Fender Custom Shop Eric Johnson Pickups - Clean and Lead
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- Опубліковано 16 вер 2024
- A quick video demonstration of the different pickup positions in Fender's Eric Johnson singlecoil set in an ash bodied, rosewood fretboard Strat. From Fender: "Fender’s R&D engineers worked closely with world renowned guitarist and tone connoisseur Eric Johnson to craft the perfect pickups for his uniquely articulate sound. Carefully blending Leo’s legacy with EJ’s modern discerning sonic tastes, these Strat™ pickups are a key element of EJ’s unmistakably pure tone. Each pickup is unique in structure and performance. The neck pickup is based on a ’54 Strat pickup with oversized alnico 3 magnets. The middle pickup, based on a ’63 Strat pickup, uses specially treated alnico magnets and is reverse wound to cancel hum when used with the neck or bridge pickup. The bridge pickup uses alnico 5 magnets and is specially voiced to be hotter without sacrificing that sweet top end sparkle."
I played through all five traditional Strat pickup combinations in order through my Mesa Roadster's Ch 1 Fat mode, and then just the individual positions (though I accidently started off the middle pickup in middle/bridge) through Ch 3 Modern. In both channels, the gain was about 1 o'clock. Post processing was limited to a small amount of reverb (on top of the amp's reverb) and delay, and a nearly inaudible high pass, plus a limiter to boost to CD volume. My cab was mic'd with a SM57 as the primary mic and a MD421 supporting it maybe 4db lower.
I usually have a personal rule that I don't purchase any gear with another musician's name slapped on it as a "signature" model...but these pickups would easily be an exception. They sound great.
Yeah, I'm normally the same... I think it helps that, while Eric Johnson is a player I respect tremendously, I've never been a huge fan of his music or his tone (his dedication to chasing tone is a different story), so when I tried these and found I really liked them, I wasn't too concerned about the signature connection. These were my favorite Fender pickups I've played.
@@drewpeterson7 For sure, glad you found them! I'm half tempted to do a little experiment and see what they'd sound like in a cheap Squier Bullet.
I just bought a pre-wired Eric Johnson pick guard for my 40th Anniversary Squier Strat can't wait to install them!
Very nice sounding pickups!
Thank you! I was really impressed by these.
Sweet harmonics , Good contour For melody and chords👍👍
Amazing chops Drew !!! Very impressed !!!!
Hi Drew. I love this demo. I am a tele player and have really been wanting to get a strat again. I play country and soft rock/classic rock. I mostly play clean or with light overdrive but I also like to crank the distortion from time to time. Would this be a good choice puckup or might you suggest another?
At first. .i was thinking,texas specials video? ? Then you clicked it in and WOW! I need these pups
Thanks! I really like this set, and I totally expected to stick with the Texas Special set I briefly had in here, too. The neck pickup is very clear and open, the middle is actually kind of reminiscent of the Texas Special in this position, and the bridge has an awesome glassy Tele-like sound to it which is a blast to play with.
They sound good , but are they hummy???
I have an almost identical Strat. Same body, same pickguard, but with Callaham trem, Graph Tech saddles, Fender N3 pickups (StratLovers mod/Greasebucket mod), and a Jeff Beck neck.
Nice - how are the latest generation of the Fender Noiseless pickups? I hated the first generation back in... Jeez, 1997 I think, when I first played them, and found them sterile and lifeless, but I imagine they've gotten better over the past 20 years and two subsequent revisions.
Drew Peterson
Funny, the 1st generations came in the guitar when I bought it (all the above, except the wiring mod, came later) and the sound was nice. It was a used Strat. Around a month later, the pickups started to die on me, which may have contributed to the sound I heard.
Not knowing, and because of them being the only alternative available at the time, I had the N3s installed. The tech set them to Fender spec and they were okay. Later on, I lowered them and found the sweet spots and they've stayed there ever since. It could be the wiring adding to the sound as well. With the StratLovers mod, you get seven pickup combinations, but I actually get eight different sounds out of the guitar. When the mini toggle is switched for the additional two, in the middle position, a bit of the high end is removed from the middle pickup. Noticable when switching the toggle in that position. The Greasebucket mod has nothing to do with that, as that happened before the GB was installed. So I get a pretty good sound from the N3s. I just can't contest to how they'd sound in another Strat because of what all is going on under the hood of mine...so much that I had a guitar/amp tech install the pickups and GB mod.
