software

im helping a friend who just bought a standard american strat(used).
he loves the bridge tone(a hotrails),but hated the stock delta pickup in the middle and neck positions
i know duncans and alot of botique pickups are the bomb but just wanna experiment with some fender single coils.
have come down to 3 models
fender fat 50´s
fender 57/62
fender texas specialsclean sound has got to have those bell like dire straits and clapton tones.
the dirty sounds just has to be punchy but smooth without that terrible high end .
some help please

For the Knopfler tones, the 57/62's are great, I had them in my MIJ 62 RI and loved them.

They're pretty good with OD too, but aren't as smooth as a 'bucker.

the 57/62's are really nice sounding pups for clean tones, i like the fat 50's better overdriven as they have a smoother sound and i dont like the texas specials much at all. they sound harsh thru almost anything

im downloading sound samples from

from : localhost/far i agree with the texas specials being bad,except for the middle position.
for some unknown reason i cant stand the fralin blues special in any position,and prefer the fat 50´s.
they dont have any 57/62 files and all of em are clean sounds.
so far so good

Go with the Fender Fat 50's. You won't be sorry. They have a pretty wide tone for single coils but without sacrificing any, say again ANY -- of the classic Fender chime and cluck.

i know my friends budget is short but i listened to samples of kinmans as well.
call me crazy but i prefer by far the fralin vintage hot.
maybe i got bad ears or the fault was the POD the guitarist(a realy good one) was using.
im getting the fat 50´s for my friend and a fralin vintage hot for myself whenever i have the cash.
any input on the kinmans?

Go with the Fat 50's. Those are one of the best production sets ever made....even though they're packaged as Custom Shop. The Fat 50 neck is one of my favorite pickups of all time. There's lots of vintage strat necks that sound great on clean, but the Fat 50 neck even sounds good with gain, like Jeremy pointed out. Very SRV!

I am about to try a set of the '54's so I will report back as soon as I can.

between the 57/62 and the fat 50´s....which has the better clean tones?
and that will be my final call

I Like the Fender Fat 50s,still use them and they come highly recommended..The Texas Specials are harsh and obnoxious and the mids are too prominent for my tastes!

whats the next step up in the tone chain after the fat 50´s?
im guessing duncan surfers.whats the main diference
between them and the fat 50´s?

The Fat 50's are excellent. I have them in my 98 MIA hardtail. Honestly, the stock pickups in that axe were very smooth and I wanted to go with them but the middle pickup was dead. It was just easier to put the 50's in than find a replacement.

Do they still sell the oem pickups from that era?