Monty's Retro Wind Stratocaster set is our modern take on vintage Strat tone. Based on the pickups from a ’68 strat and tweaked to perfection, our Retro Winds have all the response and clarity that you would expect from the good old days with a handful of tweaks to bring them into the modern age.

Our lowest output Strat set, the retro wind set is beautifully balanced and musical across all the strings, allowing chords to ring out cohesively without any note overpowering any other. The highs have a warm chime that blends effortlessly with the mids and lows to allow for tight, woody rhythm sounds. When driven, they perfectly balance warmth and clarity, retaining definition without ever becoming brash.

These pickups also work fantastically with a whole range of modern wiring options. Our favourite is the addition of the series wiring, which allows you to get some great humbucker tones, adding even more versatility to your guitar.

Like all our strat pickups, our Retro Winds are only partially potted. This keeps the centre of the coil free from wax, resulting in increased clarity and responsiveness.

The retro winds feature vintage-correct cloth pushback wire and forbon flatwork. As standard, the middle pickup is RWRP for hum cancellation in positions 2 and 4. We also offer an RWRP bridge set, perfect for anyone looking to use a series blend pot mod.

As standard, we’ve chosen to forego any kind of polepiece stagger, simply because flat polepieces are more suited to modern guitars. If you’re adamant that a stagger is what you’re after, we would be delighted to make you a set of these pickups using our custom vintage stagger. Just leave us a message in the notes section at checkout and we’ll get you sorted.

We’ve made this set available with a plain steel baseplate on the bridge pickup. Steel baseplates -which are used on telecaster bridge pickups- subtly alter the magnetic field of the pickup, fattening it up without rolling off the highs. Many people like to use these on Strat bridge pickups, so we’ve made it available as an option. As a plus, it also provides a little bit more shielding, reducing the hum inherent to single-coil designs.

Scatter wound with 42 gauge plain enamel wire:

Neck- Alnico V, 5.5k

Middle- Alnico V, 5.5k

Bridge- Alnico V, 5.7k

Retro Wind Stratocaster Pickup

Position

Cover

Bridge Baseplate

Quantity