wiring scheme for my double humbucker guitar. I don’t particularly like a treble bleed mod.

[@PsionicAudio]

With the push pull, my #2 position can be either middle + series bridge or middle + parallel bridge. There isn't a huge difference between the two, which you can hear in this vid. I do like the parallel bridge by itself a lot, kind of a harder more modern Strat bridge SC sound. I hope the new one that's coming soon (TBA - not a PG) will be even better for what I want - that Lifeson bridge sound he got with his Signature Aurora (Hold Your Fire & Presto) and the EMG sound Dominic Miller got on Sting's The Soul Cages.

[@tmartin6717]

As a offering to this community, I'll log my recent noiseless strat pickup test. Five strats were tested, and recorded from a UAD dream amp pedal, dialed to a basic DR clean sound. Lead and chord passages were edited to to compare each guitar for each pickup position. The guitars were 1) a 1965 hardtale Fender, 2) a 1998 Mexican Fender, 3) a recent Mexican Fender with their noiseless pickups, and 4 +5) were "cheap" EART (Amazon) guitars purchased for parts. The best sounding pickups were the original 1965 single coils, by a noticeable margin. To my surprise, the Fender noiseless and 1998 single coils sounded absolutely identical (except the noiseless middle pickup was crisper for chords.) The EART single coils are waiting to be replaced. Bottom line, the Fender noiseless sound fine, and do their job eliminating noise, but are not quite equal to a 1965 strat. Following Lyle's info, I have ordered a few sets if Kinman pickups.

[@halhawkins7641]

American Fender Fat Strat Texas Special from 2001.....excellent job Lyle!

[@wrekkingcru]

Thanks for sharing this. To my ears, the Pearly Gates had more clarity and less of the fizz than the Thornbucker when driven. Single coils sounded good depending on what you were playing, but for the most part the single coils in the Strat with the Thornbucker were the ones I liked. Did you ever try Ron Ellis pickups? A lot of folks talk about those, but that may be more cork-sniffery and hype as your test here showed that the Pearly Gates mainstream brand pickup won out over the boutique Thornbucker, in this use case with your amp.

[@richbrack431]

The dimarzio area have A2 magnets in them a lot smoother sound, I believe the other single coils have A5 in them lot of punch in them.

[@shanedolman1368]

Gotta say I pretty much agreed with your assessment of those pickups Lyle.👍 oh yeah heffalump!

[@chipsterb4946]

I liked the tone and touch response of the second guitar a lot more than the first. I can’t comment on 2 vs. 3 because there are so many things different in addition to pickups. Both guitars sounded very nice. ETA: there isn’t just one “treble bleed mod”. The cap and resistor can be in parallel or in series. Obviously the values of each can vary. The ‘50s wiring may be a simpler approach; however, a little experimentation in any given guitar can yield good results in my experience. I will try the ‘50s wiring in a Tele build soon …

[@rjschmirler3794]

There it is! 5:58. Great video my friend. Appreciated..

[@kentjackson3830]

Thanks Lyle now i'm shopping for pickups - Hefalump ?

[@jetset9561]

Which Kinman set is that - it sounds amazing! I'd love to try a set in my Custom 57 strat Heffalump :)

[@PsionicAudio]

Traditional Mk IIs.

[@jetset9561]

@@PsionicAudio Thanks Lyle - not sure those are around anymore but the Mk IV's sound very sweet in the videos they've done as well. I believe the old Mk III's are very similar to the Mayer set so might have to search some of those out to test as well. I don't even have the guitar yet (a custom 57 build) and imagine that the pups in it will need upgrading - sorry Nick.

[@jasonstone1046]

Been looking at replacing the fat 50's in my Landau 68. Perfect timing Lyle xD

[@jerrystephenson1172]

Are you a believer in the tone wood theory

[@fretbuzz59]

"Self noise"? The pickups aren't producing any noise, so, no.

[@russellhltn1396]

"cool, cool"? You're starting to sound like Dave Rat's channel. ;) (That's not a bad thing.)

[@gourabshow3993]

🙇👍

[@kendipietro6855]

For me, the Eric Johnson with the Kinman pickups sounded best. And like I always tell people, put ten musicians in a room and ask for opinions and the only thing they will agree on is that they don't agree on anything. ;) For my partscaster, I went full Callaham and used Onamac Windery pickups. In my opinion, for what that's worth, those pickups are to die for. onamacwindery.com/index.html