Product Review: Fender Custom Shop Texas Special Stratocaster Pickups

When Fender Custom Shop entered the aftermarket guitar pickup market, the Texas Special Stratocaster replacements made them famous. Since then, they have branched out and produced several other different sets for the Stratocaster. Many other manufactures such as Seymour Duncan have also provided some competition in the market. The Fender Texas Specials are still a great choice and have been around long enough to have the bugs worked out of them. The Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute Stratocaster also comes stock with these pickups.

The Texas Specials were based from original Stratocaster pickups. They were then over wound to a degree to obtain a high output and deeper tone. The primary application for them is blues, however they can be versatile for almost anything but heavy metal. The midrange tone of these is very strong, so if you don't care for that, drop the mids on your amp and that normally adjusts the tone very well. I prefer to play country, so these weren't very impressive to me at first until I started working more with the amp than the guitar to get the tone that I wanted. I use a Twin Reverb and once I dropped the middle on the amp, it worked great to get the scooped mids and bright strat sound.

The guitar that I use came equipped with a set of Texas Specials already installed in it. It is a Mexican made, "Player's Strat", shoreline gold. The guitar on the box is almost identical to the one I have. I got the guitar used, and the upgraded pickups added to the cost but it was worth it. A set of Texas Specials goes for about $190 new, so it's a serious upgrade to consider. Overall, it's got the Strat tone that I wanted; however, the amp has to be adjusted to the guitar for the dial in. These pickups sound very thick and hefty on the midrange, which threw me off because I am used to playing Telecasters.

Overall, after getting used to the increase in the midrange, these pickups really add great tone that stock pickups don't normally deliver. The low end with these is much better than stock, as well as the high end. I like the thumping low end for playing country, which Telecasters can deliver with no trouble. For me to move to a Stratocaster, I needed better pickups that could that. These Texas Specials really bring out all the tone a Strat is capable of. The high end created by these is much more clear and defined than the normal Strat pickups. It takes a while to get used to them, but once you get used to them, they can be very useful.

My other Strat is a standard made in Mexico model with stock pickups that are nowhere near as deep and powerful as the Texas Specials. I don't plan to upgrade that one because the lower output suits my country needs perfect. If I want to play some blues or classic rock, I find that the Texas Specials are much more geared for that purpose. With just a little bit of overdrive, you can't beat these for a blues or classic rock tone that's within range of the masters. A lot of people say they sound similar to the guitar Stevie Ray Vaughn used but I disagree. It's close, but the tone is more dependent upon the choice of amplifier and well as the settings.

Something to consider when upgrading to Texas Specials is the choice of amp that you use. I prefer Fender tube amps so I will use those for examples. A Deluxe Reverb normally begins to break up at around four on the volume. That can be good or bad, but if you want clean, Texas Specials will cut down on your clean volume. A Twin Reverb, it won't really matter because they stay clean up to ten. A Blues Junior, the high out put really actually helps the tone quite a bit, but it's not really that clear for playing without distortion. As for the Hot Rod series, Texas Specials work very well with those and have a lot to work with setting wise. My recommendation is to find a shop, and try a guitar that has these installed before making a decision.

Upgrading pickups in a guitar can be serious business money wise. There are a lot more choices now than even a few years ago. Texas Specials have been around a while but are still worthy of consideration. If nothing else, try a few different guitars with different pickups and decide from there which one you like the best. Adjust the amp more than the guitar when you try one with Texas Specials just so that you can hear what all they are capable of. Being that these are authentic Fender products, you can be sure that they will perform as well as you!