Fender To Zexcoil Pickup Comparison | Hum-Canceling Strat Pickups 

Anthony - took your advice and installed the same Zexcoils as you have in my 1993 Strat Plus. Very happy. Your video is very accurate and I prefer the Zexcoils to the old Lace Hot Golds that were in it. I'm mainly a humbucker man and have found the Zexcoils are as quiet as the best humbuckers. Thanks for the tip :)

The Fenders are fuller. The Zexcoils are thin compared. That's ok tho, just some amp and pedal nob turning should solve. I won't have noise. But in this a/b comparison, I like the Fenders.

Just dropped in my son's 10-yr old Zexcoil into my '93 USA....HUGE difference! Made an unsuccessful offer on a new LSL Saticoy earlier in the day to get my first 'boutique' S style...but now my old Strat has a boutiquey tonality with the Zex....all 5 positions sound clear, articulate, airy....AND...it has these other tone shaping features that really make the guitar even more versatile.

Thanks for the A/B video. I LOVE Zexcoil pickups and have sets in both my Strat, and Jaguar. I used the Throaty humbuckers in both bridge positions with a push/push tone control. Fantastic tone. I love the "airiness" of the pickups, besides the quiet, even at high gain. After using many premium pickups, Zexcoils top my list. Well rounded, articulate, and quiet! The pinnacle of tone.

This is literally the technology that would really compliment extended range guitars, I know that market is pretty niche, but still…

Great video, very pristine pickups, as always fantastic playing. Thanks for the video.

Leo Fender himself designed a similar pickup but his are called z coils if you look at them they look like a coil in the shape of A Z he did 3 and 3 instead of each individual one like they're doing but it's the same general idea. Leo designed his I guess in the late sixties after he sold Fender

Sorry my friend, I hear a difference, I bit shuttle on some settings and not so shuttle on others..it’s kind of the same difference I hear between my lace pickups and stock fender…stock fender are a bit less harsh and a bit more round..but I’m glad you find them pleasant to your taste. I think I will just settle for moving my guitar axis to reduce some of the worst hum….!

I preferred the regular pickups. They're a little throatier. Could probably just dial the tone knob to come close with the Zexcoil. I think it would have been easier and probably just as effective to make them like G&L Z coils. Essentially it's the equivalent of P bass pickups.

Thank you Anthony! You do have your own signature style I’m hearing!

Anthony, I personally feel you would be great at playing my guitar hero Robin Trower, the way you play with such passion and feeling just watch Robin play when he makes those Blues faces when he plays. I think you should give one of his old songs a try, like Bridge of Sighs or his For Earth Below albums.

The thing about those stock pickups from the MIJ is that they use ceramic bar magnets rather than the typical alnico pole pieces. These pickups are the cheapest of the cheap, and can pretty much only be found in Squier guitars below the Classic Vibe range in new guitars from Fender (so in the squier bullet and affinity ranges), and in every cheap strat copy on the market. They aren't your traditional strat pickup per se.

Ok. Cool. But they do the same thing the EMG’s do. They squeeze the overall tone. Yes, the stock pickups are noisy, but that is why we use a noise gate. The stock noise is just something we have to deal with..

*what amp and rig setup was it in this video? cause i think its really crucial for nailing the feel and tone with correct amp and guitar match* ....

So Glass Clear!😳 Great Playing' Great Video' Thank You'🎼🇺🇸

Like the Fender pu s in this case more. Great play 👏🏻

I didn't like either set. Would like to hear them against some Lollars or something good.

Ever try Kinman pickups?

Beautiful Strat!!

When at home or at a gig, when not playing I put my left hand on my strings.

I like them, but they need to improve the mounting holes for the screws. The pc-board base wears out very fast and cannot be easily supported or strengthened/repaired... FWIW

Calling the stock pickups fender is a little misleading. Fender Japan made great bodies and necks, but substandard electronics in the 80's and 90's. Ceramic bars instead of normal alnico slugs? Great guitars once you put proper pots and pickups in them and use cavity sheilding.

Sorry buddy, but the stock pickups so much better. I know they're harder to work with with men they just grab your heart. Best of luck to you.

The stock pickups sound way more "Tin Pan Alley" to me... but the Zexcoils seem better suited for high-gain stuff

The zexcoils sound much clearer and balanced than the fender.Zexcoil seem to have more output though. The Fender sound more "vintagy". People often forget that Zexcoil also offers low output vintage voiced pickups.

Very cool, but how do they compare to Lace Sensors?

Not bad they sound almost as good as the fenders… love my noise gates, get the best of both, killer tone and ZERO noise, not even hiss… decent option if a gate can’t be used…

Does it have the hamburgler image on the neck in the photo flame?

It's all subjective but for me, the stock Strat pickups have a darkness and grit that I really like, the Zexcoils are very bright and clear with a bit of twang, which I don't care for. The biggest thing to my ear, is the harmonics, which are muddled with the stock Strat pickup, but that gives a complexity and depth to their "color" and sound, the Z pickups, they sound like each note is totally disconnected from each other, which upon reflection, umm. . . yeah, they are, effectively on one level. Anywho, that's the beauty of music and art, the individuality.

I listened without looking and I was able to hear the difference and call out which is which. while they sound clean, they also sound very thin compared to a fuller pickup from fender. I still think there is better hum canceling options out there than this! Sorry.

seemed like as ad, have to have a real side by side, Clapton, Hendrix sound ok

They might cancel the hum but if it don’t SOUND like a humbucker I don’t wanna know about it

Seems like a no brainer for you to go with Zex. Is it me, do they seem to have a bit of compression to them as well

New to guitar, but wouldn't a noise gate fix that hum?

not a fender fan but the fenders sound a bit more interesting to me here

Thanks for video very informative. Do you run clarksdale into plexi drive or the other way around? Thanks

Don't like either sound. Prefer SD Cool Rail or DM Cruiser sounds. But thank you for doing this and introducing these pickups. Had not known about them. Best Regards and Best Wishes!

Anyone with these pickups notice an odd microphonic sound when doing big bends on the G string when on the neck or middle pickup? My zcore5 underwounds make kind of a fuzzy microphonic sound on large bends on the g string when in neck and middle pickup position. Other than that these pickups are awesome.

are thay making 2 of them Tgeather should have eaven less noise Si its hummbuking

The Fenders sound way better

The fenders sound better to me

Do you have 250k or 500k pots for the Zexcoils? I bet the Fender had 250k pots...yes, no?

Have you ever tested the p90 Zexcoil?

wow, fender pickup sounds so bland compared to zexcoil 😅

Hey Anthony - you've got me interested in these Zexcoil Z Core 5 pups. I play my MiA Strat Plus from clean to OD to high gain on Mesa Boogie amps. I currently have Lace Hot Golds which I like but need a change after 15 years with em. Checked out the Zexcoil site. You're using the "Modern" but have you also tried the "Overwound" ? Wondering if these might be better for me - 3.5k output v 4.5k - what you think ??

They cost more than my strat is worth.

They do sound good. But how much do they cost?

I play with my knobs

Not enough mojo in the Zexcoils !!!

Def. Not my taste espically for a srv sound

Fender- soul, body and hum, zex- clear crispy tasteless silence