Tone Specific Pickups

1959 Blues Strat® Pickup Set - Best Stratocaster Pickups for Blues.

  • 1959 Blues Strat® Pickup Set - Best Stratocaster Pickups for Blues.

Tone Specific Pickups

1959 Blues Strat® Pickup Set - Best Stratocaster Pickups for Blues.

You Deserve The Best Tone.

  • Save Big On Demo Sets @ Sweetwater.com

    ORDERING UPDATE: Wait Times

    Our pickups are made by hand using slow and meticulous proprietary processes. Our unique QC testing protocol is both labor intensive and time consuming. The current wait time on new orders is about 2 months. 

    We don't take short-cuts and we can't accommodate rush orders. The mission here is to make a pro-level product that will perform at the highest level, not just in the immediate future but for the lifetime of your instrument. You'll appreciate our attention to detail upon striking your first note. Upon installing these in your guitar, you'll notice enhanced feel, increased dynamics and more sustain. Our pro clients say the response of these pickups are unrivaled by any modern or vintage alternative. 

    Wait times have continued to increase over the past few years as more people hear our work.  The quickest way to get a set of our pickups is to add your name to the wait list by placing your order today.

    Scroll down this page to see testimonials and hear recordings from our pro clientele.

    Tonal Details:

    • Pickups are Designed with Increased Dynamic Range.

    • You'll Notice Increased Harmonic Content being Captured by these Pickups.  

    • Pickups are made to sound a little fatter than early vintage pickups, without losing clarity

    • Bridge pickup is stronger to cut the mix and drive the amp without losing the “Straty-ness”

    • Middle is RWRP to eliminate hum in positions 2 & 4

    • Neck Pickup “stays together” & won't not get muddy when overdriven.

    • They clean up well by rolling off volume without losing clarity or fatness.

    Vintage Tone for Modern Times.

    The 1959 Blues Strat set was inspired by a couple of amazing sets from the late 1950’s. This is the period of time in which they switched from the more twangy grade III Alnico magnets to grade V Alnico's. This change delivered a fatter and tighter bottom-end while also increasing the overall dynamic range.

    We used these late-50's Strat's as a tonal starting point. Using special materials along with our proprietary techniques, we've added enhanced dynamics and increased sustain. These attributes will allow you to hear previously hidden harmonics from your guitar. These are tonal differences that you'll immediately notice. 

    These are the Best Strat Pickups for Bluesy tone. Many Blues players own this set but many other guitarists have added warmth and dynamics to their Strat with these incredible pickups. If your Strat is lacking, then regardless of your style you should install these to wake that old Strat up. You can't get tone like this any other way. 

    Sound is something you hear and tone is something you feel. Great Tone has the ability to move you & the audience too. Anyone that understands this concept will love this set of pickups. Our painstaking design and testing process has yielded pickups that that sound great with tube amps, pedals, solid state amps, digital devices and even software.  

    Pro Guitarists tell us they are very tube-like in their response. We have a hard time making these quickly enough because many pros are putting these in all of their main guitars including their vintage guitars.

    There is a reason you almost never see these pop up for sale on the used market. Most self-respecting guitarist would rather cut off their hands than part with their Tone Specific Pickups. If you are like most of our customers, you'll order multiple sets upon hearing these.

    Stage Worthy

    Life as a Professional Guitarist is filled with ups and downs. All gigs and tours end eventually, this reality makes every performance an audition. Top Pros know this & this is why they suffer over every detail. 

    You've spent a lifetime finding the right instrument, don't come up short with stock or average sounding pickups. Top Pros realize that an amplifiers circuitry actually starts in your guitar, precisely at the location of your pickups. Anything less than the best in your guitar will make your tone less than it should be.

    From Nashville to LA, Austin to NYC, Brazil to Japan top touring Pros load up all of their main gigging guitars with Tone Specific Pickups. After hearing these pickups, you'll feel the same. Just take a listen.....

    LIVE ON STAGE

    Studio Ready 

    In this era of technology, everyone seems to have a home recording studio. As a result, the session scene has never been more competitive. If you want to make it these days, then you need to make every note count. Top Session Players understand this & choose Tone Specific to equip all of their main studio guitars.

    Your next session date might be in a real studio. The producer might ask you to just bring your guitar, when you show up they might have you plug into a modeler or computer rig. If you show up with average pickups, you might not get a second chance. Our pickups are optimized to work well with vintage style amps as well as modern modeling digital devices. This is why serious session guitarists use Tone Specific Pickups.

    SESSION PLAYERS USE THESE IN VINTAGE STRATS.

