Fender CS Texas Special vs Tonerider City Limits

Morning all - looking at a strat for my next project and researching pickups.

Aim to replicate Fender Professional Series wiring using 250k CTS pots, 0.022 CAP and treble bleed circuit (1200pF CAP, 150k Resistor in parralel and 20k resistor in series.


What is people's experience with Fender's CS Texas Specials vs Tone Rider City Limits. I have watched the Fender demo for the Texas Specials and these sound great, but the City Limit videos are not a good comparison. Toneriders are also a couple of hundred cheaper and was happy in my PSR 1 with the AC2 from TR.

I am lookng for a versatile pickup to provide nice full bodied cleans but also something that can be driven via pedals for indie rock / garage rock. Keen to hear from the forum on their experience.

Just comparing specs, the Tonerider Classic Blues are actually closer to the Texas Specials in regard to output and inductance (Henries or 'H'). It's worth noting that the City Limits bridge pickup uses 3 x A5 + 3 x A2 magnetic pole pieces, so I don't know if that makes it a fair comparison to a Tex Spec. As for a tonal differences or similarities between them, I have not seen a any demos for that either.

What I can can say is that the FCS TS's do sound good, and I have had a set before. One thing you may read about them online is that they sound best further away from the strings (set lower) than standard Fender recommended pickups height.

I have not played a set of TR City Limits, but they get very good reviews and comments from others.
However I do have a set of TR Classic Blues in one of my strats at present and I can say they sound excellent. Every bit as "stratty" as any other Fender (or more expensive) pickups IMO. FWIW, the Classic Blues are all A5 like the TS's.

Whether the FCS TS's sound better, that's up to your ears. But TBH I don't think you can beat the value for money with Tonerider.
Also with regard to the TS's I had, it was quite a while ago so I don't have a recent memory to even make a reliable comparison to.

thanks I was orignally looking at the classic blues based on outputs but everyone in other forusm seems to compare city limits..... minefield. Appreciate the advice!

It is a minefield. And unless you’ve heard the pickups in direct comparison with each other, it’s always going to be
impossible to give a direct comparison. And it also comes down to the preferences of the reviewer. Do you prefer cleaner Strat tones or more middley more powerful pickups.

I’d mentally questioned the magnet type mixing until recently, but I’ve been setting up my Strats again recently, and have noticed how much I gave to angle the pickups to get the unwound strings as powerful as the wound strings, and thinking that a magnet mix would be the way to go. I do ‘t know whether Vs on the top and VIs on the bottom would be enough to do it or not.

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It is a minefield. And unless you’ve heard the pickups in direct comparison with each other, it’s always going to be
impossible to give a direct comparison. And it also comes down to the preferences of the reviewer.

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It also comes down to the "viewer" (or more specifically, the listener) What makes my ears happy may be very different to someone else's. And as Simon points out, hearing is the ultimate test.

Data doesn't tell the whole story but the more data supplied the easier it is to choose a direction for listening/comparing IMO. I'm just saying that you wouldn't expect a pickup with a 13k DCR, 4.5H and a pickup with 6.4k DCR, 2.5H to have very similar tonal characteristics. It would be even more helpful if pickup makers included resonant peak, but inductance (H) is better than nothing.

I think it may have been Fender that first did the A5/A2 magnets in a single pickup, but don't quote me on that.
As for balancing, I don't find a dramatic difference in pickup height from bass to treble side on my strats. Yes, there is a difference but it generally only ranges between .5 -.75mm depending on bridge, middle or neck pickup and I've always achieved what I consider an even string balance (even with non-staggered poles).

At least the Tonerider website has some videos where you can compare the City Limits against the Classic Blues and may help decide that part of the equation.
FWIW, I paid $99 for my set of Classic Blues about 4 years ago (got them on special) and I wouldn't consider changing them for nearly $400 Texas Specials. My playing ranges from quite clean to moderate overdrive (think pushed Fender amp).

Edit to add:

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I don‘t know whether Vs on the top and VIs on the bottom would be enough to do it or not.

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Only the City Limits bridge is A5 & A2 (Alnico 5 E-A-D, Alnico 2 G-B-e)

I meant IV(A4) not VI (6).

As there isn’t a lot of imbalance, I just wondered whether you really needed to drop all the way down to A2 from A5, with less of a tone change as well between the two magnet types if you went A5 and A4.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

I meant IV(A4) not VI (6).

As there isn’t a lot of imbalance, I just wondered whether you really needed to drop all the way down to A2 from A5, with less of a tone change as well between the two magnet types if you went A5 and A4.

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Ahhh, I see now. I did think you meant A4, but missed the context. It's a good question. I wonder if any manufacturers have tried it, and why they landed on A2?

Just curious, Simon, how much E to e "slope" are you finding in your set ups?

Not a huge amount, though I end up with the treble end a bit nearer the strings than I’d like. The alternative of dropping the bass end to get the balance thins out the sound a bit too much for me.