Pure Vintage '59 Strat Pickup Set

I recently installed Fender Original ‘57/’62s in a Mexican-made strat. It was such an improvement that I was reminded of the song, “The Search is Over”. Since then, I’ve installed Pure Vintage ‘59s in my other strat and I’m now reminded of the song, “Torn Between Two Lovers”! Hip song references aside, they are both great pickups and here are some impressions: 1. They are both vintage pickups with that classic bell-like tone and bright, pleasing sound. A strum of each guitar reveals beautiful individual string definition. The Texas Specials I was using, by comparison, tended to sound a bit muddy due to their overwound, hot nature. 2. The ‘59s have a slightly higher output than the ‘57/’62s, but are still in the warm, vintage range. 3. They both use Formvar magnet wire, which according to Fender, results in a “bright glassy tone”. I’m beginning to think that is why pickups of this era sound so nice. 4. Being vintage designed pickups, neither has a reverse-wound middle pickup to reduce hum in the 2nd and 4th positions. If you play regularly in an environment, like say, a bar with neon lights or with lots of gain, this may be a factor to consider. In my setting, I haven’t noticed any annoying hum and haven’t missed having a reverse-wound middle pickup. 5. The ‘57/’62s have an advertised output of 5.6 Ohms. All 3 that I received tested at 5.7 Ohms, which is great. The ‘59s were rated at 5.9 and tested at 5.62, 5.81 & 5.71. Not sure, but that seemed in the range of acceptable, so I kept them. I put the pickup with the highest Ohms in the bridge position, the second highest in the middle and the weakest in the neck. This seems to be the power order that most vintage pickups advertise. The tonal characteristics of each set line up well with what is described in the picture here on Amazon of the packaging. Also, the official Fender demo (the ones with the guy playing the white strat) fairly represent what each sound like. The thing is, they both sound great so it is tough to pick a favorite. So far, I am slightly favoring the ‘59s, but I’m not sure how much of that is due to the difference between my guitars. The guitar with the ‘59s, even unplugged, seems to ring a bit truer and sound slightly fuller. Still, the ‘59s do sound a bit bigger with a smidge more openness. In closing, if you are looking for that vintage strat sound, you can’t go wrong with either set. Happy playing!

So I do guitar work on the side; setups, adjustments, parts, repairs, etc., but my specialty is wiring. As you can imagine, I've installed and demoed all types of pickups. When looking for a Strat pickup set, I was watching guys like Chris Buck and Robert Baker on YouTube, and I loved that classic Strat tone. Not necessarily from a certain era or particular year, but THAT tone. These pickups nailed THAT Strat tone. When you think "Classic Strat", these pickups will get you there! I was blown away! Now, they're not hum-cancelling, but I didn't care. I still don't. If your guitar is shielded, that's more than enough. Remember, hundreds of thousands of classic songs were recorded without humbuckers, or hum-cancelling pickups/pickup positions. As far as install, it's straightforward. Hot to the switch, ground to a pot back. All mounting hardware was included. One mod I like to do to all my Strats is run the neck and middle pickups to the first tone knob, and the bridge to the second tone knob, volume knob remaining as the master volume. Really adds even more versatility to this already fantastic pickup set. Overall, I'm beyond happy with these pickups, and they always leave me reaching for my Strat instead of my other guitars. Lastly, if you want to see other projects, want me to draw up a custom wiring diagram, or any other help, check me out on Instagram @dansgunsnguitars

Bought some 57/62 pups for my other strat. Really liked them. They sound excellent. Bought these 59's to go on my JV 60s mod. I think these are essentially the same pups except for the poles on the 59's are flat and the 57/62's are beveled. Brilliant highs, tight lows, lots of gain. 6 stars 🌟

I bought these for a strat build after playing a sublime 59 reissue. What stands out to me is that they have a round, warm quality that still retains all the essential strat tone, minus some of the thinness that sometimes accompanies vintage style pickups. The bridge in particular has a nice twang that matches with the chewy middle and one of the best neck sounds I’ve encountered in the wild. I paired this set with a vintage wiring harness to complete the effect. I know there are more trendy boutique offerings out there but for the money you really can’t go wrong. Be advised. There is a non reverse wound middle pickup if hum is a concern. Side note: the pure vintage package is so cool I save the boxes.

My Stratocaster actually sounds like a Stratocaster. I replaced my 2005 stock pickups with pure 59’s. It was the best thing I ever done to that guitar.

My favourite Custom shop Fender pickups. My reasons are as follows - These pickups respond like ‘real hand-wound’ pickups in that they are wonderfully dynamic to the touch. They also embody the essence of a real pre cbs 59, It's not so loose, full and airy sounding as the real deal, but its a very good modern equivalent I also really like that like the originals (they do not reverse wind the middle pickup) This gives a much more accurate and natural sounding 2 and 4 in-between sound to me , with plenty of quack! The tone is sweet with a vintage edge, I have tried many, much more expensive boutique pickups and rarely enjoyed them as much as these. To me there are no down sides, however I will say that these pickups are very height sensitive, too low and they sounds weak and thin, too high and you get too much magnet oscillation (usually caused by the neck pickup base end up too high) So get them set up just right and your good to go!

Las compre por warehouse... Pero no las enviaron las puré vintage 59 e sin las 65... En malas condiciones de envío. Me las funcionaron con mucho más salida que las 59...

Perfect pickups for my last build. I prefer these to the CS Fat 50s set, or the CS 59/61 set that I have tried before. These came in original Fender packaging, and are very well balanced. Quality control appears to be excellent. Can recommend them for a hardtail, ash body, maple/rosewood neck combo, as that's what I did.

Montati su una Jet 400 Stratocaster e devo ammettere che suonano decisamente bene. Classico suono vintage strato con segnale basso e classico suono Fender. Una leggera compressione sui medio alti, bassi presenti e medi nella giusta dose. Perfetti da clean e con le distorioni anche marcate. Classico suono Stratocaster ! Molto piu vivaci e meno spenti rispetto ai SD SSL1 sopratutto sui clean. Versatilissimi. Li consiglio a chi cerca il suono Strato anni 50.

These were delivered no worries, but were quite disappointing. They really aren't that great of an improvement over my stock Japanese 68 reissue pick ups. If anything I would say they are marginally worse that what I had. Unfortunately with these types of items. You can only find out, buy putting up your money, and try them. In hindsight, I should have just gone with "sliders", or "kinman". I know from experience they are exceptionally good.