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Vintage Strat Pickups Gold Alnico V

(35 customer reviews)

£47.95

Strat Pickups Gold

“I replaced my old Squier pups with your replacements, my god what a transformation it has made, its turned this tired old korean/jap strat into a new monster, they bloomin great! Excellent reproduction, great crunchy vibes on middle pickup, fantastic finger picking on bridge pickup, and lovely mellow tones on neck pickup”

Ironstone’s Strat pickups Gold set offers classic bright 60’s Alnico V vintage tones in all positions. The slightly over-wound Neck and Bridge configuration is designed to give especially warm tones, so great for playing that aims to capture those vintage classic Blues or ‘Clean’ styles. Often chosen as the basis for excellent Shadows / HM tones too.

Lightly chamfered pole pieces add to the vintage styling. 

Stratocaster Wiring Colour Code:

Bridge = Blue     (magnets are ‘South Up’ i.e. attract a compass North)
Middle = Yellow  (magnets are ‘North Up’ i.e. attract a compass South)
Neck = Red        (magnets are ‘South Up’ i.e. attract a compass North)

Please note: The price above is the UK total price including standard Royal Mail postage. Non UK customers will be advised of an additional small postal charge during the checkout process (see Shop page for current charges).

EU customers; regretfully, following the EU import VAT regulation changes of July 2021, we are unable to support direct website sales to EU countries (EU countries will not be accepted at the checkout stage). 

 

Description

Vintage Strat Pickups Gold Alnico V

 
The Ironstone vintage Strat pickups Gold Alnico V style, features vintage level resistances of 6.0K Ohm Bridge and Neck with a 5.8K Ohm Middle configuration, using thicker 42 AWG windings. 
 
Like all of the Ironstone Stratocaster pickup range, the Golds share the ‘family’ warm vintage tone set. The resistance configuration of Ironstone’s Strat pickups Gold set means they are the cleanest sounding of all of the range. Bright, chimy bell-like tones are the perfect base to replicate the classic Fender Stratocaster tones of the 60’s.
These feature a light vintage pole stagger; slightly raised D & G.
As all of the Ironstone Strat pickups, the Golds come complete with all required mounting hardware and colour code wiring identification.
They are available with either White, Cream (Aged White), or Black covers.
 
Replacement cover sets are also available in White, Cream (Aged White), or Black. These enable easy updating of guitar colour schemes or when moving pickups to another guitar body. See Stratocaster pickup covers

Strat pickups Gold: related links

See Wiring Diagram I See Guitar Pickup AdjustmentI SeeSound Clips
For all things Stratocaster check out Strat-Talk, the world’s No.1 Stratocaster authority!
For all things Squier check out SquierTalk, the world’s No.1 Squier information source
Finally, for all things Fender, check out The Fender Forum

 

35 reviews for Vintage Strat Pickups Gold Alnico V

  1. Steve Green (verified owner)

    These pickups are great – very well made and have a really good strat sound. I’ve used them in a kit guitar which is a decent instrument, but never really sounded the part. It does now. Thanks very much Ironstone.

    • Anthony

      Good pickups are the best guitar upgrade you can ever make!

  2. Pete Buckland

    I upgraded a 1980`s Sunn Mustang with a set of Ironstone Gold Strat pickups. So now I have a
    guitar with a neck I like that sounds really good. 5 way switch / 3 volumes. Pickups wired to the pots then to the switch. For a Strat type guitar it seems pretty quite in terms of hum. I don`t believe pickups need to cost a fortune in order to achieve a great sound, after all it is a roll of copper wire and some magnets. These Ironstone pickups prove the point. I would have no hesitation in recommending them, and would look for other pickups in their range should I get round to doing any more projects. Pete Buckland http://www.bucklandnixon.com

  3. Alan Morley

    Firstly, I must say what great service I had from Ironstone. Delivery was really quick and Tony was very helpful.

    I bought the Ironstone Gold Alnico V pickup set to replace the pickups on my 1993 Cheri Strat ( made in Korea ).

