Singlecoil Comparison - Fender Custom '69/Texas Special and Dimarzio Area '67/'61

Fender's Custom '69 and Texas Special series are about the gold standard for the classic late '60s and gritty, glassy early 60s singlecoil sounds, and Dimarzio's Area '67 and Area '61 are some of the best available noiseless versions on the market today. I'd been using a Custom '69 neck and a Texas Special middle for some time, so I thought I'd A/B them against their noiseless brethren and see how they compare. Initial thoughts not captured in the video - you can tell if you listen to the clean clips, especially, but the Area pickups are a bit hotter than their Fender counterparts. Backing off the gain a little to compensate definitely made them a little clearer (these clips use identical settings). I set the pickups as close to the same height, rather than same output, as possible, to make this as direct a comparison as possible. Also, the Area pickups, in addition to being hotter, seemed to sound their best a couple turns closer to the strings than the Fender singlecoils - considering they have much less magnetic pull, this makes sense. Fender Custom '69 neck and Texas Special middle: Clean: 0:11 - neck only 0:26 - neck and middle 0:38 - middle only 0:48 - middle and Dimarzio AT1 bridge 0:57 - Dimarzio AT1 bridge only Mid Gain: 1:09 - neck only 1:19 - neck and middle 1:28 - middle only 1:38 - middle and AT1 bridge 1:45 - AT1 bridge only High Gain: 1:56 - neck only 2:08 - neck and middle 2:20 - middle only 2:33 - middle and AT1 2:42 - AT1 bridge only Dimarzio Area '67 neck and Area '61 middle Clean: 3:07 - neck only 3:21 - neck and middle 3:34 - middle only 3:48 - middle and AT1 bridge only 4:01 - AT1 bridge only Mid Gain: 4:14 neck only 4:27 - neck and middle 4:40 - middle only 4:55 - middle and AT1 bridge 5:04 - AT1 only High Gain: 5:17 - neck only 5:28 - neck and middle 5:35 - middle only 5:52 - middle and AT1 5:58 - AT1 only Amp was a Mesa Roadster through a Recto 4x12. The Output was at 10 o'clock (with a THD Hot Plate taking off 8db), and settings were: CLEAN: Channel 1 Fat tube recitification, Master 2 o'clock, Presence 11 o'clock, Bass 11 o'clock, Mids noon, Treble 1 o'clock, Gain 3 o'clock. MID-GAIN Channel 3 Modern tube rectification, Master 2 o'clock, Presence 10 o'clock, Bass 9 thirty, Mids 2 o'clock, Treble noon, Gain noon HIGH GAIN Channel 4 Modern diode rectification, Master 1, Presence 2, Bass 9, Mids 12 thirty, Gain 3.