Eric Johnson Strat pickups, what are they?

[Ringo]

Just curious what if any difference there is between the Eric Johnson Strat pu's and any other custom shop Strat pu's.
Anyone know for sure?

[tele12]

I have read they were Custom developed with input from EJ, supposedly it took about 16 iterations before he was satisfied. I know they are the best strat pickups I have ever played.

[GUITARmole]

I thought they were developed with black magic and fairy dust as per Eric's personal specs. :)

[Mark Davis]

Just wire magnets and bobbins. NO secret its Eric that makes em sound good.

[mojocasterman]

I tried one at GC on Saturday. It had the most insane flamed neck I have ever seen on a non-CS strat. Unfortunately, it was set up with the strings about 1 inch off the fretboard. This for a $1600 guitar... ludicrous.

The pickups were pure heaven.

I told the sales guy that I would like them to take the neck off this one and put it on a blonde EJ strat they had and I would buy it. They refused. Some people just don't know how to please a customer...

[JohnK24]

Haven't tried an EJ strat yet, but the pups in the John Mayer strat (big dippers) are my favorite...amazing clarity and punch...think CS 69 meets Texas Specials...yummy tones

[Mark Davis]

Ya I like the big dippers too they sound very Jimi.

[abraxas]

A while ago, I got a set of pickups by a German guy named David Barfuss. He is quite well known, at least in Europe, for making custom pickups.

He claimed to have constructed them based (supposedly) on the original EJ pickups. I don't know about that, all I know is that they are very good sounding pickups and to my ears they have this EJ tone "character".

I'm not affiliated with David in any sense, just though of giving a possible clue. Here is his own description of the pickups, from an older ebay auction:

This a one of a kind Handmade by David Barfuss Vintage Stratocaster Pickup Set with a real Vintage look and tone.

This set gives you a lot of sweet "TONE"s with sweet, sweet heights and thumping percussive lows with an amazing quack due the use of special staggered Alnico III and Alnico V magnets.

The `54 style Neck pickup uses oversized alnicoIII magnets and is wound to an DC Resistance of 5,7 K-ohm.

The Middle pickup is wound to a `63 style coilpattern (6,1 K-ohm) on special bumpered alnicoIII magnets. It´s RW/RP for noisfree operation in the 2nd and 4th position of the fiveway switch.

The Bridge pickup is a `54 style alnicoV pickup and wound to a hotter coilpattern to give you an extra kick and more output with DC resistance of 6.73 K-ohm.

Unique Tweaks:

- Vintage style Black Bobbins.

-`54 style alnico III neck pickup.

-`63 style alnicoIII middle pickup.

- Overwound `54 style alnico V bridge pickup

- Staggered Alnico magnets for Tonal balance.

- come with covers and stainless steel screws

[Twang Banger]

I've got an EJ Strat and another Strat with Texas Specials with the "greasebucket" circuitry. THis may cause me to be thrown into a flaming pit, but I really can't hear much difference.