'69 Stratocaster Pickup

Monty’s ’69 Stratocaster set is our recreation of the pickups from a late 60’s Strat. Crafted to be as close to the originals as physically possible and modeled on the pickups from a particularly special 1969 strat, these pickups deliver some seriously angelic tones.

We are well aware that Fender’s post-1965 offerings aren’t always held in the highest regard, but these pickups have a wonderfully unique sound that we absolutely adore. In particular, these pickups have an incredibly glassy top-end and a slightly scooped mid-range. This makes for incredibly pure cleans and edgy, aggressive overdrives. Think of your favorite upside-down-strat wielding guitar hero and you’re there.

After the CBS takeover in 1965, Fender began to make a few changes to their pickups. In order to save money, they used thinner magnets with no bevels and used less wire, resulting in thinner coils. Faithfully recreated in out ’69 set, these dimensions give the pickups their magical top-end shimmer. Also, just like the originals, these pickups are lacquer potted. This means that, rather than being dipped in wax, the coil is sealed with a very thin layer of lacquer. This keeps all but the very outside of the coil free from wax, resulting in an incredibly dynamic, responsive pickup.

We’ve made this set available with a plain steel baseplate on the bridge pickup. Steel baseplates -which are used on telecaster bridge pickups- subtly alter the magnetic field of the pickup, fattening it up without rolling off the highs. Many people like to use these on Strat bridge pickups, so we’ve made it available as an option. As a plus, it also provides a little bit more shielding, reducing the hum inherent to single-coil designs.

Hand-wound here in the UK using period-correct 42-gauge Plain Enamel wire.

Neck- Alnico V, 5.8k

Middle- Alnico V, 6k

Bridge- Alnico V, 6.3k