Are noisless pickups tone killers? ( Fender Pure Vintage 59 set vs Fender Noiseless ) 

Great idea.

Can you give some advise on pickup height with the 59s? Struggling a bit to find sweet spot

​@@VintageRadiussorry, gotta see what's wrong with notifications..I saw this again and noticed your question. Well I got the same set on 2 different old guitars -a 62 and a 54 reissues Japan - and there's no formula set in stone. But a good start is fender vintage spec pickup height settings, or Lindy fralin's suggestion for doing this. You can also raise the neck pickup pressing and playing both the 1st and 6th string until the wabbling sound comes out and then back both sides of the pickup until the wabbling goes away, and that's defines the highest you should go. from there you can play and listen if its to bright (highest)or too mellow (lowering the pickups)..then go to the bridge pick-up and try to match outputs, or a bit more(to taste) and only then goe to the middle pickup and also match volumes. All this depends a bit on your playing style and how you work the amp etc..and for me, I tend to keep them on the "low" side cause I like pushing the amp, and add boosters or low gain drivers to kick the amp. Low output pickups tend to keep note definition and bite even with a bit more gain..If you have a good amp with lots of headroom, volume is never a prob. The 59 set is great and they sound different on different guitars (I proved that myself) and in my case I wanted them to sound different but close enough to use either guitar as backup of the other (cause I generally don't change guitars in our gigs) sometimes I choose the guitar I'll use that night on the soundcheck- they sound a bit different on different venues..so it's fine.

Yeah i think "alive" is the perfect way to describe it. I was just playing it about 10 minutes ago and my wife came in and said it sounds like a totally different guitar and she's a singer, not a guitar player haha

@@AudiomoMusic Coolness. ❤️💕🎵🎸

The bunny is somewhat recovering but we just had to bring the dog to the ER two nights ago, the pup ate some gnarly stuff and wasn't able to hold in his poop and was going all over the house. it was... messy

@@AudiomoMusic wow. Hope the doggie is ok now. Messy situation.

I'm relatively new to guitar and I'm curious why would noise gate pedals introduce new problems.

@@nick334t9 You can't let a note ring out fully because the noise gate will kick in when the volume gets below where you set the threshold, unless you set the threshold lower and then the more the note rings out and gets quieter, the more buzz will be heard. That's the main reason for me anyway. I still think it's probably preferable to having noiseless pickups though, but it's all just down to preference.

@@just_say_when3445 Ok I see thanks for the info.

In the room it's even more night and day. The noiseless ones definitely serve their purpose in a very poorly set up venue electrical wise, but for pure tone it's not close.

I had a segment explaining in this why I initially replaced the stock pickups that were in this JV in the late 90's for the noiseless to begin with, but I felt it wasn't necessary so I'll tell you now. When I was gigging back then, the majority of the bars/clubs I was playing had lighting issues. One in particular whenever I brought this strat to play there ( it was my only guitar at the time ) it was the worst accelerated 60 cycle hum I've ever heard. So me being a stupid kid ripped out a set of Red Bobbin Fullerton pickups and threw these in to deal with it. For that purpose, they actually did exactly what I wanted and greatly reduced the sound. I think it all does depend on the situation and really what kind of music you want to play. I don't think I'd personally favor these 59's as much if I was playing in a Yngwie style or something really aggressive, the noiseless ones are obviously much better for higher gain stuff because who the hell wants to hear all that noise in a scenario like that?

Shouldnt that be obvious? Anyone playing near electronics, especially when recording. Or live in venues with lots of interference. The problem though, is that noiseless pickups dont do anything, they're so noisy they're still unusable without noisegates in these situations.

Yep especially in the late 90s early 2000s on NY, the bars and venues I played at had absolutely atrocious electrical installs and I didnt care about anything but killing the noise.

Originally when I filmed this I had a part explaining why I had the noiseless ones in to begin with and that was exactly why. I talked about one bar I was basically a mainstay at and how the lighting and electronics in the place were garbage and no matter what I did this strat was obnoxious... so I took out the set of rare and expensive red bobbin fullerton pickups ( not knowing they were worth anything at the time ) and threw these in to be able to play that club without those issues.

The problem isnt the tone, the problem is they are noisy as hell, idk who came up with the idea to call them noiseless

I think you're right, and the noiseless do have their place but it really kind of takes away the baseline tone of the instruments putting them in.

@@AudiomoMusic did you see the new player plus series? They come with noiseless pups. Very pretty color schemes though.

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment, I think both have their place but definitely prefer the regular set

Yep, i only had the noiseless in that guitar because a lot of the gigs I was playing with that guitar at the time had garbage lighting and electronics, thus resulting is atrocious noise and at the time I was a broke teenager so it wasnt reasonable to buy another guitar so I just swapped the pups. The 59s are head and shoulders better if agree.

I love Van Zandt everything, they make incredible guitars AND pickups! Nice taste

@@AudiomoMusic awe shucks

Thanks, glad it could be of some help!

No cost in my book, yep

I think they're the best production pickup Fender currently offer for sale on their own

Yep its not close tonally imho

Live youd never know the difference, I gigged that guitar forever and nobody asked me about the pickups just that the guitar sounded great. Isolated the difference is obvious, but as you said, live performance its nice not working about all the noise of regular single coils.

Agree Bob, it's not really close.

I recently played a new ultra back to back with my JV i used in this video, the difference is still huge tonally.

@@AudiomoMusic Have you tried Lace Sensors ?

I have, never really liked them. I had a set of the golds for about 2 weeks before I ripped em out and put the fenders back in.

I've tried both Kinman, Lloar, Dimarzios, did not care for any of the noiseless variants. I dislike all noiseless pickups compared to proper single coils, they genuinely just don't get you there. I'd say the same thing with P90s that are hum canceling, they lose the character that defines the pickup design.

@@AudiomoMusic Depends where the...there you wanna get is....if you want several tones using different gain stages from different eras and styles and without noise versus playing one style,totally clean,forever then you need noiseless...thats why many pro players nowadays use them without a second thought....

I dont want that extra stuff, which is why i have a few guitars. Id rather have each guitar nail the exact few sounds I need from them and go to other guitars that can do other things instead. I get why people use them and Ive used noiseless live for over a decade, they just arent my thing

@@AudiomoMusic I understand that but its mostly phychological barrier than anything else....cause i dont know anyone that would call out quality noiseless sets from real single coils to save his life in any aural test.Some things that were true decades ago are not true today....today someone can record using a plugin emulation costing 100 bucks(of an amp that costs thousands) and you would ask him about what amp he is using....while decades ago it would sound like taperware... Anyway though...to each their own.

That's a cool tip man thanks