The Obsidian Stratocaster Set

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the world of the Monty’s Obsidian Stratocaster set, the blackest Strat set of them all. 

Over the years we have been asked more times than we can count to create a tribute to the near mythical pickups in John Mayer’s Black Strat, and we feel that now is the right time to do so… ten years after everyone else came out with their versions, you can’t say Monty’s doesn’t have its finger on the pulse!

The original pickups in the BK1 have always been shrouded in mystery, it is known they are Custom Shop Fenders, and they were clearly aiming for an SRV vibe, JM is a big fan of Stevie after all, but the exact specs have always been, as Joe Pesci says, a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, inside an enigma. The tone is everything you would expect from this preference, they really capture the flavour of Texas, think fat and chewy, like a 72-ounce top sirloin, but with clarity and cut, like a cool breeze coming off the Brazos. 

To nail the tone, we did a major deep dive into the guitar and partook in a fair amount of chin wagging with people in the JM universe to get as much information as possible. Just so we are clear, we are not basing this set of pickups on the 83 custom shop recreations that Fender made, and as close as the guitars may be to the original, we do not believe the pickups used are totally accurate replicas of the real ones.  John Cruz and the custom shop have always been quite vague about what they used and chose not to recreate the, shall we say, modified stagger, on the neck pickup. 

For the record we did not have access to the guitar itself, so we are not claiming to have any secret knowledge, just a good set of ears and the ability to recreate what we hear. 

Like with all our pickups we have used the best quality wire, magnets and flatwork available, the middle pickup is RWRP and we have even recreated the dip in the neck pickups magnet stagger to be as close as possible to the original guitar.

So, roll up your sleeves, put on a chunky watch and start pulling your best slug cuddling face. It’s time to embrace the blackness of the Monty’s Obsidian Stratocaster Set.