Zexcoil Stratocaster Pickups Texas Set Review
Zexcoil Stratocaster Pickups Texas Set Review
Let’s start by saying that the Zexcoil pickups have set the tone standard for me. I would choose them in a heart beat over any single coil pickups I have ever played and they do not buzz at all. Before I explain more about why I like them lets take a look at what I don’t like about other types of noiseless pickups.
My Experience with other Types of Noiseless Pickups
Fender Noiseless pickups have always been very touch and go when it comes to tone. Sure, they do all seem to eliminate noise but it has always come with a sacrifice with tonal characteristics on the most part. I’ve had a lot of noiseless pickups for my Strats over the years including SC Noiseless Pickups, Hot Noiseless Pickups, Vintage Noiseless Pickups, and D’Allen Johnny Hiland Pickups and they all were missing something. The D’Allen and Hot Noiseless were as close to the Strat tone as I could find at the time but they all had no where near the dynamics and feel of a single coil when you did a direct comparison. For some people this doesn’t matter so much but for me, it did. The D’allan Pickups were okay but they ended up taking my strat tone and turning it into something that wasn’t very “Strat-like” in the end so I ditched them as well.
One thing I always noticed with the Fender SC Noiseless pickups was there was a lack of low end warmth and a lack of high end chime and I also hear it on the N3 Fender pickups too. The high end ended up always sounding forced and brittle like it wanted to crack your fillings. It wasn’t a high frequency tone, it felt like it ended at a place that wasn’t natural or pleasing to the ear. This graph below illustrates how I hear the generic noiseless pickups in comparison to the single coil tones.
Why are Zexcoil Pickups so good?
Zexcoil pickups retain the entire frequency of the single coil sound giving your Strat a “Strat” tone.- They eliminate all buzz and can handle clean to high gain tones without any pickups squeal.
- Each coil is tuned and stacked in a way that sound perfect for the string it’s under.
- They feel great to play! Since having them in my Strat I have never looked back or questioned my tone.
- In a direct comparison to Fender Custom Shop pickups I prefer to the tones of the Zexcoil pickups.
- I literally have zero issues using this Stratocaster in any venue now, this is one huge advantage over my old pickups.
- These pickups are as good in my Stratocaster as my Joe Barden Danny Gatton Pickups are in my Telecaster in terms of tone, feel, and usability.
In this video of the Swamp Thang Speaker I am using a left handed set of Zexcoil pickups. This video have the 500k pots in the Volume and Tone positions.
In these videos, I am actually using a right-handed set of Zexcoil Texas pickups in my left-handed Stratocaster. This video have the 250k pots in the Volume and Tone positions.
Check out Anthony from Texas Blues Alley demo and review of the Zexcoil pickups.
Overall
I honestly feel that the Zexcoil pickups will be the last set of pickups for this Stratocaster. I have tried numerous sets of pickups both single coil and noiseless pickups in this guitar and none of them sounded as nice as these do in combination of reducing the buzz and hum. Replacing the 250k pots to 500k pots made a difference to the high end as well making it chime without getting too bright, too harsh or any of the characteristics I can’t stand about bad noisless pickups. These sound fantastic and you’ll see them in my main Stratocaster 10 years from now.