    The result was that the Cheri sounds better than my USA Fender Strat Plus.

    More ‘Stratty’ than a Strat you could say.

    The Ironstone pickups are lively, responsive and produce that recognisable Strat ‘Quack’ in the 2nd and 4th positions on the 5 way switch.

    Excellent product, value and service.

  4. Andy Kay (verified owner)

    Impossible to fault. The sound from my set of Gold pick-ups on my home built ‘S’ type is wonderful and versatile. The bridge pick-up sounds like it’s straight off the old Animals version of House of the Rising Sun, the centre and bridge pick-ups give a mix of Hank Marvin, Clapton, early Pink Floyd and Mark Knopfler – all for less than £50!!!!! I’ve got two more builds in the pipeline – will be back for more 😀

    • Anthony Partridge

      That’s quite a star tone line-up Andy, but exactly the Fender artist era the Gold’s are designed to replicate. Look forward to hearing from you for those future projects.

  5. Keith Purvis (verified owner)

    Absolutely brilliant pickups for that Hank Marvin sound. Would highly recommend these to anyone

    • Anthony Partridge

      Thanks for the recommendation Keith!

  6. John Heaps (verified owner)

    I hate to be repetitive but these Pups are jawdroppingly excellent.
    Fitted to an £80 Chord Strat copy project (good wood and neck, dreadful all else!) and I’ve got a guitar I simply cannot put down!
    The definition and clarity of each of the PUPs in each of the Strat five positions is remarkable.
    Off to order another’s set for my Squier Strat.
    Simply put you don’t need to pay more!
    Astonishing, well chuffed,

    • Anthony Partridge

      Jawdropping, Astonishing (repetitively). I can think of no better compliments John! Cheers

  7. JAY Guitars (verified owner)

    Fitted Ironstone Gold Strat set to a Westfield Strat for a customer and wow!
    Both of us were blown away by the difference these pickups made. Great quality for a stunning price, with brilliant service and speedy delivery too. Thank you Ironstone – I’ll definitely be coming back for more!

    • Anthony Partridge

      That’s the Ironstone ethos; “Some of the best guitar pickups for value, tone and customer service.” Enjoy, and look forward to hearing from you again – maybe trying some of the other Ironstone styles.

  8. Craig (verified owner)

    Just fitted a set of Golds to a ’96 Squier Affinity and the difference is night and day. The original icepick-ups had those horrible piercing upper mids that I had to tiptoe around, but these capture that lovely late 60s sparkle where the top end is sharp but clean and always palatable; you can dig in hard, even on the bridge, and the sound will cut through without setting your teeth on edge. They sound incredibly close to the pickups on those classic player ’50s strats, but I’d say they might even be a little closer to the real thing. Honestly, these have absolutely no right to be as good as they are for the money and I can see myself trying a set of silvers next.

    Oh, and bonus marks to Tony for being so helpful with everything 🙂

    • Anthony Partridge

      The Affinity was probably fitted with stock ceramic (bar) magnet pickups, great at delivering an uncomfortable, thin, scratchy tone. The Golds are based on Alnico V magnets and low resistance winding, delivering bell-like clear warm vintage tones. And always happy to try to help with pickup selection etc of course. Cheers, Tony

  9. Mike Oliver

    I was recommended to Ironstone by a friend who was very, very happy with the Silver pickups. I bought the Golds for a cheapish Tokai strat that never sounded any good with the stock pickups, or with another set of Alnico pickups I fitted. All I can say is that they have made the guitar a joy to play. I play mainly classic 60’s and you are absolutely correct when you say that they are great for capturing the Shadows sound. It’s opened up a whole new area of music for me to explore. I have a Les Paul clone that I’m also not too happy with so it looks like some of your high output Humbuckers will be ordered soon.

    • Anthony Partridge

      My view ( as a trained engineer) has always been that pickups are 80% of a guitars tone. So long as the basic guitar is mechanically sound (Tokai’s are great), a good new set of pups works wonders, as you have found! Cheers.

