Red '79 Strat Pickup

Red '79 Handwound Stratocaster Pickups

Magnets: Alnico 5
Poles: Staggered or Flat
Coil Wire: 42AWG Plain Enamel
Lead Wire: Vintage Cloth Pushback
Bridge Output: 5.9k
Middle Output: 5.7k
Neck Output: 5.5k

Inspired by the New Wave/Post Punk era of the late '70s & early '80s, the Red '79 Stratocaster Pickup has that brittle, bright attack associated with much of the music of that era. The lower in output, 42AWG coil wrapped around Custom Alnico 5 magnets gives you that cutting tone great with effects (a little phase, a little chorus ;-). As with the Telecaster Red '79s, I settled on the final designs (after many versions) to create a pickup that has that bright, brittle tone without the ice-pick shrillness of thin, lower wound pickups. To achieve this the coil is wound slightly shorter with a looser scatterwound pattern to achieve the balance I was looking for.

With the staggered magnet the tone is concentrated more around the D & G strings for a spikier attack whereas with the flat pole version the tone is rounded a little more as the tone is spread evenly through all strings.

NOTE: If Red really isn't your thing you can always order it in White or Black vintage String as well ;-)

The Middle Pickup can be RW/RP for hum cancelling in positions 2 & 4.