I've been looking around for some noiseless "single-coil" pickups for my #2 guitar (a Cort G-VT) for a while now. I'd been using the Fender Custom Shop '69 set of single coils, but while I truly love the snappy tone of these pickups, the single-coil hum was been driving me to distraction.

I've tried quite a variety of different noiseless pickup sets over the years, and they've always been a bit of a compromise. While many of these designs are really quiet, they often lack the sparkle, snap, detail or some of the personality of true single-coil pickups. In some cases they even require you to change the pots to higher values to get back some of the sparkle.

I'd been eyeing the Kinman range of noiseless single coils for a while, but was reluctant to shell out that much money for something which I had never heard before, regardless of the glowing reviews from some very believable sources (such as Scott Henderson). I ended up doing a lot of research on them, even looking up Kinman's patents and spending some time figuring out exactly what he was doing that made these pickups different to other noiseless designs.

I was at the point where I was about to take the chance and order a set anyway, when I got a chance to fit two different sets (the Woodstock set and Traditional MKII set) for two of the guys working at Paul Bothner Music. I didn't get a chance to play the guitars extensively once I'd fitted the pickups (for some reason, the owners wanted to play them too!), but from my short experience with them they were impressive enough for me to order a set of Woodstocks for myself.

Getting them Kinman pickups used to be a direct order from Australia - he had no local distribution. Luckily, between me fitting the first and second sets for the guys at Bothners, a local distributor took them up, and they became readily available. Custom sets still have to be special ordered as well as Kinman's "no solder" harness (which includes the pickups, all the wiring, pots, switches and even output jack prewired - for those folk who are uncomfortable with a soldering iron. Installation I fitted my set with no real problems shortly after getting them. The only small niggling thing was that the wires from the pickups are already cut to the precise length for a standard installation - and I don't do standard installations. My usual earth point is a star earth, with all the earth wires connected to a single solder tag at the 5-way switch. The earth wires for the new pickups came already trimmed for soldering onto the back of the volume pot, and would not stretch the extra 3 cm or so to reach the solder tag, so I was forced to make the volume pot the earth point - no biggie though. Included I was quite impressed with the extra hardware that came with the Kinman pickups. There were two full sets of pickup screws (12 in total): one set with countersunk heads and one with the more conventional pan heads. Six pre-cut pieces of surgical tubing were also included to use as springs. I prefer the tone of real steel springs, but surgical tubing is more commonly used these days as it helps pickups with feedback resistance. On top of this, Kinman includes the cap and resistor for a standard volume treble bleed mod, as well as a short length of shielded wire to use between the volume pot and the output jack. All the wires were terminated with heat shrink tubing and the ends were already tinned. All very impressive attention to detail, especially if you consider that none of the major pickup manufacturers include any of these things, let alone all of them. Documentation The documentation included was comprehensive, featuring complete wiring diagrams for a stock Strat arrangement as well as Kinman's own version of the "neck on" arrangement that allows you to have neck and bridge pickups or all three pickups together. This "K7" system - differs from the standard method of  using a switch by using a "No-Load" pot which allows you to blend in as much of the neck position pickup as you like. Adjustment It seems that everyone comments on the way the tone of Kinman pickups change depending on how close to the strings they are adjusted. The other common finding is that every small adjustment to height changes the tone. This is all true, and I can add  that it is one thing reading about it and quite another experiencing it. I found I was able to give the guitar a totally different character depending on how high the pickups were. Every single turn of a screw resulted in a tone change I could hear. The closer to the strings the pickups were, the brighter, snappier and punchier they became, while backing them off increased the woodiness and darkened the tone. The magnets in Kinman pickups are relatively low powered, which allows you to get the pickups a lot closer to the strings without "Stratitis"  than stock single coils - no reduced sustain, no pitch warble. Kinman recommends a minimum gap of 2mm between polepieces and string for the neck pickup (with the string held down at the 12th fret) and 1.5mm for the bridge pickup. I prefer much lower settings than most as I find my right hand nails catch on the polepieces otherwise, but still I ended up with the pickups about 2mm higher than I would usually set single coils. Speaking of nails, the Kinman polepieces are bevelled and the G string polepiece is lower than the traditional stagger (more in line with modern string sets with unwound G strings), and I found this made the polepieces a lot less problematic. Tone Important things first: yes, they sound like single coil pickups! The dynamic range is spot on and they have every iota of the character and high end detail I expect from a single coil. And good single coils at that... Every single switch position is good. The tone was more powerful, darker and punchier than a traditional Strat set, which is what I expected - the Woodstocks are Kinman's version of the Fender pickups manufactured in 1969, which are renowned for these characteristics. So this particular set is not for the player looking for more traditional, bright, bell-like "twangy" Strat pickups. However, if you fit into this category, Kinman has you covered with his Traditional MKII set. Kinman has also chosen to make these pickups sound like the originals did when they were new, unlike many other pickup makers who make "aged" versions. There are also other improvements over vintage single coil pickups - the string balance is excellent thanks to the modern polepiece stagger, without the G string being too loud - which is the biggest problem with the traditional stagger. The bridge pickup also as a slightly lower A string polepiece to tame the A string brashness that a bridge single coil tends to produce.

