Noiseless single coils - Suggestions?

[gmm52]

I have never liked noiseless single coils, and haven't played a guitar that had them in many years. I'm doing some recording and I'm revisiting the idea. I want a single coil that hopefully looks like a normal single coil and sounds like a normal Strat single coil, so thought I'd ask for some opinions here. Any ideas?

 

[Kindwolf]

I'm curious on this too, currently shopping for a great neck pickup to match a nocaster bridge. Not necessarily noiseless but interested in what the current state of the opinion is on the various noiseless offerings. I once spent a fortune bringing in some Kinmans and was not super impressed. The only really great noiseless I've ever had through here were some "Evans" single coils, cast in epoxy so unfixable, and they tend to die over time.​

 

[ndcaster]

I'd like to find time to experiment with these:

https://www.cycfi.com/projects/nu-series-v2/

Flat-response active pickups. Highly configurable. They can become any pickup you want.

 

[trapdoor2]

I've got a Mojotone "Quiet Coil" Broadcaster in my esquire...and I like it a lot. They make strat style single-coils too.

https://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x/Mojotone-Quiet-Coils#/

 

[schmee]

I find I can live with Lace SC's. They are subtlety different though on the high end. Smoother, "grainy"
https://lacemusic.com/products/lace-sensor-t-100-tele-neck-single-coil-pickup

For a brighter tone the Lawrence Blades are good. A bit too bright and crisp for me without OD, but some people like that. https://www.wildepickups.com/blogs/news/noisefree-series-2-l280-l290

Bardens were even brighter and I did not like them.
(link removed)

I tried a vintage noiseless Strat pickup and I didn't think it was too bad personally.

I assume you mean Tele shape neck pickup?

 

[Nick Fanis]

Lace Sensor Golds.
My favourite strat pickups .

 

[teleforumnoob]

https://www.wildepickups.com/products/noisefree-strat

 

[PastorJay]

After trying a few different guitars with noiseless single coils, I decided I liked the Fender Vintage Noiseless. They're probably just a tad darker than many of the "traditional" Fender pickups, but you can adjust that with tone controls.

I affirmatively disliked the Ultra Vintage Noiseless--both Strat and Tele versions. They sounded overly bright and harsh to me.

In my head, I still like the Lace Sensor pickups, which aren't quite as "noiseless" as current versions of the noiseless pickups.

YMMV.

 

[cnlbb]

They aren't really my dig, but it seems like Lindy Fralin has spent a fair amount of time working on various ideas/versions/permutations of them.

 

[SRHmusic]

DiMarzio Area and Virtual Vintage pickups are really good. I wired up a set ('54 Pro, Area 61 and an AT-1 humbucker) in my main Strat and get great tones, and lots of positive comments and questions about it from other guitarists.
https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/strat/stacked-hum-canceling-strat

Edit: I can PM you a link to a band recording if you want to hear them in context.

 

[doghouseman]

Fralin makes awesome noiseless pickups.

https://www.fralinpickups.com/product/split-steel-pole-strat-bridge/

 

[reddy2300]

+1 on the Fender Vintage Noiseless. Go them in a hardtail Strat I just built. They sound exactly like I wanted them to.

 

[mkdaws32]

On a budget, I found the GFS tru coils to be pretty convincing. They are a tad quiet on the volume side, so they don’t always balance well with normal single coil pickups in the same guitar. I liked them better than the Fender SCNs and Gen4 noiseless designs, which I found to be more sterile and lacking that true single coil dimensional sound. I’ve also heard good things many times about the original vintage noiseless and the hot noiseless pickups from Fender, but I don’t recall ever trying them personally.

These days I just prefer real single coils. A good shielding job and a noise gate tame the hum quite well for me.

 

[ping-ping-clicka]

I have never liked noiseless single coils, and haven't played a guitar that had them in many years. I'm doing some recording and I'm revisiting the idea. I want a single coil that hopefully looks like a normal single coil and sounds like a normal Strat single coil, so thought I'd ask for some opinions here. Any ideas?

I use Dimarzio Hum Canceling pickups in my strats and tele's .
to answer the first obvious question:
DO THEY SOUND LIKE REAL TELE/STRAT PICKUPS?
I don't know, that's a fish I'm not going to bone, that's for connoisseurs to discuss.
I like how the pickups sound through my faux amps, they are dead quiet.
They Record Well. They Come in Different Flavors.
https://www.dimarzio.com/pickups/tele/hum-canceling

 

[3-Chord-Genius]

DiMarzio HS-3 (or 1 or 2). Beautiful clean tone, shaves off a tiny bit of the high end. Looks like a standard single coil. It's actually a stacked humbucker. They sound great clean or overdriven, and they are great for recording. This is the set that Yngwie Malmsteen used in his strats on his first few albums until he flipped to Duncan and started trash-talking DiMarzio.

 

[That Cal Webway]

They aren't really my dig, but it seems like Lindy Fralin has spent a fair amount of time working on various ideas/versions/permutations of them.

Yes!

I have his Split Blades in my telecaster, the ones that are slightly hotter,
And they're fantastic.

I know that's not very specific and all that, but I would assume for the Stratocaster models it would be similar.

.

 

[Jakedog]

I have zero issue with the plain old Fender Noiseless. I get great sounds out of them. I’ve also had really great success with the DiMarzio “Area” series. If I was looking for something more vintage inspired, that’s what I’d get again.

 

[jvin248]

.

Have you tried shielding yet? That might be all you need, or you need more than noiseless pickups as the rest of the guitar can have problems.

Verify you have shielded cable to the jack. Cloth covered wires might be vintage but they give you vintage noise. Twisting the wires does nothing, or we'd use twisted cable from the guitar to the jack.

Full cavity shielding with continuity between the pickguard and cavity shields to give you a full cage. Aluminum duct flashing tape works as well as copper for a low low cost, use a meter to verify continuity as you put it down and bridge any spots as needed.

Pickup bobbin shielding. Like chrome covered humbuckers and Tele neck pickups. Modern computers and cell phones make a lot more noise than they had in the fifties.
I've lined the inside of Strat coil covers before, you need to be careful not to cut or short the wires and verify a jumper connects them to ground.

Look into a dummy coil with a push pull tone pot switch. Get a Squier pickup, remove the bar magnet and the slugs to use the coil to cancel noise.

Those are the areas to focus on before going with noiseless pickups. You may not need them or not like the tone as much as your current pickups.

.

 

[tah1962]

I've got a Mojotone "Quiet Coil" Broadcaster in my esquire...and I like it a lot. They make strat style single-coils too.

https://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x/Mojotone-Quiet-Coils#/

+1...I have the Mojotone 58 Quiet Coils in my ‘88 American Standard Strat. I also have DiMarzio Area 61/bridge, Area 58/middle & neck in my ‘98 American Deluxe Strat.

 

[SRHmusic]

+1...I have the Mojotone 58 Quiet Coils in my ‘88 American Standard Strat. I also have DiMarzio Area 61/bridge, Area 58/middle & neck in my ‘98 American Deluxe Strat.

I have a Mojotone Quiet HSS loaded pickguard in one of my builds and find it ok but not as balanced or as versatile as the DiMarzio Area/VV set I mentioned above. Perhaps they are more true to some Strat pickups, but I find them a bit thin. The (auto)split position 4 (middle + bridge) is perfect for Ed King tones, though!