Fender Tex-Mex Strat Pickups

Rewind 3 years ago...i bought a custom shop 1960 reissue strat. The original pickups were the very best strat pickups I've ever heard. They were exactly what I wanted a strat to sound like. I didn't like the thin neck on the guitar though, so I got rid of it.I've been playing strats for 25 years professionally; I've tried Don Mare, vintage noiseless, somarian cobalt noiseless, custom shop 69, seymour duncan, among others.Recently, I bought a used MIM road worn strat which I like very much. They have the Tex Mex pickups in these guitars. I love the way they sound. Just to compare, I decided to switch them out with some pickups I had laying around.First, the Fender Texas Specials. Tex Mex blows these out of the water. Texas Specials were very generic sounding in comparison. Kinda dead sounding, very ehh, not inspiring.Next, Fralin Vintage Hot. These were a little better than the Texas Specials, but they sounded like just regular run of the mill strat pickups to me. I guess if you were looking for a guitar that is a Jack of all trades, master of none, these might be good. No shimmery, stratty, glassy bell like tones.Put the Tex Mex back in... Wow these sound fantastic! They sound just like those custom shop'60 reissues. Super stratty, shimmery, warm, glassy and bell like clean. With some gain, they dirty up really nicely, retaining all the above qualities, but when you dig in they can get thick and sustained and make me want to play for hours. Buddy Holly cleans, Very Gilmourish when pushed with gain and fuzz.Very impressed!

I am blown away! I bought a $70 Donner (including a small amp lol) as my first mod project. I sanded, stained, and added these pickups. I changed nothing else but the pickups, leaving everything else original besides cosmetics, and I couldn’t believe the difference it made in the sound ! And not just a difference, this is the twang I’ve been looking for. The 5 pickup settings all have a completely different tone to them, I can even get a banjoish sound while picking out! :)My expectations have been exceeded, these will be my go to pickups anytime I mod an SSS configured guitar from here on out!!Thank you Fender, I love you!!!

Excellent pickups.They sound great!

Nice, classic pickups for stratocaster. They are perfect for blues, rock, country. They were relatively easy to solder up and sound great. They have a lot of top end and are pretty high output. Great Stratty tones, especially the in-between sounds.

The Tex-Mex pickups are the best $100 I've ever spent on guitar stuff. I tossed them in a junky old low end Squier Strat and they sound fantastic! Jangly. Springy. Quacky. All the things I love about that signature Strat sound. I hate to say it but I like these better than the sound of the pickups in my Strat Ultra and may well order another set to replace those.The wiring diagram that came with them was wrong for the Squier but it's no big deal - when replacing pickups I like to draw my own diagram of how everything is wired and also take a couple pictures. Whenever I have done that I've never had any problems with things not working right

I have been testing a lot of pickups lately including 3 Dimarzio Virtual Vintage, Fender Vintage Noiseless, Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder, Fender RI 54 fiber bobbin, stock American Standard and other humbuckers. I end up with this cheap MIM pups and cannot be happier. I only use the neck and middle since I use the Gibson P94 in the bridge already. I don't know how good is the bridge.One thing to watch out. You have to use 250K pot. It will sound bright with 500K pot. It is not muddy at all. Also I found the D and G string too loud. But this is an easy fix. I just push the two magnet down a little and solve the problem. This set use the same plastic bobbin like the American Standard where the magnet can be push up and down. If you have the fiber bobbin like the so called "Vintage" ones, you are out of luck if the sound is not balance. All you can do is to lower the pup and the signal get too weak.It is surprisingly good sounding pup. I choose it not because of the price, more like in spike of the price. Now my American Strat has Mexican pickup!!!

these are nice pickups, they seem a little darker than vintage, bass is somewhat lower as well.I enjoy them, still getting a feel for the vibe they transmit. They have clean dimension, but feel like a dim blues bar vibe. At least at this point, future may modify my thoughts, if so Ill update...

I have a Fender Squire that I am customizing and I wanted pickups that have a blues type of sound to them. Wow when I bought these I thought for sixty bucks if don't like them then I can throw them out and try something else and they couldn't be worse then the stock ones I had in the guitar. They came very fast and when I installed them was very easy. I could not get over how good they made the guitar sound. This is no longer a cheap guitar this is now my favorite guitar and would never consider trading or selling this guitar. It sounds way too awesome now. I love these pickups and they made this guitar sound like a 800 dollar guitar. I could not get over the change they made to this guitar.Awesome job Fender for making such a nice guitar pick up. When you pick a note on the guitar this pickup makes the note sound so clear and has a older vintage sound to them. They sound like a bluesy mixed with a old rock type sounding guitar. They are so awesome and I am very impressed with them. Now I am considering installing new pickups in my other guitars.Maybe I just play this guitar and sell the others. I love this guitar. Fender you are my hero.