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Seymour Duncan SSL-1 Set California

115

Pickup Set California

  • Calibrated set with 3 SSL-1 vintage staggered pickups
  • Authentic reproduction of Alnico 5 vintage pickups from the 50s
  • Perfect for surf, country, blues and classic rock
  • Colour: Black with replaceable white caps
Note Register your purchase at www.w-distribution.de/en/Warranty for an extended warranty of 4 years.
Available since April 2005
Item number 180921
Sales Unit 1 piece(s)
Aktive Circuit No
Wiring 2-Conductor
Pickup Output Vintage
Cap Yes
Colour White
Position Bridge, Middle, Neck
Stacked - hum free No
Telecaster No
Stratocaster Yes
Other No
£268
Free shipping incl. VAT
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115 Customer ratings

4.8 / 5

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sound

quality

72 Reviews

Y
Quality pickups, but do not buy for the Frusciante sound
Yertle 06.09.2020
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.
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8
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j
great for 50s -60s style
jakecar 12.01.2019
Great pickups for your strat. Really good if you are looking for that 50s - 60s sound. Work really well with distortion. But has too much output and didnt work that much for my sound. Word of advice no matter the quality of the pickups (which is really good in this situation) you will never know if you like them until they are on your guitar, because the sound will change slightly due to the different woods.
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R
Seymour Duncan SSL-1 California
Robert9492 13.01.2014
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!
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4
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G
Exactly what I was looking for
Ganitzsh 03.07.2024
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.
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