  10. Ray McCarroll (verified owner)

    The project was to upgrade my daughter’s cheap strat copy to sound a bit more like the real thing.
    This included locking tuner pegs, quality strings and, most of all, Ironstone Gold pickups. The process was straightforward and they have transformed the guitar and it now sounds amazing. The Golds give a crystal clear bright sound and are several times louder than the old pickups. I am more than happy with the result.

  11. Ad Kooij (verified owner)

    Ordered the gold pickups in September and converted a black Squier strat with a rosewood fretboard into a kinda red Hank Marvin strat with ‘gold’ hardware and a maple neck. Installed the pickups and… wow what a nice sound! It sounds wonderful to my ears and the price is very nice included the small extra to send them to the mainland. Thank you so much!!.

    • Anthony Partridge

      Value and tone is what Ironstone is all about Ad. Glad you are so pleased with the Golds, and don’t forget to tell your mates about us too!

  12. Michael Oconnell (verified owner)

    Bought these pickups installed them they sound great £39.95 for four pickups the only gripe which is not a complaint is they seem be a little bit quieter than the Hybrids don’t know why got the pickups as high as i can set them has anyone else noticed or is me.
    The plus side they are great sounding pickups.

    Mick

    • Anthony Partridge

      Hi Mick,
      The Golds are around 5.7 kOhms resistance, the Hybrids 8-9 kOhms. So the Golds give very clear bell like tones, and that is at a somewhat smaller output level than the Hybrids. In contrast, the higher resistance hybrids give the capability of great ‘driven’ tones, whilst still delivering decent cleans. Cheers, Tony

  13. Ray Floyd

    I’ve just bought the Gold and fitted them to an old strat copy that had lost its vibrancy through old age ( just like me ) switched on the amp and was bowled over by the sound and what a sound it was, no matter what position the selector switch was in, nice and warm to hard and cold and as a shadows player the sound was amazing. I have bought other copies and they have cost well over £200 and still they cant get the sound that these babes have, now I feel like going back on the road again they are absolutely amazing and so incredible they cost this little.
    Now don’t get me wrong this is an honest appraisal of these little monsters and believe me I am in no way connected to the firm but thanks Guys and especially Tony for the help you gave me.

    • Tony Partridge

      Many thanks Ray. These are designed to do one specific tone job really, really well, and its good to hear that is appreciated!

  14. Matthrw (verified owner)

    Ordered a set of these vintage gold pickups and put them in a old strat copy guitar and they have transformed the guitar I play a lot of shadows songs and the sound is brilliant highly recommended

  15. Bob Longhurst (verified owner)

    Gold Stars galore for the Gold Strat Pick-ups. They are way better than those fitted on my 2012 Standard American Strat. The bridge pick is brighter and cleaner sounding. The Middle and Neck Pick-ups are the same too. They were “muffled” sounding before, and no amount of height setting helped. I have to say that these new Pick-ups have given ME and my Strat a new lease of life. Many thanks Tony for sending me FOC Cream covers when I had messed up and ordered white ones. Service like this is so refreshing……just like your PUPS.

    • Tony Partridge

      Customer service is a big part of Ironstone as you have seen Bob!

  16. Ron Ryan (verified owner)

    I was thinking about buying a friends USA made Fender Highway One Strat’ but remembered that some time ago I had fitted a set of ‘Ironstone Silver Series’ into a guitar I was reworking for a friend and how they transformed the guitar and how pleased he was when he got it back. So I purchased and fitted a set of ‘Gold Series’ in the Fender Squier I am using at the moment, and was amazed just how good the guitar sounded!! the Gold set are even better than the Silver set. So I saved myself a good few hundred pounds just by fitting new pick-ups, as the Squier sounds so much better!!! So the moral of the story is the guitar of your dreams might be the one you already have, it might just need a better set of pick-ups fitted, and you won’t get a better set of pick-ups at anywhere near the price of ‘Ironstone’, you get quality and great value.