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    “You are a Genius. These things make a solid state amp sound like it has Tubes in it. They have this 3-D thing going on. I’ve tried every important pickup upgrade since 1983 & the pickups are the best by far. I want these in all of my guitars.”

    -Mark Whitfield, Legendary Guitarist

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    "Man you are a Genius. I put your Deluxe pickups in my #2 Gibson & your 59 Blues Strat's in #2 Strat and now both those guitars sound better than any vintage guitar. Now I need to get more sets for my #1 guitars."

    - Will Crosby, Legendary Guitarist (BB King, Aretha Franklin, Mavis Stables)

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    "I love your pickups. I put them in my guitar and it is exactly what I was looking for. We play old honky tonk and Western swing, so I have to cover a lot of ground between twang and warm arch top tones. The bridge pickup is the first one that has made me happy other than my vintage bridge pickup. The whole set has that great 50’s sound and feel. I don’t use any pedals and the combo sounds awesome plugged straight into my Princeton. Keep doing what you do!"

    -Sam Platts, Guitarist

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    “Hey Maestro, the pickups sound amazing. There’s more depth to these than the stock pickups for sure. There’s a boat load of sustain too.”

    -Will Brahm, Virtuoso Guitarist

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    "I can't thank you enough for my pickup set. They are an answer to a prayer that I could create the perfect guitar. I spent a great deal of money for a Strandberg only to find the sound was not up to par. Now, it is fabulous. Thanks Again & God Bless You."

    -Stephen Lalonde, Guitarist

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    “It's like plugging into a nice Studio Tube Compressor...you hear every nuance of every note. Tone Specific pickups are more dynamic sounding, I'd say they're organic sounding. With other pickups you don’t get that. They sound very fat but very clear.  When you hit it harder you hear the dynamics you want to hear. I’ve been trying for years and with other pickups you don’t get that. They sound like vintage pickups”

    -Leo Amuedo, Virtuoso Guitarist

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    "Something about the way they feel when you play...the way they make you play & respond to you guitar is so important because it's inspiring & let you play better. They are the most sensitive pickups I've ever played...the best!"

    -Marty Pelto, Guitarist

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    “They sound amazing. A big improvement over the other pickups I had. I use them in my #1 guitar for gigs and sessions.”

    -Aaron Lebos, Jazz Recording Artist

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    “Fascinating recording the Les Paul Gold Top with the 57/61 Deluxe PAF's and comparing to my other Les Paul with stock pickups! At higher gain levels the Tone Specific's has great definition. There are harmonics coming out of the amp in the room I’m not used to with when using the Tone Specific's & it translate's beautifully when recorded! Interesting!!”

    Doug Rappoport, Session & Touring Guitarist

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    “Amazing pickups. They really capture the harmonics of each instrument. I use them in as many of my builds as possible.”

    -Stephen Marchione, Legendary Luthier

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    "I wanted to thank you again for making these great pickups. At first I thought it was a subtle change, but the more I play, the more I can’t STOP playing! These things are sounding better every day.  Anyhow, I am totally in love with these! I now own 2 sets & I can't get enough. I just bought another set for my brother."

    -Mark Malin, Amp Builder

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    “I’ve had over 8 different sets of pickups in my guitar…I can honestly say without a doubt…these are the best sounding pickups I have ever heard... Well done gentleman…thanks for ending my tone search.”

    -Benjamin Fargen, Legendary Amp Builder

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    “I noticed the difference right away. I’ve tried every pickup you can imagine and the these pickups exceed everything else. Hands down the best pickups on the market. Just pure tone…the only pickups I’ll ever use”

    -Lefty Ferguson, Nashville Guitarist

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    “It sounds like the have Tubes in them...almost three dimensional. They just sound really sweet. I don’t how they do it but they even feel sweet. Just like vintage pickups but with more sustain and less noise. They are just amazing”

    -Mike Gallaher, Legendary Guitarist - Joe Cocker, Leon Russell

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    “You guys are Geniuses. I can’t put my guitar down...the response is very Tube like..very 3-D sounding. I just played a gig with the Tone Specific’s and I got so many compliments. It’s really amazing what you guys are doing over there. You've made all other pickups obsolete."

    -Cali Freeman, Session Guitarist in NYC

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    "I freaked out when a first heard the Tone Specific's...very musical pickups...your can actually hear them bloom."

    -Andrew Kumar, Guitarist

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    "I was knocked out by your pickups! Plugged straight in, it sounds like it was going through a top shelf tube compressor—only better. 


