Single Coil SHOOTOUT: Fender vs Seymour Duncan vs Damarzio

I'm fortunate enough to have three Strats, all with different pickups. So, I thought it would be useful to let you hear how much of a difference pick ups can make when modifying your own guitar.
The Pickups:-
Strat 1: 2024 Jet JS300 with Fender Vintage Style Single Coils
Strat 2: 2017 50's Classic Series MIM with Seymour Duncan SSL1's and an SSL5 in the bridge
Strat 3: 2004/5 CIJ '68 reissue with Dimarzio Area 58's and an Area 61 in the bridge
Time stamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:54 - The Guitars and pickups
03:44 - Fender Vintage Style's - Clean
06:10 - Seymour Duncan's - Clean
08:52 - Dimarzio's - Clean
12:02 - Fender Vintage Style's - Distortion
14:28 - Seymour Duncan's - Distortion
16:41 - Dimarzio's - Distortion
18:58 - Solo Example Rig
19:59 - Fender Vintage Style's - Solo Example
21:06 - Seymour Duncan's - Solo Example
22:13 - A Little Kiss :* For My No1
22:19 - Dimarzio's - Solo Example
23:25 - What are my THOUGHTS?
The song featured for the 'Solo Example' section is one of my originals called 'How Do You Like Me Now?' and can be found in the 'My Music' link below.
DS-2 Settings:
Volume: Max
Tone: 3 o'clock
Distortion: 3 o'clock
Mode: 2
Boss Katana Settings:
Amp Type: Brown Sound
Gain: 0
Volume: Max
Bass: 12o'clock
Middle: 0
Treble: 9 o'clock
Reverb: 9/10 o'clock
How I recorded my guitar:
Guitar -- Pedalboard -- Boss Katana 50mk2 -- Focusrite 4i4 -- Logic X
Pedals on the board:
Boss TU2, CS-3, DS-2, DD-3, CH-1
Tone City Pedals Fuxx Fuzz and Summer Orange
Line6 FM4
Ibanez WH10 Wah V2
TC Electronics Skysurfer Mini Reverb
Distrokid 7% DISCOUNT:
distrokid.com/vip/seven/3112693
My Music:
hyperfollow.com/nathanchampio...
My Online Course:
www.udemy.com/course/release-...
nathan-champion-music.teachab...
Channel Info:
CZcams - / @nathanchampionmusic
Instagram - / nathanchampionmusic
Facebook - / nathanchampionmusic
Spotify - open.spotify.com/artist/2DoGI...
Band camp - champion4lane.bandcamp.com
Sound Cloud - / champion4lane

[@mastersun2009]

When you get a chance, you should try the Swedish-made Lundgren pickups or the Australian-made Kinman pickups. If you plan to buy a Custom Shop or vintage guitar in the future, you can try Klein pickups.
Callaham saddles will also help improve the resonance of your guitar.

[@monkfish3099]

for me, clean:
1. vintage style
2. dimarzio
3. seymour skinner
distortion:
1. seymour
2. vintage
3. dimarzio
solo:
1. vintage
2. dimarzio
3. seymour
great player, partner

[@mikenorman6697]

Hi @nathanchampionmusic. Noticed that you have a Jet JS300. I've just bought one and pretty impressed with the guitar at under £200! What did you think of the stock pickups? I know they are ceramic - but quite low output. To my ears they sound better than I was expecting. But interested to know what you thought of them and what made you change them to the Fender pickups? Big thanks!

[@nathanchampionmusic]

Hello, I have a few videos on my Jet JS300 already, but basically I had the fender pickups laying around and thought I’d try them to get a more vintage sound out of the Jet. Nothing wrong with the ceramic pickups (I actually really like the middle pickup on it) but they were a bit muffled for me. I’m not sure how well your Jet was out of the box, but mine was quite a dog from the factory. I have another video coming in July with further upgrades to it and now it’s amazing 🤩 thanks for watching and commenting :)

[@mikenorman6697]

@@nathanchampionmusic Bought my Jet Js300 from a shop after playing it so think it's ok. Changed tuners to Vanson and that's a definite improvement. The ceramic pickups are a bit muffled....but better quality (I think) than ceramic pickups you usually get on Budget Strats. Like you...I do like the middle pickup in particular. Unlike you, I have no skills with a soldering iron. So if I want to change pickups and switch I'm going to have to pay labour charges. And unfortunately you cannot try before you buy with pickups. Also I'm mainly an acoustic player. When I do play electric..I'm more of a Tele guy. So this Strat is scratching in itch so cannot justify spending too much on modding it. I have heard and read good things about the Tonerider Pure Vintage set. ( I think it's neck 5.9k, middle 6.1k and bridge 6.45k). They cost £80 a set. That's about the most I'm prepared to spend. Also I'm going to investigate Iron Gear pickups. I have read about one or two JS300 owners who swapped out their stock pickups for alnicos (probably cheap ones ??)....didn't like them and reinstalled the stock pickups. I guess you'll always get more clarity with alnicos but if they're not decent quality they could be very thin sounding and too bright without much mojo. I do feel the stock ceramics have some mojo....maybe because as ceramic pickups go....they are low output. I think around the 5k mark. How long did you live with the stock pickups before swapping them out? Did you gig and/or record with them? Do you have all the DC/resistance figures for the Fender pickups currently installed in your JS300? Thank you.

[@nathanchampionmusic]

@@mikenorman6697 I didn’t get to gig the guitar with stock pickups, that happened after I installed the vintage style fenders. But I do have a video on my channel where I try to sound like John Frusciante, even the guitar is still right handed and has the stock ceramics. After the video I changed the pickups. I don’t have any resistance values for the fender pickups, all I know is that they’re Alnico 5 and came on all the MIM Classic series Strats. The closets are the CS 57/62 set you can get from Fender. IMO you should look at changing the neck and bridge only, the middle sounds really good. If you want to keep prices down, then I’d suggest something like the Toneriders. But if you can, I’d get the Dimarzio Area pickups as they’re really smooth and nice. If you want to brighten things up, try changing the pots instead. CTS make good pots and maybe changing to 500k might get rid of the Stock Jet JS300 muffledness. Good luck with your guitar :)