Just thought I'd share this for anyone interested in Tonerider strat pickups (or any of their pickups tbh)
Last week I did a pickup swap in one of my strats and installed a set of Tonerider Calssic Blues. They sound great!
Very articulate and responsive, and at the risk of being cliché, are "classic" strat sounds. Especially with the 2 & 4 positions, and I really dig the neck tone (my fave in general).
FTR, I bought this set back in 2018/19 (?) for $99 and had them sitting my drawer since. The new production (2021 onward) are wound a bit hotter, but I'm sure sound great too. They are just wound with "a few hundred turns more each pickup" according to Tonerider Support. Both pre and post 2021 Classic Blues are Alnico V, but pre-2021 DCR is: 6.1k/6.2k/6.6k (N/M/B). I don't have the Inductance or Res Peak figures, but have asked TR if they can tell me.
I have played a range of TR's now, and have not been let down by their performance or quality yet.
The TR pickups I have now played are:
Strats - Pure Vintage, Classic Blues. (I think I have played a set of Surfari as well, but not in my guitar)
Tele - Hot Classic, Vintage Plus.
Humbuckers: Alnico II, Alnico IV
Guess it's a slow news day, so I decide to post this in case it helps someone deciding whether to try Toneriders.
Now if I could just get them to do some vintage output mini-humbuckers!