Kinman AVn pickups - advice sought

I'm thinking of upgrading the pickups on my (approx 10 year old) US strat and the Kinman Avn pickups seem to get some good press. Has anyone got first hand experience of them ?.

Thanks in anticipation

Yes, they're absolutely wonderful. Not cheap, but wonderful. I put a set ('62 at the bridge, '57 at the neck and middle) on my cheap'n'cheerful Yamaha Pacifica 112 (the pickups cost more than the guitar!) and it sounds great.
http://www.kinman.com is very helpful regarding choosing which models you want and installing them.

The nearest rival, as far as I can tell, would be the Fender Custom Shop 'Fat 50s' set - also very good pickups, but you'll need to make sure you have a traditional steep-cambered Fender fretboard, or the staggered poles will be too uneven.

Adrian,

many thanks for the reply.

You said you used a pair of 57s but I can't see this on kinman.com, only 56, 59, 62, 69, 69b and scn.

Did you buy the pickups separately ? The reason I'm asking is that I saw a boxed set of 3 today in Liverpool (Curly Music). The packaging had Kinman Avn written on it but I couldn't see any clues as to what the individual pickups were and the salesman didn't seem to know. Looking further on the web, I found this link: http://www.gaspedal.com/kinman.htm which shows what I believe to be the same boxed set - i.e, AVn-Traditional set. AGED SOUND (AVn-56/AVn-56/AVn-62)

Does that comment hold for the Kinmans or is it _just_ the Fender Custom Shop 'Fat 50s' ?

Regards,

Hi there,

I put a set of AVn series Kinman's in my '94 US Strat about 3 years ago and have been very happy with them. However, unlike many people who's comments I've read, I didn't experience a dramatic improvement in tone after installing them. I would say that the pickups sounded almost identical to the stock Fender ones I took out but without any of the hum and noise - which, fortunately, was exactly what I was looking for when I bought them.

I've always been a bit sceptical about the subtle difference pick-ups make to a guitar's tone. Obviously there are vast differences between humbuckers and single coils, and a Fender s/c and a Gibson P90 etc. but when it gets down to the difference between a standard Gibson humbucker and a PAF I believe that sometimes the improvement in tone is purely psychological: i.e. 'I've spent several hundred pounds on new pick-ups so it _must_ sound better'.

In order to protect myself from this phenomenon I recorded myself playing my Strat dry into a Pro Tools system on each pickup setting before the pickups were changed and then playing exactly the same part into the Pro Tools system after they were changed for comparison. As I said, to my ears at least, they sounded almost identical when played as an A/B comparison - which to be fair is what I expected because the Kinmans AVn set claims to be authentic to the Fender tone. If anything, I'd say that the in-between positions weren't quite as 'sparkly' sounding with the Kinmans. Unfortunately I didn't keep the recordings after I'd satisfied myself of the tonal differences or I would have posted them for you.

So, in summary, if I'd bought the Kinmans expecting a marked improvement in tone I'd have been disappointed. However, if I'd bought them because I already liked the sound of my guitar but didn't appreciate hum and buzz from every electrical gadget around me (which is what I did) then I'd have been very happy. And I am.

I hope that helps a bit.

Cheers,

*Sometimes* possibly, but usually I'd disagree...

A bit like something I did. I tried 3 different humbuckers in the bridge position of my JJ Retro - the stock Duncan Custom, a Dimarzio Tone Zone and a Dimarzio PAF Pro. For each, I recorded three sounds (clean, driven, distorted) using the same settings.

The differences were striking. Even though the Tone Zone and PAF Pro are designed to do similar jobs (clanky rock sounds) they do it differently - the Tone Zone has more of a midrange scoop.

Colin,

thanks for the reply.

I'm mainly looking for the noise reduction too so I'll hopefully be happy.

I agree with your point about recording pre and post upgrade. I'd already decided to do that myself.

Regards, MikeB