The JB neck was added to improve tuning stability with the LSR nut. Surprisingly, I later read a scanned article online about Jeff Beck having had Fender Custom Shop N3s installed on his backup Strats, due to their sounding the closest to true single coils. How close is the question, as Fender is, last I have seen, on Generation 4 pickups now.
Didn't know a Mesa Roadster could do these kind of tones.
Yeah, it's a surprisingly versatile amp, isn't it? Ch 3 is a lot smoother than you'd expect from a Recto, although the Recto clean has always been one I've liked.
I put these pickups in my Strat and I really like them. However I noticed they’re quite noisy, and the A string seems quieter then the rest of the strings. Does anybody notice the same thing? I’m just trying to figure out if that’s the nature of these pickups or maybe my wiring or something is a little bad. Anyways they’re fantastic pickups, I especially like the neck pickup. Great video!
I really dug the neck pickup in this set too. I didn't notice them being unusually noisy or with an unusually quiet A string, I'm afraid, though.
@@drewpeterson7 Thanks for the feedback! I think I'm just going to shield the inner cavity and that should deal with the noise. An I'll just have to deal the string volume difference cause I like the pickups too much lol
@@dansands6363 IT also could juts be something funky with that particular string - has this persisted over a couple different sets?
@@drewpeterson7 Yes, Ive tried everything from ernie ball to NYXLs to Elixirs. And when i play the guitar acoustically the string is normal. It resonates just as loud and long as the rest of the strings. Perhaps I don't have the pickups oriented right, although right now I have them higher on the bass side and lower on the treble side.
For playing pink floyd or jimi hendrix this pickup is good ??
What about neck radius? Eric J strats have 12" I think... I would like to fit them to my 7,25" guitar...
Neck radius shouldn't be an issue - this guitar has a multiradius neck with a 10-16" radius, if I remember right, and anyway I flattened the polepeices to get rid of that stupid vintage stagger Fender uses on all of their pickups (it made a lot more sense when people were using wound G's, but now the G string magnet is way too close to the strings).
@@drewpeterson7 I bought a set. I couldn't be happier. They remind me of the 57/62 pickups, which are superb
@@drewpeterson7 Could you elaborate on that please?
How would you say these differ from the standard Fender Hot Vintage Noiseless pickups? I am looking at installing either set along with the Clapton mid-boost circuit. I'm hoping this will allow me to retain the beauty and responsiveness of single coils, but also get me into humbucker territory when required. Thoughts?
I've never played the Hot Vintage Noiseless pickups, but the first couple generations of Fender Noiseless pickups didn't really impress me. Similarly, I've never played a guitar with the Clapton mid-boost circuit, but a lot of the people who I've talked to weren't really impressed with how it sounded. If you want to be able to get both single coil and humbucker sounds out of the same guitar I'd go with a SSH pickguard, or a HH/HSH with coil splits. SSH would let you get great neck and neck/middle singlecoil sounds while still having a humbucker in the bridge.
Thanks for the advice Drew!
No problem!
Are this pickups noiseless?
No - they're no worse than any other traditional singlecoils, but they do have 60-cycle hum when you're not in one of the "in-between" positions.
@@drewpeterson7 So they are RWRP pickups that are noiseless in position 2 and 4? BTW, your video is great and making me think maybe I should get some of these. Also when you say you flattened the pole pieces, do you mean you pushed them down to the deck of the pickups (even to the top of the pickup itself instead of sticking out)?
What were the heights of the pickups? I understand that these pickups are very finicky.
I don;t know if I found them particularly finicky, and I've got something else in this guitar these days. I just adjusted them to the point where magnetic pull wasn't an issue, and then backed them off a hair further than that, as I recall, because the closer they were the less distinct they were from position to position, I thought.
@@drewpeterson7 What pickups are you currently running in the guitar?
@@explorer8454 A set of Suhr V60LPs.