  17. Grahame

    Last week I bought an old Korean Squire Strat. Lovely neck but everything else was truly horrible. The stock pickups were astonishingly bad and so noisy but at £40 it was worth a punt. I replaced the electrics and bought a set of Ironstone Golds, thanks to the good reviews. Wow! I cannot believe the transformation. No noise and the pure typical Strat tone. I don’t know how you do it at such a good price. Thank you so much.

  18. Colin (verified owner)

    Fitted the Golds to my USA Strat Plus that had Hank Marvin Kinmans on and I seem to have got the vintage sound back I was missing, I can recommend these, you won’t be disapointed…

  19. paul

    just fitted these golds into a fender sunn mustang,& I must say they sound class! they take me back to the 60s, they have that clear vintage tone, i found myself playing all that old surf music- dick dale, hank marvin,etc, even jimi’s little wing sounds great with these pickups, i’m more than happy with these classic pups, thanks to all at ironstone for their great work in producing such great pickups at a decent price, keep up the great work, thanks again, paul.

    • Tony Partridge

      60’s bell-like vintage tones is what the Golds do best! Glad its appreciated. Cheers, Tony

  20. ChrisAdmin

    “Just wanted to say thanks – I received the pickups today. I installed them tonight, and I’m astounded at how they sound!
    To be honest, I bought them thinking ‘ they might be rubbish, but its only 30 quid, and I just can’t believe how great they are. They’re a serious rival to Seymours”

  21. ChrisAdmin

    “MATE how good are these pups just fitted them I cannot believe it they are FAB”

  22. ChrisAdmin

    I recently purchased a set of your ‘Gold Grade’ pickups for the Fender Stratocaster to replace the Fender Custom Shop ones that I never really liked (shame, as they cost a fair bit!). Anyway, getting to the point, I installed yours, and as soon as I played the first note, I thought to myself “These are the ones”. They sound great. I haven’t got the legendary VOX AC30 amplifier yet and only have VOX’s cheaper transistor amplifier (Valvetronix), and it sounds exactly like Hank’s 1989 sound already, so what the hell’s it going to sound like with the AC30 cranked up? Love the pickups and would recommend these to anyone. You should be proud of yourselves making such brilliant pickups, at such affordable prices! Thank you so much for your pickups

  23. ChrisAdmin

    “I replaced my AXL designed EMG’s which had no tonal quality at all. The difference is unreal! Great clean strat sounds (Hank sound) and superb tone and sustain. I can’t believe how good they are for the price. I have used over priced DiMarzio’s and Kent Armstrong’s in the past but they don’t even come close to the Gold series pickups from Ironstone. I am particularly impressed with the sustain, fantastic sound at an affordable price.”

  24. ChrisAdmin

    “I bought a set of your Gold Grade pick ups for my Mexican Fender Stratocaster and have them installed in my guitar.
    The sound is amazing it transformed my strat, it now sounds like a 50’s strat. I am very very pleased with the pick ups and still cannot believe that they are so cheap.”

  25. ChrisAdmin

    A Squier upgrader…”I replaced my old Squier pups with your replacements, my god what a transformation it has made, its turned this tired old korean/jap strat into a new monster, they bloomin great! Excellent reproduction, great crunchy vibes on middle pickup, fantastic finger picking on bridge pickup, and lovely mellow tones on neck pickup”

  26. ChrisAdmin

    “Good full output, very well balanced and really quiet. The sound is more than terrific.These are real Stratocaster pickups, they are clear and if you what a stratocaster sound, these pickups give that on the clear, the crunch or the lead channels…. but you will recognize the
    vintage stratocaster sound, what ever you play, period. If you play a good Stratocaster, with these pickups you’ll get the sound a stratocaster should have… you will hear the sound which originally the Strat was made for.”

