Noiseless pickups

Hi gang.  Here's the deal.  The stock pickups in my Strat are doing my head in with that awful noise which i believe is a known issue with single coil.  So I want to replace them.  I'm not a gigging guitarist so I dont need a mixed set  i.e. a humbucker installed alongside the single coil etc.   No, a set of three single coil will do fine.  But what to choose.  Ah..there's the question.  Seymour duncan are expensive and so are DiMarzio.  Fender do a set for about 160.   But i have come across a make called GFS Redactive.   They are a fraction of the price.  But how good are they.    I do home recording so as long as my strat gets a good sound I'm happy.   If I need more of an ACDC sound on a track i have a guitar here with humbuckers.   Anyone ever tried GFS single coil guys?  Thanks. 

My Am Dlx Strat had Fender's "Vintage Noiseless" pups.  I loved them.
 
These run about 2 bills new for a set.

Thanks Bob.   Im based in Ireland so i have to be careful on cost.  You see if i buy anything from   the US not only do i pay US sales tax but our customs here then keeps the item until I pay Irish sales tax on top of that.   There is a company here in Europe called Thomann and I'm looking on their site.  They have a lot of seymour listed and Dimarzio also.  The marzios are out my range though.  They are averaging alsom 90 dollars your money per pickup.   But the Seymours I could possible manage.   Because I've never tried this before I want to get something I know is recommended and will work.  I'm seeing mixed views about GFS pickups.  I seen some posts where people got bad gear and had problems trying to get refunds etc. 

Thanks Jet.  I'm narrowing down the search.  I was looking at those GFS pickups and although they are a great price.....I've seen a few people on forums saying that the product can be a bit hit and miss.  Also seems to be troublesome returning a faulty product.  I'd rather not buy something if there is any question regarding customer support.  As you say, look at the support you get here on cakewalk.    But i will check out that forum you suggest and thanks for the feedback  :) 

Hi Franklin
yeah some  folks like to replace the single coils with humbuckers.  It wont sound like a strat anymore but its just a personal choice.  I was thinking of maybe putting in a mixed set of pickups.
Your safe with the humbuckers as they dont cause noise.  Its picking the right single coil is the biggie.   But i'll do a search for the Lance .  Thanks for the feedback :)
Xave 

Hi Jim
now that sounds like a system worth lookin at. 

Have you checked your environment for EMI issues? A single coil will grab EMI if facing the source, so body positioning to known sources (or completely eliminating them) would be something to consider first and foremost. Variable lighting switches, anything with a transformer/amp, CRT's, etc. all throw things single coils love. A more sensitive (i.e. replacement) coil will actually throw you for a loop when you realize just how much a sensitive coil can grab.
 
A noise gate from the guitar is a second consideration (anywhere from -60 to -40dB depending on interference). This is almost mandatory in "single-coil mode" if a suitable environment is not present.
 
On a standard Strat (5-position switch) style, positions 2 and 4 are "humbuckers" which is another option. This will give a muddier sound, but is also much more tolerant of EMI (and can be compensated a bit in follow-on FX chains).
 
I just wanted to mention the above, since I fear that the solution you are seeking is not in "new pickups."

Agentcalm
Thanks Bob.   Im based in Ireland so i have to be careful on cost.  You see if i buy anything from   the US not only do i pay US sales tax but our customs here then keeps the item until I pay Irish sales tax on top of that.   There is a company here in Europe called Thomann and I'm looking on their site.  They have a lot of seymour listed and Dimarzio also.  The marzios are out my range though.  They are averaging alsom 90 dollars your money per pickup.   But the Seymours I could possible manage.   Because I've never tried this before I want to get something I know is recommended and will work.  I'm seeing mixed views about GFS pickups.  I seen some posts where people got bad gear and had problems trying to get refunds etc. 

The only experience I have with GFS is a set of their Mean90 pickups I put in an Epi LP.  Very nice P90-ish tone for $35US each.

Thanks Michael and "Bats" for the pups suggestions.  
hi Mett... yes i was looking at the room. As i do recording I have to be aware of these issues.  Turning away from the amp helps a little and yes, if I chose a switch position so that any two of the pup are in use it also helps.   But I will look into the idea of a noise gate for sure.  If they are inexpensive it would certainly be worth a shot.  

