Seymour Duncan SSL-1 WH

All of the melodic structure you could want from a vintage sounding pickup. The truth is, the hotter you make a pup, the harder it hits the preamp, the more gain you get, but you lose a lot of the underlying harmonious melodic structure too. Most of the guitar gods back in the 70's and early 80's weren't using hot pups overwound and high strength magnets. They were just using the pups that came with the guitar, and then turned their amps all the way up and got the gain there, or put a pedal in front of the old pups. Something I have noticed over the years, even though the pickup winders say they have that "true vintage tone", what they are missing is the dynamics of those vintage pups. Even those coming from the guitar factories, that promise the same thing, they are trying to reach that warmth you get from an alnico pup that has a degraded magnet in it. Warmth and dynamics. Pick hard, it drives your amp hard, pick soft and it cleans right up. These dynamics are lost in most factory pups, regardless of what they claim. This set of SD pups, are right on target. They have all those harmonious structure going on under the chord or note, plenty of warmth, without sacrificing the single coil sound. And dynamics like crazy. I have written two other reviews for a special David Gilmour Black Strat build, that this purchase was part of. Go read those so I don't have to write it all over again. But if you're looking for a true Fender vintage tone, these are your pickups. Fender puts out a lot of signature pups, many I have tried since I am a small custom builder myself. None of them really reach what SD has been able to do. This is vintage Fender Strat tone at it's finest.

I got myself an old 100$ Squier as my newest modding project and decided to install this in the neck position.

The pickup is packaged inside a hard plastic case with a foam mold around so you can expect this to arrive in perfect condition.

There's two wires: black for the ground and white for your lead. 'A' grade wiring enclosed inside a push-in type of casing. The wires are quite long. Two screws and tubing included.

The sound of this pickup is just amazing. It pushes out a really clean and glassy sound. I have installed it with a 500k pot and the sound is almost metallic (not to confuse with the genre). With some overdrive this has that beautiful mid-to-high range crunchiness.

5/5 packaging, quality and sound.

I ordered this pickup because my favorite guitarist John Frusciante uses it in his guitars. I was especially attracted by the SSL-1 tone in the neck position.

This pickup sounds as it is supposed to sound - like a vintage Strat pickup. The mids are accented and the lower notes seem clearer. However, it is not possible to describe the beauty of its sound in text, I can only suggest to listen to the sound samples and see some Youtube videos with SSL-1 in action.

I don't know if it's really a con, but to get the most out of it you have to set up your amp's parameters well. I suggest high volume, small overdrive, high volume, high presence, and high bass relative to treble.

Also, I was pleasantly surprised that there is a scheme and instructions how to replace your original pickup with this one, which makes it easier if you know how to solder.

I bought this, a Fender custom shop '69, and an SSL-5 to go in my strat. I originally planned to use the SSL-1 in the neck. While it sounded great there, I wasn't impressed with the CS69 in the middle. So, I swapped them out, and I really like the SSL-1 in the middle. Although I'm happy with the CS69, I still sometimes think about putting another SSL-1 in the neck just for uniformity. I definitely recommend something a little more powerful in the bridge to avoid the usual ice-pick problem!