ToneriderTRS5 Surfari Strat pickup set

Installed the Tonerider Surfaris and what a difference. These pickups are not high output single coils but are say medium output with no sharp tones, they are very balanced and make a Stratocaster sound like it should in all positions. the #4 & #2 positions produce the sweetest quack, the bridge alone has a sweet tone without the icepicky tone of the previous pickups. The neck pickup is perfect, not in your face but just right with a balanced mix of highs and lows. There is plenty of high end in the set of 3 and I find that I roll down my tone and they sound fat and full with overdrive. I'm very satisfied with my purchase. These pickups are why you have a Stratocaster. I find I'm reaching for my strat more and playing clean through a Marsh Princeton Clone with a 12" Weber Alnico speaker. The Surfaris replaced Texas Specials in an American Special Series Strat. What an improvement.

I went back and forth on these or GFS AlNico II pickups. I heard good things on the tone riders, and I was not disappointed. I wired these into a seven tone configuration on my non-trem frankenstrat. The tone is unreal, not just for the money, but for any single coil. The bridge is a little thin clean, but sounds great with a bit of crunch. The neck is probably the best neck pickup I have ever heard. This also produces a superior tone when selecting mid/neck. Think Mark Knopfler sultans tone. With the bridge/neck selected (with a pull switch), coupled with the string through body, I am getting authentic tele twang! Definitely worth the money and more. I would put this set up against any boutique, hand wound, small batch, $300+ pickup set.

When I got my set, the middle pickup was bad. It happens no one is perfect. I sent an email to Toneriders customer service and had a response in less than an hour asking for a shipping address. The replacement shipped from the Uk the next morning, and got to me in Indianapolis in 3 days. With these pickups installed, my old ‘84 Ibanez road star II has a tone that rivals any American made strat. Couldn’t be more pleased with the pickups and Tonerider as a company.

These pickups are very well made and sound great. They were packaged nicely as well. Thanks Tonerider!

Replaced gold Lace Sensors with these and the difference is amazing. Not that the Lace Sensors were bad but these gave my stat a whole new personality.

My husband absolutely loved the pickup set (and me for getting it).

They sound amazing. With Distortion or completely clean. Well worth what I paid for it. I've never played a guitar with as good of pickups as these.

I did a lot of research on pickups, trying to decide which one to buy. I purchased these and absolutely love them. Great tone and excellent craftsmanship. Highly recommended them!

Yes, I can recommend these. I purchased these as an upgrade to put into a Musicman Cutlass guitar, which is basically a Stratocaster with a few refinements. They are supposed to simulate Fender 54 style pickups which use alnico 3 magnets giving a very low output which translates into a very musical bell like sound which has the ability to cut through other sounds well on a track. They do definitely have a lot of cut but also will mellow up as you move towards neck position and dial the tone down a bit. The other great plus is even output across the strings- nothing as irritating as having a weak signal on a string, usually top E. These pickups do seem to be vey popular, well priced and my guitar tech likes them. This is my third set of Toneriders for various guitars I own or have owned, a good set being the Alnico II Humbuckers for my SG guitar which are give a PAF type sound which is an early type of Gibson pup giving quite a musical bell like sound- I can vouch for this as I'm generally not a lover of humbuckers, but the Alnico IIs are almost as musical as good single coils.

These pickups give a Mexican standard stratocaster a personality transplant. They produce beautiful deep but clear tones. The chime you get when you hit a chord is very pronounced on the neck pickup. The bridge is not harsh. Positions 2 and 4 of the pickup switch produce beautiful textured classic strat tones. (I play through a peavey valve King tube amp. Your mileage may very according to your equipment.)To summarise:Absolute classic. Blown away by these pickups. My first ones I have put in my strat and probably my last. They excel at clean tone. Haven't bothered testing high gain as that isn't what I play.The pickups themselves are very well built. Wax potted and cloth gum wrap. Cloth insulated wires.(With my Mexican strat I got unpotted, unwrapped ceramic pickups with plain wire. The stock pickups were very plain and aimed at high gain players, and don't really add much to the instrument.) I can categorically state that for clean tones these pickups are a bargain.

Fitted these to my USA 83 Fender strat to replace the texas specials it came fitted with. What an improvement. Crystal clear sound even on gain channel. Cost £25 less than Fender pickups and are 100 times better. These give the perfect vintage sound for my style of playing( Blues and R&B). Already got a set of these on my 92 Jap strat and I wouldn't change them if my life depended on it. Tonerider surfaris are the best strat pickup out there. Come with original style woven wire covers, very easy to fit.

Just got these to replace my 2007 USA fender Highway 1 pickucks and I can’t stop grinning.Previous pickups were fender played inside a mattress,now my neighbours think a drunken Mark Knopfler,with broken fingers and fallen on hard times has moved into my flat....Get them,light years better than the Fender cotton wool dispensers I was using....5 stars!

more than satisfied with picups would rate them as best i have had and i have had most of the big brand names and then some.clarity and tone exceptional i cant praise them enough and if any of you guys out there want the original fender strat sound you need to buy thes pups far superior to any of the others and the price to suit the average guy and not overpriced like most of the name brands