I'm thinking about changing my pickups in my custom strat that presently has EMG SA's with SPC control. I'm looking for a warm, clean punchy tone that also smooths out nicely with gain. Those of you who have tried these can you tell me which ones you recommend and why.

Get the Fralin Vintage Hots!The Fralins sound WAY more organic than the Kimans.I know someone with a relic strat who had the AVN blues and now he has the Fralins and they smoke the Kinmans,the difference was night and day.I too have the Vintage Hots and I love them!They are also pretty quiet for single coils.

I second that... The vintage hots transformed my Strat Plus from a mediocre instrument to the best sounding strat I've ever heard.

I haven’t used the Fralins, so I can’t really make an objective comparison, but I have the Kinmans and love them.

Thanks for the info guys!! I had one more question, is the bridge pickup in the vintage hots set as loud as the other two because I'm thinking of getting the vintage hots for neck and middle and using a blues special for bridge with bass plate. I have that problem now with weakness in the bridge output and want to eliminate it. Thanks.

the bridge pickup is hotter. from neck to bridge; it's 6.8 ohms, 6.8 ohms, and 7.0 ohms for the bridge. The Blues special would probably be too hot, though you can call lindy and he'll tell you what you need and make it for you. www.fralinpickups.com ,I think.

Although I've heard Fralins are great, I chose the Kinmans (Avn-Classics) and have been very happy for several reasons: no single coil noise; much longer sustain due to the low-gauss magnets Kinman uses; very versatile pickups, you can greatly alter the tone with slight adjustments of pickup height. I think the Kinmans sound great, I get alot of compliments on my tone and I've got them pretty far from the strings for a more traditional, woody clean tone. I tried them closer to the strings and they were much hotter and more midrange, but didn't sound as good to me....Just my $.02

I have got both of these pickups in a couple of older strats (along with Bardens in another). It seems that there is no simple answer to this question. The first guitar I put the Kinmans in (a 56 maple neck Strat) did not sound great (not bad but not great). The original pickups were noticably better. The Fralins seem to slot right in to a Strat and are as good if not better than an equivalent set of originals. However, when I put the Kinmans in a 63 rosewood neck Strat, the whole thing fell into place and this (at the moment at any rate) is my best sounding guitar.
A further note, I really love the sound of the Bardens but recognize that they do not exactly recapture the original sound of a Strat (and I am sure they are not supposed to). They have very high output, are very sensitive (like me) and, to my mind, work better with higher level distortion devices (because of both the output level and being very quiet (humbuckers)).
Anything further you would like to know?

From what I understand, the Rio Grande dual calibrated set is a perfect solution for the Kinman/Fralin quandry. Not noise free, but way cheaper than the aforementioned sets and one of the best balanced sets available from vintage to blues/rock start tones.

Have you guys tried the Bill Lawrence noiseless 280S set ? Pretty cheap (120 usd + SH) and KICK ASS !

Thanks to all those who have offered their opinions on these pickups. It's a really tough decision as both pickups seem to be excellent choices and I'm still not sure which way to go.

I have a set of L-280s in another strat. They are very nice and versatile pickups. The Fralins have a nicer taper on the highs and lows to my ear, but the 280s are more quiet than my humbucker guitars, and much cheaper than Fralins or Kinmans.

Well... I ordered a set of Kinman AVn Blues after careful painstaking research and should have them soon. It was very difficult because the Fralins appear to be great pickups just didn't want the noise and stratitis. The L280's also appear to be the best bang for the buck out there and certainly got my curiosity up. Anyway, I was wondering if any Kinman users out there use the Torres harness for Kinmans with specs to suite or have any useful tips for wiring electronics.

Well I've had my Kinman AVN Blues in my strat for a little while now and I have to say everyday I use them I like them more and more. These are really great pickups and far more versatile than the name implies. Blues, Rock or Jazz tones are all attainable with these pups. They also possess a great deal of warmth and quack. I'm very happy with these and the fact that they are dead quiet is the cherry on top.

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Originally posted by Dean:
Well I've had my Kinman AVN Blues in my strat for a little while now and I have to say everyday I use them I like them more and more... I'm very happy with these and the fact that they are dead quiet is the cherry on top.

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Aren’t they amazing

HEY!
you ALL forget to mention how either Kinman's or Fralin's sound with different types of "gain"....
how do they sound with:
1) Boost
2) OD.
3) Dist.
3b) MORE Dist.
4) Fuzz
4b) MORE FUZZ(!!)
5) Metal

- cedric

I never tried the Fralin but I love my Kinman AVn Blues set for great single coil tone with no hum. The work fantastic with my Soldano SLO-100, a clean gain boost before the amp, wah, Mayer Voodoo, clean gain boost into the Mayer into the Soldano (sounds like Hendrix' EXP).

kinmans will be here in about 2 weeks...stay tuned.

Kinman IN STOCK