Hi Guys.... Late night for me. Spent roughly 10 hours winding.... Long day... then this email from someone....
Gentlemen,
I somewhat recently purchased a nearly pristine (has slight lacquer peel between 2nd and 3rd fret which you cannot feel) 1993 Fender Stratocaster Plus with some stock Gold Lace Sensors. I got the guitar for a very good price off of Ebay so I figured I’d toss in some real single coils so it didn’t sound sterile and lifeless. I initially narrowed my choices down to D. Allen Hot 54/59’s or Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots, but Strat-talk.com also recommended that I check you guys out as your pickups supposedly had the same quality if not better, only for far less money. I figured what the hell, it’s worth a shot, right? Worst case scenario, I’m out $75 instead of $280 for the Fralin’s.
Look at my luck, there’s a set of your Hermosa hand-wounds on Craigslist for $55! Showed up to take a look at them and the gentleman had them in the original shipping materials as his kid went off to Afghanistan with the guards and asked dad to sell them. SOLD! J
I had my luthier install these in the Strat Plus and all I have to say is that the stock pickups in *EVERY STRAT I OWN* sound far better, even so much as they have less noise than all but a 1999 MIM Strat, less microphonic issues with neon signs (my tremolo cavities are all professionally shielded except for one MIJ strat which has the noiseless backplate system from Fralin/Suhr/Ilitch), and the highs are either lifeless or Ice picks on my bridge pickup through both a 1968 fender bandmaster with the AB763 circuit OR my bandmate’s ’66 Vox AC 30. I even changed out the pots TWICE with 250k and 500ks. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, giving my luthier a Fralin Bassplate for the bridge pickup and tossing your pickups in a 1998 MIJ strat with the Fralin noiseless backplate system, they then *almost*sounded as good as the stock MIJ pickups I replaced, albeit they were very quiet in this guitar thanks to the backplate. Elevate the pickups and most sustain went out the window, drop them closer to the pickguard and they were even more mushy than a humbucker, only with some healthy 60 cycle hum once that backplate system was removed.
I’m so very, VERY disappointed with your product I almost didn’t bother to email you, but after all the work I and my luthier (and money) put into trying my very best to make these sound passable, I finally sold the Strat I dumped them in to a friend of mine who wanted the guitar for the neck.
Most of the soundbytes you have on the site do have quite a bit of hum and I wished I had realized that no amount of shielding will remove it unless you spend $200 on a fine Fralin noiseless backplate system. I only have one of them, and $200 is pricey to outfit the other three Strats I gig with AND get new pickups heh. I wanted to believe that your product was great but it’s obvious that your stuff is nowhere near consistent. Maybe I got a terrible set or a lemon set, but as the packaging was UNOPENED in the shipping materials I know they were absolutely legitimate, new pickups out of the box.
Anyway, I have to believe that your quality control systems need to be improved VASTLY and I plan on telling every single producer, luthier, and musician I know to avoid your products like the plague unless you can prove to me that you can build a decent set of pickups that are actually worth SIXTY dollars (which doesn’t take much!).
Can you guys send me a decent set of stratocaster pickups for a 9.5” radius please? I’ll pay you whatever I have to under $250 in order to try them out with the Fralin back plate system on the Plus, but I want to be able to get my damned money back if they are as terrible as the first set of pickups were. Still, I believe that everyone deserves a second chance. I want to know what happened, did that machine that “hand winds” your stuff just have a bad day or what?
Pissed off customer
Crist Z.
My brothers' response:
Hello. Thanks for the feedback.
I cannot say if they were unopened or not. You purchased them used from someone else. Who knows what those pickups went through. We ship in standard boxes. Nothing special, so I can't help you there. I appreciate your 2nd chance, but we will pass. You just basically called our product crap, and threatened to tell everyone how awful our products are. We do not take threats kindly, and we have nothing to prove, especially to you. Our 5 year track record is in tact, and doing great.
I do love, however, that you were willing to spend more money on our products to "check and see..."
Buy Fralins, and be happy.
Good luck.
Kevin
They had us stay over a Saturday to save on airfare. So I spent the week and weekend at the Four Seasons on the companies dime.
