Here's a brief report on my new CS69 neck verses the incumbent 57/62 neck - this is for clean tones and neck pickup only. I should mention that the 57/62's G string pole is pressed down to the height of the B string and I did the same with the CS69 (to fix that vintage stagger/wound G string imbalance issue). My Strat is a Fender 2010 American Standard with an Alder body, Rosewood fret-board and the 2-point bridge with bent-steel saddles. Prior to swapping out the pickups I played the 57/62 through my '64 Vibroverb for about an hour to get solidly familiar with how it sounded. I had the neck tone control at about 6-7 and generally ran the guitar volume at 10. After installation I set the CS69 to an identical height above the pickguard as the 57/62 and did not touch the guitar or amp tone controls. FINDINGS- To me the two pickups sound very, very similar! Chords are balanced and sound beautiful with both. Single notes on all strings are full and equally loud. The CS69 seemed ever so slightly "thinner/tighter" in the low E string which suits me fine in the neck position. Many comparison reviews I've read say that the CS69 is slightly more scooped (less mids) than the 57/62 but I couldn't detect it with my ear and if it is present it doesn't subtract anything from the other strings including the high E. The bass on the CS69 seemed slightly tighter than the 57/62 and not any louder. The rest of the strings seemed identical between the two pickups - sweet . SUMMARY- I preferred the CS69 and it is staying in! P.S. I gotta say how great the Vibroverb sounds with the Strat and it is the best "Blackface" tone I've heard in an amp that I've owned. Volume only on 3 though!
CS69 Neck Pickup Height.jpg (36.37 KiB) Viewed 3437 times
Last edited by MikeC on Fri Apr 03, 2020 5:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Mike Clayton wrote:Here's a brief report on my new CS69 neck verses the incumbent 57/62 neck - this is for clean tones and neck pickup only. I should mention that the 57/62's G string pole is pressed down to the height of the B string and I did the same with the CS54 (to fix that vintage stagger/wound G string imbalance issue). My Strat is a Fender 2010 American Standard with an Alder body, Rosewood fret-board and the 2-point bridge with bent-steel saddles. Prior to swapping out the pickups I played the 57/62 through my '64 Vibroverb for about an hour to get solidly familiar with how it sounded. I had the neck tone control at about 6-7 and generally ran the guitar volume at 10. After installation I set the CS54 to an identical height above the pickguard as the 57/62 and did not touch the guitar or amp tone controls. FINDINGS- To me the two pickups sound very, very similar! Chords are balanced and sound beautiful with both. Single notes on all strings are full and equally loud. The CS69 seemed ever so slightly "thinner/tighter" in the low E string which suits me fine in the neck position. Many comparison reviews I've read say that the CS69 is slightly more scooped (less mids) than the 57/62 but I couldn't detect it with my ear and if it is present it doesn't subtract anything from the other strings including the high E. The bass on the CS54 seemed slightly tighter than the 57/62 and not any louder. The rest of the strings seemed identical between the two pickups - sweet . SUMMARY- I preferred the CS54 and it is staying in! P.S. I gotta say how great the Vibroverb sounds with the Strat and it is the best "Blackface" tone I've heard in an amp that I've owned. Volume only on 3 though!
CS69 Neck Pickup Height.jpg
Nice Mike - bit confused though. You mention a CS54 in there - is that a typo or were you testing two pickups?
Mike Clayton wrote:Fuck me, my drinking must be out of control! It should all read "CS69" - now fixed! Thanks for the heads up.
All good! Nice report!
I took a risk and put an order for a CS69 loaded pickguard through Stratosphere a few days back. The package is making its way overland at the mo.
The dollar dropped down to an acceptable enough rate and I jumped in there. Another few weeks and they’ll probably shut down imports from the States at this rate, so we’ll see what happens.
MrDINO wrote:All this talk about Strat pups has got me wondering why I ever sold up. I’m going to have to hunt another Strat. Ah well on the merry go round again.
MrDINO wrote:All this talk about Strat pups has got me wondering why I ever sold up. I’m going to have to hunt another Strat. Ah well on the merry go round again.
MrDINO wrote:All this talk about Strat pups has got me wondering why I ever sold up. I’m going to have to hunt another Strat. Ah well on the merry go round again.
Crank it you Jessie, noise control is non-essential service
I'm going to re-visit the attenuator rabbit-hole - I can't really power scale a fixed bias amp (the Vibroverb) plus I've got "wife and neighbours" noise control to worry about...
Crank it you Jessie, noise control is non-essential service
I'm going to re-visit the attenuator rabbit-hole - I can't really power scale a fixed bias amp (the Vibroverb) plus I've got "wife and neighbours" noise control to worry about...
I just ramped-up the price of my Fryette Power Station because I decided not to sell it. It works really well with the Bassman and I've also got that 100w Vibrosonic that'll need reining-in. It's the best attenuator I've has and has the advantage of being able to amplify low wattage amps or digital devices. Anyway, I'd recommend one.
Bg wrote:
Crank it you Jessie, noise control is non-essential service
I'm going to re-visit the attenuator rabbit-hole - I can't really power scale a fixed bias amp (the Vibroverb) plus I've got "wife and neighbours" noise control to worry about...
I just ramped-up the price of my Fryette Power Station because I decided not to sell it. It works really well with the Bassman and I've also got that 100w Vibrosonic that'll need reining-in. It's the best attenuator I've has and has the advantage of being able to amplify low wattage amps or digital devices. Anyway, I'd recommend one.
Thanks for the recommendation. Is that the VibrAsonic (not VibrOsonic) combo that was for sale on NZG?
Mike Clayton wrote:
I'm going to re-visit the attenuator rabbit-hole - I can't really power scale a fixed bias amp (the Vibroverb) plus I've got "wife and neighbours" noise control to worry about...
I just ramped-up the price of my Fryette Power Station because I decided not to sell it. It works really well with the Bassman and I've also got that 100w Vibrosonic that'll need reining-in. It's the best attenuator I've has and has the advantage of being able to amplify low wattage amps or digital devices. Anyway, I'd recommend one.
Thanks for the recommendation. Is that the VibrAsonic (not VibrOsonic) combo that was for sale on NZG?
. SUMMARY- I preferred the CS69 and it is staying in! P.S. I gotta say how great the Vibroverb sounds with the Strat and it is the best "Blackface" tone I've heard in an amp that I've owned. Volume only on 3 though!
