Seymour Duncan SSL-1 Set California

I bought this set for my Squier CV 50's Strat in order to get closer to the Frusciante sound like many fans do. Let me talk about the pros first, the pickups are definitely high quality and they will give you a clean, vintage Strat sound which is ideal for classic rock and blues. The neck pickup can get you close to the clean Gilmour and Knopfler tones easily, while the bridge pickup is very Hendrix-ish.

However, it sounds a bit darker than I expected with the crunchy tones. If you read that Frusciante used these pickups in his favorite guitars and decided to buy this set, don't. Frusciante got confused about which pickups he used, he actually has Fender stock pickups in his main guitars, confirmed by his guitar tech. His clean sound is not that clean, it is crunchy, thick and warm at the same time, and these pickups are just not the ideal fit for that.

That said, I'm definitely intending to keep these pickups for the pros I mentioned.

This matched set of SSL-1 with the added suffix 'California' is the perfect set if you are looking for a great vintage strat-tone to a great price. With vintage wiring (Wiring scheme supplied - I used a 0.47 cap) you will get a absolute wunderful woody tone from the neck pickup and very nice quack from the in-between positions. The bridge pup has a great bite to it without getting to sharp. I suspect that the middle pup is not reverse wound as both in-between positions is a little lower in volume. Summed up this is a very nice pickup set from seymour Duncan that should upgrade about any stratocaster-type guitar to a vintage tone machine. Great for surf rock!

I but these to replace my HSH plate on my Fender strat to get a warmer tone. I'm also a big fan of John Frusciante's sound in the original RHCP albums, and after watching tons of videos with sound tests comparing different models, I went for these.

I did the soldering myself with a kit I also bought with these, it was my first time but I managed to get them properly soldered and installed. Let me tell you how excited I was when I plugged my guitar and started noodling with these for the first time!

It has this very iconic warmth that this particular model is known for, and it is very versatile with a 5-way switch. I can play super clean jazz, as well as punchy blues rock and the sound definition is awesome.

I spent a lot of time playing on the neck pickup since I really like the warm sound they get you.

Overall I'm very satisfied after a few years, and I still enjoy them as much as the first day. If you are looking for a high quality set of pickups for similar reasons as I did, I highly recommend you get them, they won't disappoint.