Fender CuNiFe Stratocaster Pickup Set

I don’t know what’s going on with Fender these days, but I’ve bought $2000 American guitars with sharp fret ends and no factory set up, $1000 MIM guitars that play as poorly as a $150 mini Squier, pickups that arrive dead, and now this set, which I was so looking forward to, that had an issue with a couple pickup height screws not fitting, so I couldn’t install them on my pickguard. For a $300+ set of pickups, you’d think Fender would pay careful attention to the details, but no. Maybe I’ve had bad luck, or maybe there’s a quality control issue.Anyhow, I’d love to review the tones, but a couple screws wouldn’t catch and thread through, so I just said, “Enough with these guys” and sent them back.

The media could not be loaded. Bought these as an upgrade to the v-mid ii pickups in my strat and loving them. To my ear they are warmer, with more bass and midrange, not as bright/pokey but still have that single coil sparkle. Especially love them through a tube screamer into JCM 800 (studio series).Not necessarily an upgrade because v-mods were fine, just different in a good way. These are staying in my strat for the long haul.Minor issue with the bridge pickup in initial order a dud that wasted a ton of time with me questioning my soldering job, but replacement came within 24 hours so keeping the 5 star review.

Ordered a set only to find one pickup had no threads in the height adjustment holes (luckily I had the right size tap) but then after install found one the other pickups was DOA. After seeing another review here with similar issues, I returned for a refund instead of replacement. I then ordered a set from Sweetwater (different batch?) and in this set all were pickups threaded, but neck pickup DOA like the Amazon set. Hoping I can get a fully working set at some point but this is ridiculous, Fender needs to get their QA in order.

fun to try nice to work withneeds longer cables as everyone says

It worked for little bit and middle pickup stopped working. Very disappointing quality.

The side mounting tab flexes and pulls the winding apart. I had a guy rewind some dead ones. Easy to fix but instead of solving the problem, recalling and rewinding them, Fender just flooding the market with broken ones. In fairness, they did provide a full refund and they sound great once repaired. So I give them two stars instead of one. But Fender ought to understand that taking your guitar apart, re-soldering things, only to have it mysteriously fail in a day or so is upsetting and costly for customers. A recall should be launched. i would suggest the Mojo UK made cunife strat pups until Fender comes clean about this and solves the problem.

First, they sound great clean or overdriven. Overdriving with any combo of the middle pickup was a particular surprise, it has a tasty bite which also translates to the 2 and 4 positions. The bridge pickup responds to EQ rather well - it can still sounds like an icepick, but it's easy to shape. The neck pickup seems more "generic" but it still sounds great and does have a bit of its own character - round, full. Don't know if it's my own imagination, but notes seem to bloom a bit stronger with these pups. If you're looking for strat tones with a little different character, give them a try.Like other reviews, the signal was dropping out from arrival and died shortly after when I was adjusting the pickup height. Took a look at the pickups, there was a bad solder job at the lead coming from the middle pickup. Not to mention tons of wax from when they potted the pickups is still falling out months later. I stopped buying Fender guitars 20 years ago because of QC and this shows that nothing has changed. Small detail, but the neck pickup was missing the plastic film in the original packaging that was on the other two. It was definitely not opened before it was in my hands. For the price I would've expected more of a premium, consistent delivery.That middle pickup really sings, though, if you get a good set or are willing to take a look at a bad set yourself or exchange them until you get a good set.

Neck pickup doesn’t work, 2nd set bridge pickup didnt work. Stay away