How are the stock pups in the Fender MIM Strat?

[blingdogg]

Another thing to remember is that the new MIMs have different pickups than the older ones. I think it was around 2007 (?) that the MIMs started to have hotter ceramic pickups. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

[bsman]

It was in 2006, I believe. I can't say much about the strat pickups, but the stock pickups in the new MIM teles are quite useful. I will likely replace the neck PU, but I feel no need to replace the bridge PU in my 09 (and this is either the 7th or 8th tele I've had).

[Doctor Morbius]

I think stock MIM Strat pups sound fine until you listen to the back to back against some Fralin Vintage Hots or SD Antiquity IIs or Custom Shop '54s.

[Cold Gin]

How about you do us all a favor and stop posting {censored} like that?

 

 

No sense of humor??

[blingdogg]

 

It was in 2006, I believe. I can't say much about the strat pickups, but the stock pickups in the new MIM teles are quite useful. I will likely replace the neck PU, but I feel no need to replace the bridge PU in my 09 (and this is either the 7th or 8th tele I've had).

 

Yeah, the MIM Tele pickups are nice. Fender did a good job on those.

[Yogi_Sizzle]

 

Another thing to remember is that the new MIMs have different pickups than the older ones. I think it was around 2007 (?) that the MIMs started to have hotter ceramic pickups. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong)

 

 

It was 2006, and then this year they added the tinted necks and new logo. They also have a full size Zinc block, medium Jumbo frets, and the same pots as American Standards.

[Cold Gin]

MIM standard pickups are IMO quite good actually. They have more bite and are more aggressive sounding compared to the american standard pickups which are very smooth, great for clean. For OD tones I'd take the MIM standard pickups.

[Vermoulian]

Neutrik is actually a pretty decent brand of cable. No worries in that regard.

 

MIM pickups are fine. They give classic Strat tone. Are there better pickups out there? Yes. However, unless you are playing side-by-side with another Strat player through the same amps with the same settings, nobody else is going to be able to tell that.

 

While a certain amount of desire to improve your tone is good and healthy, beware of getting too caught up in obsessing over minutiae. It often seems like the guys who work the hardest and spend the most chasing perfect tone get the least satisfaction. I mean, people sell Fralins, Lollars, etc. etc., so as good as they may be there are plenty of people out there for whom they are not the answer. A lot of that, I think, is a "grass greener on the other side of the fence" mentality and an inability to consider anything "good enough". There is ALWAYS something that sounds better.

 

So, the question to ask (unless you've just got a few hundred bucks mad money and want to play around with it) is, is what I've got okay? And I think that most of the time in most situations, MIM pickups are going to be okay. You will not NEED to upgrade them. If you want to, do it because you want to, but don't feel like you have to in order to have something acceptable. That is not the case. People are rocking stock MIM Fenders all over the world and sounding pretty good doing it.

[cratz2]

I guess I am a bit of a pickup snob, but I'd say the MIM Pickups are decent and nothing more.

 

Here's the thing... if you are after strat tones, play a MIM Standard through a Twin or a Deluxe Reverb and it is likely to sound very stratty and will make you smile. But, if you play a strat with CS54s or Duncan Antiquities through the same amp for an hour, then switch to that MIM Standard, the MIM Standard pickups sound VERY uninspiring.

 

It's absolutely a relative thing though and a lot of folks prefer ceramic single coils if you venture into moderate to high-ish gain territory.