Irish Tours vs Fender Custom Shop '69

[Chris]

Well, I've been offered first refusal on a friend's Classic Player 60's Strat, which is currently loaded with Irish Tours.  I have the option of getting it with the Irish Tours in it, or with the original Fender pickups.  Now normally I wouldn't think twice, but everywhere I read those Fender Custom Shop '69 pickups get rave reviews.  What I'm wondering is whether anyone on here has had any experience with both the Fender and the BKP pickups and could give me an idea of the differences? 

I know it is a long shot that someone will have direct experience of both, but I thought it was worth asking.

[Telerocker]

The original Fender-pickups in this guitar are Custom 69's. According to Fender they are the mexican version of the Custom Shop 69's. I don't if there is much difference between those, never played them.
I see the Irish Tours as a superior sort of Texas Specials. Hotter and grittier, rich good mids and quite some bass, but bitey at the same without being shrill. They have more output then the Custom 69's (which are between 5.5k and 5.8k) Irish Tours: 7.4/6.3/6.3. You can get that early sixties sound (Frusciante) when your roll the volume a tad back. They handle gain very well too.

Personally I would take the Irish Tours. I changed all my (Fender) pickups for BKP's and it's really a big step forward in depth, dynamics, clarity and balance.

Hope this helps a little bit.

[Twinfan]

I've had the '69s in the past and they're very Hendrix/Frusciante - scooped, very quack-y and snappy.  Better for cleaner tones I would say.

The Irish Tours sound to me to be hotter and beefier, more SRV/Gallagher.  Great for overdriven blues and classic rock.

They're quite different pickups, so choose the set that matches your style/preferred tone best  :)

[Chris]

Thanks guys.  That's kind of what I assumed, that the Irish Tours would be hotter and more suited to rock.  I'm leaning that way, but I just wanted to check and to ensure that the Irish Tours would still clean up well.  I don't want to lose the strattiness.

[WhiteRam]

Plus...you can actually use the bridge pickup on the Irish Tours. 8)

In general I hear F*nder single coils as hard and sterile when comparing to BKP's...which are open and musical.

[shobet]

Plus...you can actually use the bridge pickup on the Irish Tours. 8)

In general I hear F*nder single coils as hard and sterile when comparing to BKP's...which are open and musical.

The ones I have aren't hard or sterile.

[Twinfan]

Nope, mine neither.  Fender CS pickups are very good.

[Philly Q]

Fender did invent this style of pickup, after all.  Let's not write them off too quickly. 

[Telerocker]

The Fender-pickups I'm talking about and replaced, were stock pickups in the American Series strat and tele. Those we're fine pickups (my brother enjoys my telepickups in his Squier now), just not an par with BKP's. The CS pickups are great too. I played a Rory Gallagher CS strat and those pickups sound very fat, deep, gritty and smokey, but have chime too. Recently I was able to try a 52 relic with a bigsby. That one sounded particularly good. Couldn't miss 4000 euro, but that one was very seductive.

[Chris]

Well, he's agreed to send me both sets of pickups with the guitar, so I'll be able to try them both out and compare them properly before deciding which ones I want.  I still think the Irish Tours will be more my style, but it will be nice to try the Fender ones too after all the rave reviews I've read about them.