Bill Lawrence's Samarium Cobalt Noiseless design

[SoulFetish]

The strat my friend left me has a set of SmCo pickups installed, and I was looking a bit of technical information on the design and construction of these, and what (if anything) makes them unique.
When it comes to noiseless single coil designs, you'll find a wide range of opinions. Everybody seems to have their favorite. For me, I think these sound pretty good in this guitar. I wouldn't say the tone blows me away, but in my opinion, they provide a good strat-type character and are pretty quiet.

[Mike Sulzer]

The strat my friend left me has a set of SmCo pickups installed, and I was looking a bit of technical information on the design and construction of these, and what (if anything) makes them unique.
When it comes to noiseless single coil designs, you'll find a wide range of opinions. Everybody seems to have their favorite. For me, I think these sound pretty good in this guitar. I wouldn't say the tone blows me away, but in my opinion, they provide a good strat-type character and are pretty quiet.

They should sound good. They have about the right inductance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Noiseless_Pickups), at least the neck and middle, and they seem to be designed to have low eddy currents, and thus about the right shape of the resonant peak. The question would be why SmCO rather than Neo. Both have essentially no effect on the electrical circuit of the pickup, but the latter is cheaper and more readily available in a variety of shapes and sizes.