Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Discussion of guitar pickups and wiring

Moderator: longfxukxnhair


Mikeitloud
<25
<25
User avatar
Posts: 4
Joined: 18 Jan 2015, 09:25
Location: Abbotsford B.C. Canada
Has Liked: 1 time
Been liked: 0
Contact:

Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Postby Mikeitloud » 01 Mar 2015, 16:16

I have a Mexican strat, and I'm thinking about upgrading the bridge pickup. I came across a Fender N3 noiseless bridge pup, brand new sealed package for $50.00. Anyone have any experience with these?
Guitars/Amps/Pedals:
Marshall JMD1 100w Head
Peavey 412 Jensen
Traynor YCV80Q 410 combo
Fender Strat
Epi Les Paul Standard
Kramer Striker 7 SDFR
DeArmond Pilot 5 string Bass
Dean performer A/E
Weeping Demon Wah
Radial Tonebone hot british
Decimator n/r
BCB60 board

JkGriffin
Diamond Member
Diamond Member
User avatar
Posts: 1079
Joined: 12 Dec 2009, 16:25
Location: Norway
Has Liked: 46 times
Been liked: 157 times
Contact:

Re: Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Postby JkGriffin » 01 Mar 2015, 23:11

I have, in the sense that I've tried quite a few Stratocasters with N3 pickups when I was on the search for a good Stratocaster...
Now, obviously I did not try to change the pickups in those guitars, but all guitars I've ever tried with N3 sound lifeless...

Noiseless pickups comes at a cost on sound quality in general though... if you buy proper fender-vintage-ish singlecoils you will get noise, but they sound better to.
For me, that noise is unacceptable, so I have Dimarzio noiseless in both my Stratocasters and the compromise in sound is acceptable to me...

I have the same pickups as on Andy Timmons signature guitar on the Jeff Beck Strat (with exception of bridge, but that one is quite similar still)... they really sound good.
The original pickups in the Jeff Beck Strat was a mystery to me... I could not get a proper distorted sound even with diming the amp and put OD pedal in front and those pups are specified as HOT...

Papus
Paid to Shit
Paid to Shit
User avatar
Posts: 1717
Joined: 14 Dec 2010, 14:25
Location: The shitter
Has Liked: 80 times
Been liked: 896 times
Contact:

Re: Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Postby Papus » 02 Mar 2015, 02:00

I can't jive with that noiseless balderdash.
Lace Sensors are the only authentic-sounding noiseless pickups IMHO.
When all is said & done nothing will beat true single coils
Dime that puppy!!!

sikter
Knighted
Knighted
User avatar
Posts: 2181
Joined: 16 Aug 2010, 02:03
Location: Norway
Has Liked: 463 times
Been liked: 1073 times
Contact:

Re: Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Postby sikter » 02 Mar 2015, 03:27

I installed Lace pickups on my Strat. After a while I put back original pickup to bridge position
I believe that killing noise is double edged sword. It kills your tone too.
That's why I never use any NR effects either.
Attachments
strat.jpg
strat.jpg (48.06 KiB) Viewed 3490 times
:dunno

aristotle
'54 Les Paul
'54 Les Paul
User avatar
Posts: 910
Joined: 08 Apr 2011, 09:07
Has Liked: 87 times
Been liked: 527 times
Contact:

Re: Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Postby aristotle » 02 Mar 2015, 11:02

As is often the case, I'm the contrarian I guess. I love, love, love my strat with N3s. I actually couldn't care less about noise (I'm so used to rolling off the volume knob in situations where it matters). But they came standard on my American Deluxe strat, and the neck pickup on the thing is particularly good. Can't say the same thing for the S1 switching (which seems to only go along with these pickups) but I just never use it in that mode, so no worries there. But I like a strat with a rosewood fretboard, so that calibrates me I guess...

Image

Image

Squidhunter
<100 Posts
<100 Posts
User avatar
Posts: 56
Joined: 07 Dec 2014, 02:02
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Has Liked: 12 times
Been liked: 14 times
Contact:

Re: Fender N3 noiseless pickups

Postby Squidhunter » 07 Mar 2015, 04:03

A couple of years ago I got obsessed in the search for the ultimate strat pickups. I have 4 American strats and I cycled through countless pickups.
For me my strats have to have a SRV vibe, clean/semi overdrive.....nothing crazy, heavy rock etc. For me the N3's lacked character, they lacked that woody neck pickup tone.
I got rid of them pretty quickly. I had a bloke come over the other day to buy an amp of me and he brought his deluxe strat with the N3's, he said he loves them! Matter of taste I guess!

Return to “Guitar Pickups”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests