Vintage Tone Alnico 5 Staggered ST Strat Single Coil Pickups SSS Set for Stratocaster Electric Guitar, Black

I decided to show my Partscaster Strat some love, and upgrade the pick-ups with something that wouldn’t break the bank, and have great tone and seem to have pretty good reviews. I purchased the Wilkinson Vintage Tone Alnico 5 Staggered ST Strat Single Coil Pickups SSS and so far have been impressed.I’m switching from pickups using Ceramic magnets to the Alnico 5 magnets and the sound is more in line with what I’ve been seeking. Also, changed out the cheap pots and 5 way switch, caps, etc. to do this upgrade and overall I couldn’t be any happier with what I’m now playing and it sounds as good to my ears as some of the $1,000 to $1800 name brand Strat’s I’ve played lately, at a fraction of the price.5 Stars for the quality, price, sound and decent build quality. The only thing I’d change would be to include the proper size screws in the package, or include a set of new screws instead of telling the customer as mentioned in the description and in the paperwork, to use your old screws.

I still can't believe how low priced these are. They were very well wax potted, and they are not microphonic whatsoever. I have far more expensive pickups that are more microphonic than these. The sound is very bell-like and glassy. I wouldn't call them "warm," but they're not overly bright either.They have a lot of "depth" though. I don't really know how to describe it, but like with all "good to great" pickups, you get that "complexity" in the sound that it's somewhat undefinable, as opposed to the dull/harsh/flat sound a lot of cheap pickups have. Like if you let the note ring out, it's has some "personality" to it. The stock Squier junk pickups I replaced were nothing like that at all.

These pickups are amazing for the price. They are bright and clear and have a nice tone. I replaced my original pickups on my 93 MiM Strat and they blow those away. Granted thos pickups were crappy but I am so happy with these pickups now.

I have not completed the build yet so I cannot comment on the sound but I will update my rating when I am finished. Several reviews said the mounting holes were stripped. That did not really make sense. I am just doing some projects to learn so I went ahead and placed an order.First issue was that there are 6 sets of screws and springs and there were three of one size and type and three of another.Second issue was that both sizes of screws were too small to thread into the holes in the bobbin. Hence the other reviews stating that the threads were stripped out. They were not stripped, the holes were too big for the provided screws. To be fair, the description says that "the screws may not fit your application" and to reuse your screws if possible. The screws not fitting had nothing to do with my application. They were too small for the holes in the pickups. The standard size screw is a 6-32 and they worked just fine. Well, almost just fine.Which leads to the third issue which was that the holes in the pickup cover did not line up correctly with the holes in the bobbin. Once you got the mounting screw on one end started the hole on the other end of the cover was pushed out of alignment with the hole in the bobbin. I had to drill out the holes in the cover to a larger size to make enough room to allow the screws to go through to the backplate of the bobbin.Poor Quality Control. Something as simple as screwing 6 screws in to mount three pickups should have taken less than 5 minutes. This probably took an hour. And if you didn't have the 6-32 screws and the tools or the desire to measure and drill out the holes they would have not been useable.

Buy them if you're upgrading a low cost strat type guitar.

I bought an old squire from a garage sale for $5. Bought these and installed them into the $5 guitar. It sounded really good I sold it for $145 making a $90 profit all cause the sound quality for the price improves cheaper guitars to higher sounding Quality. The squire for me sounding bluesy on clean and old rock with simple distortion when I tried it out. These will improve old guitars you don’t know what to do with and easy instal or at least cheap

Easily mounted on a custom pickguard and soldered into a custom wiring harness. Don't have a guitar to install them into right now, but they have a high quality of construction. Wilkinson pickups have an excellent reputation for quality.

I have these in the Neck and MIddle of my Squier Affinity HSS Strat and they really deliver on classic Strat tones with only moderate single coil noise. A huge improvement over the stock ceramic pickups.