I’ve always had a dilemma in that I love single coil pickups but can’t stand 60 cycle hum. I solved this with some Kinman noiseless pickups in my strat (awesome pups by the way), but these MFD single coils are a bit unique and I doubt there’s any noiseless replacements. So some of the reviewers said that these MFD single coils have less noise than typical single coils. Is that true? How do they stack up with traditional single coils and P90’s in terms of noise?
The MFDs are supposed to be quieter than traditional single coil pickups. I have an ASAT Classic with the small MFDs and I don't really notice
that much less noise--maybe a bit--than my old Fender Nocaster--but that's just by memory--currently I do not have another single coil guitar to compare it to. I have played the large MFDs in the ASAT Special and there still is the usual single coil noise issue that is to be expected--it's the nature of the beast. There are several threads here regarding mods (shielding and grounding) to reduce the noise, but it will be difficult to eliminate it completely.
Is the middle position hum cancelling?
Yes it is.
How much difference do you notice in the 9.0 fretboard radius vs a 9.5 that’s in a typical Fender guitar? Is there a tonal difference? Or just a feel thing? Difference in the way that it needs to be set up? I’m by no means an expert and I probably wouldn’t even notice the difference – but figured there must be some difference or they wouldn’t have done it.
I would be shocked if anyone claimed to be able to detect a half inch difference in fretboard radius. It's difficult enough to detect the difference between 7.5 and 9.
Check this out to see what different radii actually look like:
http://www.pickguardian.com/pickguardia ... gauges.pdfI would hazard a guess that among the individuals that frequent this board, the large MFD pickups would be the most popular. There really is nothing like them--completely different than P-90s nothing like Tele or Strat single coils. They simultaneously can provide a clarity and a warmth unlike any others. With some tweaking of the volume and tone controls--backing them off slightly--you can come close to traditional Tele tones--but crank them up and they can push your amp into overdrive unlike any other.
BTW, the pickups in the USA and the Tribute models are identical.
I am sure more people will chime in.