They look like normal single coils from the outside...   But they're a bit more complicated inside   Beautifully and very solidly made   The pre-tinned screened cable with heatshrink tubing   The ground wires soldered to the volume pot casing.

Overall, the tone has lots of tight low end that is never flabby, enough dynamic range to respond equally well to subtle fingerpicking or full out thrashing. Harmonics sing out and sustain has improved, thanks to the low gauss magnets. They have enough edge and definition to make the guitar stand out in most mixes, without ever becoming harsh. While like any good Strat pickup, they love lower gain to slightly crunchy sounds, I found that even taking them to the extremes of distortion land (where I rarely travel), they sounded great and every switch position sounded distinctly different.

There are two sounds I've never been overly fond of an a Strat - the bridge or middle pickups by themselves. The bridge position often is too sharp sounding, with an overabundance of "icepick" high end, and the middle tends to be a bit bland in comparison to all the other settings. I'm happy to say that the Woodstock bridge pickup is probably the best sounding bridge model I have ever heard, with a little more power than the other two pickups and just enough treble to cut through when driven, but not so much that the tone is overly aggressive or sharp - even with no tone controls fitted. The middle pickup has a wonderful throaty sound with enough character for anyone - an incredibly usable sound for those applications when the bridge pickup is too incisive, the neck position is too dark and you don't want the "quack" of the in-between positions.

Speaking of quack - positions two and four have every bit of this character that I demand from a Strat. I usually expect a bridge position pickup with good driven character to detract from the combined sound of position two, but Kinman seems to have got the balance perfect. Knopfleresque sounds abound!

I saved the neck pickup (my favourite) for last. The Woodstock neck is clear sounding with a woody characteristic - just what a Strat neck pickup should sound like. Think "Little Wing" Jimi. I was a little disappointed with the neck position, not because there is anything wrong with it - far from it, it's every bit as good as anything out there. However, based on my experiences with the other positions, my expectations were so high by this time that I was hoping the neck position would blow me away. I'm still experimenting with pickup heights, and will probably change back to real steel springs for suspending the pickups, so I may still be surprised.

Treble Bleed
The treble bleed circuit works flawlessly, the treble stays constant as the volume is turned down, without losing or gaining treble until the control gets down to 2 or 3 when the sound starts brightening a little. I don't see that as a problem, as it is very slight and no-one works with the volume that low. The pot taper is also slightly different with a more gradual volume change at the top limits of the pot, which I feel is an improvement.

Noise Resistance
These pickups are incredibly quiet - it's almost uncanny. I even set up a 17" CRT monitor specially to see if I could make the guitar hum. I ended up holding the guitar about two inches from the screen before I could hear any interference at all. Easily the quietest pickups I have ever used, including other noiseless designs and full size 'buckers.

Overall
This set of pickups are far and away the best Strat set I've ever used, including some really great true single coil sets. The tone is wonderful and very inspiring, and they are really quiet.

I now find myself wondering what a set of Kinman Traditional MKIIs would sound like <sigh>. I don't really want to convert my other Strat back from Nashville tuning, but It would be a bit extreme to buy another guitar just to try a set of pickups - even for me.