Pickup Shootout - Fender Noiseless Vs. Fender Custom Shop '69 pre-wired pickguard.

A direct comparison between Fender's Samarium Cobalt Noiseless pickups vs Fender Custom Shop '69 prewired pickguard.

American Deluxe Stratocaster (Alder)
Fender Princeton '65 Reissue (Vol. 5, Treble 5, Bass 5)
UA Ox Box (2x12 Deluxe, SM 57, Royer 121)
FabFilter Pro-R in post.

No other EQ or processing.

[mikepj]

Fantastic playing and great comparison video. Thanks so much for your time and effort. This was great. Love both but really love the the 69s.

[MrRonDear]

Great video. They both sound great however, the 69’s just bite a little stronger to me.

[tiffyleelee]

Great comparison. I like 69’s but was surprised how good the SCN’s sounded. Especially when they had a bit of overdrive. Thanks for making the video

[joeD]

I honestly don’t hear that much of a difference!! So to be able to have noiseless pickups sound this good is incredible! I was just about to order the CS69. Now I’m looking for the SCNs thanks for this!

[SkeledroMan]

Those SCNs are the only strat pickups i've enjoyed playing, and the Tele SCNs are among my favourite tele pickups as well. Bill Lawrence was a genius. I really hope the other Wilde pickups are as good as the SCNs, since they stopped producing those.

[iancurrie]

The CS69 has more dynamic range and is more open. The SCN (I have this EXACT guitar) is more compressed and less expressive. I own this exact guitar so I can immediately hear what I'm used to. The CS69 is a breath of fresh air heard back to back. Still, for the benefits it offers, sometimes the SCN is very nice.

[RyszardGuźla]

Mam w fenderze scn świetnie grają a przedewszystkim jest cisza

[TheSimmoAu]

I have a 50th Anniversary 2004 Deluxe in Amber with Rosewood fretboard looks similar to yours. It has SCN’s with the S1 switch in the volume control. The neck pickup has died and finding replacements is not easy. Purchased CS69 pre wired which is in transit. Keen to hear them in the flesh. Great comparison and beautiful playing. Love the sound of both but leaning towards the CS69 in this comparison mainly P5 but they are very close. I might regret not getting noiseless replacements. I’ll keep an eye out for pre-loved SCN’s to keep this guitar in original condition.

[stringedaz]

I used to dismiss all noiseless strat and tele pickups as inferior, but I think they sound very similar to the CS69 set. In fact, I'd say the SCN is just a hair better on overdrive tones than the cs69, but cs69 has a SLIGHTLY clearer, more bell-like clean tone for rhythm. These are VERY subtle differences, though, and the SCN set is noiseless!!! I just bought a loaded scn pickguard for my thinline strat relic build after seeing this.

[musicmanxii]

This would make a great gospel jam. Not religious myself, but gospel musicians have some serious chops

[BPToneReview]

Using Bowers & Wilkins monitors I hear a slight difference but not much and whether it’s a positive or negative difference I dont know. Certainly not enough difference to lose the noiseless feature on the SCNs. I’d go noiseless since they sound similar.

[fabioaugustoalvesdesouza]

Hi, sorry for the question, maybe I lost the info, but... Wich noiseless did you use here, Vintage or Hot? (or Gen4, N3)?

[jaysavell]

Beautiful playing dude!

Just picked up the same pre-wired CS 69 pups to drop into a 70s Japanese Ibanez Strat copy. Probably won't sound this good but looking forward to the result anyway.

[mercymourning]

Noiseless sounds compressed almost. It’s super nice to fit into the mix. Custom shops sound great for standing out in a mix

[kc.]

Nice comparison! I have the CS'69 pickups, too. Really love them! Esp. the neck position. Thanks for sharing! 👍

[CFLDumpsters]

The fender CS were better, but not by a whole bunch. They had that “extra”, dunno how else to put it. More bite and clarity maybe. For this close you can make the 69 CS quieter but not silent.

[fortemusic]

Awesome vid - CS definitely brighter on the neck and warmer in the bridge. Tbh it’s a great sounding guitar and both sound good to me in different ways. Thanks for posting.

[rmgrobertmartingrand]

GREAT VIDEO to show the difference of the PICKS. And nice TONE SETTING. IT helps me much to know what i prefer. THX

[Ramon_Ramone]

Great comparison, thanks for uploading! Can you confirm if the bridge pickup came pre-wired to the second tone knob on the CS69 prewired guard? I can’t find an answer online.

[thechamp]

Beautiful playing! Both sets sound great but your demo convinced me to pick up the 69s, as that is the sound that I’m chasing after.

Is this an original composition or is based on another song? It is beautiful and I would like to learn it!