Check out the Strat Talk forums, this topic comes up a lot over there......right Gonzo!

Depending on whether you use all three pickups or not you could change out only one (or two) of them with a Duncan, Lace or Dimarzio.  This often results in a significant difference in output if you aren't careful.   I went the easy (and more expensive) route and bought a Dimarzio Area loaded pickguard and really love it.
 
Cheers.

Magnetic fields are in planes and sometimes turning 45 to 90 degrees will help. That sometimes takes care of things for me, with my single coiled guitars/steels/mandolin.
     Seems like Gibson had a P100 out, meaning a P90 humbucker. I enjoyed owning/recording with a Gibson BluesHawk and Epiphone makes a pretty nice version of that.
    Mini humbuckers might be an option, too.
    I liked combining a single coil or tapped humbucker with a full humbucker sound on a Carvin DC127 (long gone unfortunately). I've wondered whether a humbucker strat in the middle position would help with the bridge and neck, in a blender set up, where the middle has it's own volume. I imagine you could blend the noise "down" with that, but have yet to explore that set up. I'm saving that for my next Tele,  a "Brent Mason" approach.
Michael

Agentcalm
I didnt actually realize there could be problems by changing say just one pickup.  It was something i was considering.  You know, change a pickup now and change another in a few months when i get the money together. 

I wouldn't really call it a problem but just be aware that the output (volume) of different pickup designs can be different.  Usually one tries to match them but it is not a show stopper, especially if you use only one pickup at a time.  There are plenty of posts about pickup output matching elsewhere on the web. 
 
Cheers.

The Fender noiseless pickups are basically single-coil sized humbuckers with side-by-side coils. The "vintage" set required using a specific set of pots which Fender hoped would allow the treble output to be something like the vintage single-coils. It wasn't. Tried a set and hated them. The distinctive Strat bell-like quality was missing and they just didn't sound like a Strat.

The later Fender noiseless sets are better, but again don't really have the vintage Strat sound and feel, especially when played clean.

The best quiet (not noiseless, but very quiet) Strat pickups for my purposes and taste are the Lace hot gold set. Single coils, only very quiet with a hotter bridge pickup which makes the bridge p/u usable on its own because the usual volume drop is gone and the tone's less brittle. The standard Lace gold set are the same, but with a vintage output bridge pickup. Good blues/surf/Hendrix sound and feel. Some people reckon they're "characterless" but I can't say I've noticed. Good for driving effects as well.

The Kinman silent Strat pickups are considered good by lots of people, but they aren't cheap.

As for Gibson P100s, everyone but everyone hated them because....reasons. Well, everyone but me, my mark 1 ES135 has them. They're a stacked humbucker with shallow wide coils. They are a bit like a low-output P90 with a big dose of the vintage low output Firebird mini-bucker. A bit low in output terms, but as for tone lots of people tell me that guitar sounds really good because "you can't beat good old P90s" <shrug>.

Gibson dropped P100s from their product line in the late 90s, you can't even get them as OEM replacement spares. The mark2 ES135 was given the Gibson standard-issue humbuckers.

Noise gates are an option to reduce hum, but they work by shutting down the signal completely so if the hum is present while notes trail off you either have to live with that level of hum and only kill it in the silences or greatly reduce the sustain available from the guitar.

About the best I've found is the Boss NS pedal. There are critical reviews around the web but often from people who aren't using it properly or tried it for 5 minutes in a shop. It works by the guitar being plugged into the detector circuit then pedals, especially noisy pedals, go in a loop. You set the gate up based on the guitar's sound and output, the loop only opening when the guitar signal is high enough to open the gate. Because you're gating the noise at source from the guitar rather than trying to gate the noise from noisy pedals then lose clean sustain, the gate can be held open longer and you're preventing noise between notes getting into the pedals. The only thing to watch is compressors might need to go before the gate if used for sustain and delay and reverb need to be after the pedal or they'll be silenced as the gate closes.

michaelhanson
DiMarzio Area's also seem to get a lot of good review.  
 
I did not like the set of N3's I had on my Strat, as mentioned, they seemed to take away that bell like tone.  Oddly, the American Deluxe I had 10 years ago, I really liked the noiseless pickups on that one.  I'm not sure what they were, but I think Vintage Noiseless.  

The Vintage Noiseless I mentioned above were the stock pups in a '98 Am Dlx.