    I’m the luthier/owner of Stonetree Custom Guitars for over 20 years now. My goal is to craft a “brand new old guitar”. Not reliced but something that feels and sounds like an old guitar, but reliable, with some modern enhancements. I have relied on a couple of the biggest boutique pickup makers for the most part, but your pickups are a game changer. I have built guitars for many pros including 5 for Eric ‘Roscoe’ Ambel and 4 for Joe Bonamassa.

    -Scott Platts, Luthier

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    “These pickups respond just like vintage pickups. What makes them better than vintage pickups is that each set is consistent. You don’t don’t get that with vintage pickups…some are great & some are duds.  The Tone Specific’s always sound amazing. There's nothing else like these on the market.”

    -Dan Courtenay, Vintage Guitar Expert/Buyer in NYC

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    "They sound better than the other pickups I've used. I'll be using them in my future builds"


    -Ken McKay, Luthier

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    “The sustain is really amazing. They’re really easy on the hands...they just feel

    right. They are so dynamic...I just love them.”

    -Mike Machado, Blues Guitarist

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    "Just like vintage pickups only better. They have this dynamic thing going on kind of like a great tube amp. I imagine this is what new vintage pickups sounded like back in the 50's & 60's"

    -Dani Robinson, Blues Guitarist (Performs Jimi parts w/Billy Cox Experience)

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    “You are a Tone Wizard. My guitar has never sounded or felt so good. They respond to my playing in such an incredible way. It's just like playing an incredible tube amp. These pickups are so much better than everything else out there.”

    -Breck Phillip, Guitarist

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    “They bloom just like a vintage tube amplifier. There are just really vintage sounding pickups. Super warm, dynamic & they sustain forever. They just agree with all of my amps. There's nothing else like them. I put them in all of my guitars, even my vintage guitars. 

    -Ford Thurston, Guitarist for Randy Houser based in Nashville, TN

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    “Very present, warm & fat. Big improvement over thin sounding stock pickups. They just sound huge”

    -Alexander Flock, Session Guitarist

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    “They sound great & complement each other very well. They play just like butter & sustain forever. Other pickups seem very stiff compared to these.”

    -Rob Phillips, Guitarist

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    “These are the quintessential sounding P.A.F. style pickups. They give you all of that warmth, bloom & sustain you’d expect in a vintage pickups without being overly wound.”

    -Jay Leonard, Session & Touring Pro

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    “These pickups sound absolutely fantastic. Perfectly matched and more versatile than my vintage pickups”.  

    -Steve Ouimette, Session Guitarist - Alice Cooper, Guitar Hero, Public Enemy

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    “Tone Specific always delivers a masterpiece. These responsive pickups catch the essence of my guitars & enables the musician to create the sounds he wants”

    -Vincent Cleroux, Luthier

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    “Super warm & articulate with great sustain. The best pickups you can get”

    -Pete Mroz, Nashville Musician

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    “Your pickups sound superb….they sound great in every guitar I’ve put them in…lots of sustain…clear”

    -Dean Gordon, Guitar Builder

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    “Tone Specific makes the best pickups. The sustain and warmth is incredible. They are very dynamic, very tubey. They destroy all other pickups. They go in all of my guitars. It's kind of like plugging into and old Neve console”

    -Mike Severson, Guitarist for Robert Glasper, Phillip Bailey (Earth, Wind & Fire)

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    "Your pickups are killer. I've played a lot of guitar in my life but these pickups are the best I've played. I know you've worked hard at your craft but you should be very proud. You deserve all the kudos you get. Thank you very much".

    -Lightnin Willie, Blues Recording Artist

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    How to Buy/Pricing

    Strat Pickups cost $497 - Made by hand right here in the USA - Due to overwhelming demand, the current wait is about 2 months. To order click the "Add to Cart" at the top of the page.

    The demand from Professional Guitarists & Luthiers is about enough to sustain us but we really enjoy sharing our creations with the general public.  If you are willing to be patient, then we will be happy to make a set for you.

    Our building process takes a little longer than most pickup winders and we have rigorous testing that is performed on all pickups before they ship. This includes sound test. The goal is to make pickups that will not only inspire you when you get them but also 20 or 30 years down the road. Our goal is for these to be the last pickups you have to install in your guitar. We work hard & in a mindful way to make the perfect pickup, this is why you rarely see our pickups for sale on the used market.

    Players with good ears seem to hear the difference right away. In fact, just about every pro we've dealt with has ordered multiple sets altering hearing how these pickups transform the feel & the tone of their instrument. We are sure you will appreciate the attention to detail when you hear your new pickups.

    Sound is something you hear. Tone is something you feel. Great Tone has the ability to move you & the audience too. When you are able to grasp this concept, then you've arrived & we can't wait to make you an amazing set of pickups.