  27. ChrisAdmin

    “The pups arrived today and they are truly awesome. They have changed my old guitar which had ceramic ones from rather average sound into a magical sounding one. I am sure that the angels took notice as the sounds soared off into space”
    Another customer quote; “lovely clear vintage sound ! website fantastic for wiring and setup instructions”

  28. ChrisAdmin

    ” I replaced my AXL designed EMG’s which had no tonal quality at all. The difference is unreal! Great clean Strat sounds (Hank sound) and superb tone and sustain. I can’t believe how good they are for the price.
    I have used over priced DiMarzio’s and Kent Armstrong’s in the past but they don’t even come close to the Gold series pickups from Ironstone. I am particularly impressed with the sustain, fantastic sound at an affordable price”

  29. ChrisAdmin

    “amazing pups! exudes rich tones, honestly transformed my old squier strat”
    “…just wanted to say thanks – I received the pickups today. I installed them tonight, and I’m astounded at how they sound! To be honest, I bought them thinking ‘they may be rubbish, but its only 30 quid, and I just cannot believe how great they are.
    They’re a serious rival to Seymours!”

  30. ChrisAdmin

    “..the pickups made their debut last weekend. I normally use Lindy Frailin in my JV Strat,
    your alnico pickups are superb, lovely bluesy tones, they are staying in!!!!!!!! “

  31. ChrisAdmin

    “I recently fitted some Ironstone gold pickups to one of my Strats and i am delighted with them. I have two other Strats,
    one fitted with Reflex Red Active pickups and the other with Seymour Duncans. I thought these sounded pretty good but the
    Ironstones are better at a fraction of the price. many thanks for a great product.”

  32. ChrisAdmin

    “Just a quickie to say again how delighted I am with the Gold pickups. I replaced the ones in my 1991 Mexican Strat
    (which were good) but yours kick them into a cocked hat, particularly for Shadows sounds:
    I have recommended them to a couple of people over the last week and they will be ordering accordingly:
    I honestly don’t know how you do them at this price – £30 EACH would still be a bargain:
    They are responsive, very tonal without hum and the mid / bass range is bright without any dullness or wooly-ness:
    Thank you once again, they have given my guitar and me a new lease of life:
    I am chuffed to little nuts, and being a Yorkshire man, that’s not an easy thing to be”

  33. ChrisAdmin

    “I have just had my Squier guitar sprayed ‘Fiesta Red’, and fitted your classic Alnico vintage Gold grade pickups.
    Wow, what a beautiful sound coming from my guitar now, so clean and warm tones, true “Shadows Sound”. I can now turn the gain up on my VT40+ without any hiss / buzz / hum, now sounds like a Vox AC30. Don’t know how you get that amazing sound of the Shadows from these pups at an amazing price. Would recommend anyone wanting “The Shadows Sound”… you should buy these pups.”

  34. ChrisAdmin

    “I’ve finally fitted the gold alnico pups. I play in a shads tribute band and planned to use the guitar fitted with the pups as a back up.
    I ended up playing it most of the night my main guitar is fitted with avn kinmans,
    work that out folks !! Your alnico v5 golds are fantastic thank you very much.”

  35. ChrisAdmin

    “Got the pickups,followed instruction video.soldered up. plugged in, and transformed a cheapo squier to a top range strat sound.
    Big problem though, can’t seem to turn it off, just want to hear that fantastic shadow/60/70/ sound all the time. makes me sound like hank/knoffler or clapton. I fitted the pups to the cheapo squire instead of my other special edition squier as the cheapo has a more delicate tremelo arm and slightly thinner fret board, also much lighter and now sounds amazing, a real honey sixties sound. will buy another set
    for the S.E. and no doubt it will sound just as good. I have had many fender strats, paid good money, none sounded anywhere
    as good as this. I also tried changing pickups, and re-wiring etc. still not the sound I wanted.
    You could fit these gold pickups to a cornflake box, string it with some elastic bands and the sound would make you weep with emotion, they are fantastic. Thank you, ironstone, rutland, wonderful price, wonderful service. wonderful pickups.
    You deserve top feedback, these are the best.”

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