Fender Texas Special Strat Pickups

The Fender Texas Special pickup was designed to get that very thick and throaty 'Texas' blues tone used by people such as Stevie Ray Vaughan in an affordable package. That sort of texture is meant to be like a slightly overwound/hotter sounding single coil with a bit more girth and drive than a vintage voiced one would have. I had one in the neck position of a mongrel Strat and here is a sound by sound rundown of what I thought: (I should note that there was a Fender Custom '54 in the middle position and a John Suhr Technologies DSH humbucker in the bridge position of this guitar.)

Cleans: The clean tones out of this pickup were pretty good sounding overall. There was a nice classic Strat vibe in the spectrum, but it was kicked up a few notches as far as the punch and output. The end result was something that I found was never fully clean, but rather always sounded as though there was a very mild overdrive on at all times. It's kind of like an overwound characteristic, but compared to much nicer pickups like the Fender Custom Shop '69s (which are designed to have that sort of sound), the Texas Special sounded a little bit fake, as though an overdrive was pushing the output as opposed to the pickup itself. The clean tone in tandem with the Custom '54 in the middle position was very good I thought... it had a nice Hendrix type vibe. Since the C54 was more of a vintage voiced pickup, the balance was a little bit better tonally.

Drive: The drive sounds on this pickup were pretty cool overall. It had that nice throaty tone that a single coil has when overdriven, perfect for big chords or gutsy sounding solos. It was definitely a very "Texas" blues sounding pickup though. I didn't find that it did the hard rock/neoclassical thing very well because the frequency range wasn't designed for that. (For heavier styles I had much better results with the DiMarzio YJM). It always had that sort of throaty, raw blues type of character when overdriven, so I found it didn't sound as good for rock type things.

If you want a decent sounding pickup for the SRV type vibe that won't break the bank, give this a shot. It's not even in the same league with Custom Shop pickups though, so trying to compare those is a hard thing to do.

How long you use the
So since February!

Did you tried many other models before buying it?
I own a Strat equipped with noiseless and I wanted to expand my palette of sounds
following the advice I had read left to right is what I wanted
then I was not disappointed
I bought a Strat to upgrade from an assembly kit bought just for fun
being satisfied with the final result in terms of accuracy
I thought it was a shame not to go further
on the other hand to make the most of my drawing up 10-46
before that it was sorely lacking fishing and biting

What is so special that you love the most, least?
+ I find the sound that SRV clear
also great for playing Sultans of Swing example
and for the Clapton or Buddy Guy
I love the sound of the neck pickup
if I had to keep one it would be this one
bridge position without being garish slap it
and middle + bridge position the sound that makes the Strat
the -
the price!
but when you love

How would you rate the quality / price?
With experience, you do again this choice?
as I said before I find the price a bit pricey
but hey you know what you want
experience with
if I had to replace pickups on another grat
I'll try to be C52/67 or C69 to compare

I put Texas on my American Standard there must be 6 or 7 years.
All because I had a crack on the SRV MODEL.
Especially on the micro serious FINALLY gave me the sound I was looking for serious micro pfou since ... more!
Thus, TEXAS is a bit beefier than the originals, but no worry, remains a Fender Hot rails is not!
So here you go.
Now have to see with new modern microphones if finally the cake and butter: the sound without noise.
I think of the virtual vintage Di Marzio and Kinman.

Trs something important to ring your Start on this # @ *} micro serious!
Do not stick too prs microphones, the fields magntique going to curl the ropes and give her enough trsmtallique of frisouillis EMDU '.
And dig a bit the mdiums.
That's it! You walk in the footsteps of Jimi and Stevie Ray. Courage! the road is long !!!...

A remake? Yes, hsiter. But I'm curious to hear Kinman.

-I for 3 4 years these microphones on two of my strats: 1 Mark Knopfler (ash + rosewood) and a Fat Start "Lone Star" (alder + rosewood + Seymour duncan pearly gate in the bridge.).
like many strat man, I t influenced by SRV and fashion spcial texas.
But I'm a little income ...
If you like strats rosewood 'dark', then you are your, these pickups are for you: hot, round with an increased output level ...
a micro bridge handle ultra crmeux seems to me be the highlight of this set, and with the position 2 (neck + middle), we are in what is the best in the genre ...
The central micro rings trs right is more or less corresponds to the microphones to handle most light stack type 57/62.
and so on ... The bridge pickup almost sounds like the microphone middle of a set vintage more ...
In short, it almost felt like DCAL the sound spectrum of the stratum to the bottom mduims the benefit of higher frequencies. (On sloigne single coil of the mind ...)
But after a while you may get tired of all this orgy of mduims and sounds of this round and acute shortage of grain (especially alder, on the fne rcupre a little shine ....
I came back from texas and spcial j'apprcie now sets brighter, more twang (57/62 Fender, Fender ssl1 or 54 ...)
With this type of vintage microphones more, was less than the output level, but less than mdiums more transparency, the crunch sounds more dlicats and cleans teeth much more than with the TX-spcial.
But everyone must do his exprience and Texas are all the same TRS good pickups for Start.
Notice those who want to try them on key mapple: slamming it as an aggressive tlcaster, the aim of the Tone knob without stopping and even mounted on a custom shop I do did not find extraordinary.
To me these pickups are the top button of rosewood, trs dark with the alder, a little more bite with frne.
So I prfrre dernire this config. which is illustrated on the Mark Knopfler.
My rating is 7 because I think for example that the alnico V "SERIES" which quipent strata classic series 60 (MEX-rosewood), are much better and more "roots" in the spirit SERIES "L" as texas.