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Magnum Opus 59 (Gen-3) - the attaining of 50's sonic perfection

It's official ....

The Gen-3 Kinman Magnum Opus '56 is the new Gold Standard for Strat* pickups.
 

If you believe your expensive boutique scatter-wound vintage Stratocaster* pickups are the finest vintage pickups money can buy .... think again!

Sonic characteristics: if you know genuine '50's Stratocaster* sound you'll immediately understand our Magnum Opus '56.  Super fast attack response (snap) which is great for super fast picking (and yes, even shredders will love it), outstanding presence factor with crystalline pristine highs, low mid scoop and crisp, sharp twangy lows all the way down to the open E-6th.  Outstanding clarity and transparency.  3D dynamics and highly touch sensitive.  Exceptional note separation and beautifully balanced string levels.  Absolutely authentic Knopfler-esque position 2 & 4 sounds ,,,, all of that with absolute Zero-Hum and none of the traditional nasties such as warbling notes, buzzy string crash and icepick and overpowering G-3rd string.  In essence, 50's Strat sound perfected ,,,, what more could you want from a vintage pickup?  "Hum" you say, well, with our Synergy baseplate you can have that too.  Be aware the MO '59 produces a very pretty sound, should you want more bite and cut from the plain strings choose our slightly more powerful MO '56 model and the twang our MO MV model in the Perfect Vintage set which is hard to beat.

The story behind the magic of the Magnum Opus it is our Pièce de résistance, our masterpiece; the most memorable accomplishment of one's career or lifetime, our Magnum Opus of Stratocaster* pickups.  The year is 1959 in England and Hank Marvin of The Shadows was given a ’59 Fiesta Red Stratocaster* by Cliff Richard.  Hank and The Shadows went on to become world famous with their brand of instrumental rock and Hank became a living legend because of his distinctive sounds and skills and finesse on lead guitar.  Guitar heroes of the caliber of Dave Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Eric Clapton, Joe Bonamassa, George Harrison and countless others believe Hank is one of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century.

Hank’s distinctive twangy sound sprang from his ’59 Stratocaster*, it turned heads at the time, and still does.  Hank knows ’59 Strat* sound like the back of his hand -and- he hates mains hum.  Although he waited patiently for years, Hank says our Magnum Opus is the finest ‘50’s Stratocaster* pickup he’s ever heard and he and his inner circle now prefer it over any other Stratocaster* pickup regardless of brand or price (noisy or noiseless).  That’s because it boasts an incredible list of refinements.

More importantly, listen to this Play List of Shadows tunes and listen to the wonderful sounds of our Magnum Opus ‘59 pickups.  There is no greater test for 50's Strat sounds than Shadows tunes.  Since the pickups sound this good in these tunes you can be assured they sound equally great in your guitar for what ever music you play.

Play List of 10 Shadows tunes

These new pickups pass any blindfold test and interestingly, not one critic has disagreed that we have nailed perfection in '59 Strat* sound.  This is quite an achievement for a Zero-Hum pickup and positions the Magnum Opus to be the pinnacle of 50's Stratocaster sound for many years to come.

Kinman is the King of Noiseless and the King of 50's Stratocaster sound.
 

As if that’s not enough the Magnum Opus also has the following benefits …

• Kinman's advanced technology is the result of Clarke's second law and is indistinguishable from magic according to Clarke's third law. Clarke's second and third laws
   
• 40% less magnetic string pull.  The sound is remarkably clean of string crash and fret rattle and you can adjust the pickup higher to maximize touch sensitivity and dynamic range without the usual dire consequences.  Also you'll have longer sustain and a lower action (string to fret gap).

• The rogue G-3rd string, the source of Ice-Pick harshness and the one that usually dominates the sound has been tamed and is balanced with the other 5 strings.

• The E-6th string has more snap with a tight twang and can be picked normally with both up and down strokes without causing severe TCS

• Absolute Zero-Hum.  99.8% free of hum.  The most silence you won't ever hear.  Typically 5mv** (comparatively dimarzios Area '58 produces 68mv** of hum)

• All 6 strings sound loud, clear and balanced on all 3 pickups regardless of bridge spacing (wide Vintage and narrow Modern).  Super pristine Fender sound with clarity and presence that makes all other Strat pickups sound ordinary and harsh in actual side-by-side comparisons.

• The best test is clean, undistorted sound where you can hear the piano mid-tones and the bite and the marvellous twang even on the neck pickup .... listen to the play list of Shadows Tunes and pristine 50's Strat* sound from bottom to top with no evidence of TCS on Dance On and  Peace Pipe and others.  Brands such as Mojotone Quiet Coils and regular models, Duncan Classic Stack, Zerhyr & their regular models, dimarzio’s Area & their regular models, and even Fender claim their Gen-4 noiseless are great but try achieving a sound like these demos with any of them and you'll quickly hear they're not what they are claimed to be!  Not one of them cuts it like the Kinman, and according to customer Stuart from England that's also true of  Bare Knuckles Apache & 63 Veneer Board pickups and all other copies of the original 50's Fenders.
   
• The Kinman name, and that says it all.  Chris Kinman has single handedly done more to improve Strat pickups than all the others put together and has been awarded 7 Patents with more coming along soon.  Come out of the dark ages with these technical and sonic Masterpieces.
   
• Synergy baseplate. All models in the Alchemy group have a Violet 'Synergy' Gen-3 baseplate that allows hum-cancelling to be switched off as well as switching to Synergy mode for a noticeable extra magic, also it's phase reversible.  Synergy is a non-noiseless mode that enhances the sound of the pickup in a general way, thus it has "extra magic".  It is a very noticeable change, but so too is the hum level more noticeable than non-noiseless mode.  Good only for clean room-volume playing.  We feel that Violet implies the electric vibrancy of the Magnum Opus. 

There are three Alchemy symbols printed on the basplate, these translate to "Equal to or greater than Gold".  Magnum Opus is an Alchemists term for Masterpiece of beyond excellence, an event so rare it occurs only once or twice in a lifetime.

And ...

Available for mixing and matching by request in the Order Notes box are these Zero-Hum Magnum Opus models in the line up which sprang from the Gen-2 Impersonator models ...

• Magnum Opus '59        A Hank Marvin model and our equivalent of, but better than, Fenders CS54 definitive 50's
                                     twangy Strat pickup.
   
• Bonza Massa '55          Authentically replicated without the nasties, Joe's 'Bonnie' 1955 pickup sound.
   
• Magnum Opus '56        Our equivalent of, but better than, genuine '56 Strat with bell ring
                                     with glassy bite and chunky girth.
   
• Magnum Opus 'Perfect Vintage' set      Higher output model MV in the bridge mixed with MO 56, glassy trebles without Ice-Pick.
   
• Magnum Opus 'Texas-J'  Even higher output model for the bridge mixed with MO 56 & 55, thicker sound.
   

Signal chain recommendation:  Any old cable won't do  As with any pickup it's a good idea to use a low capacitance cable to get the maximum incredible performance of these pickups.  Excessive capacitance kills the highs and the dynamic feel.

*Stratocaster is a registered Trade Mark of Fender Musical Instrument Corp.  Kinman is not associated with Fender but they kindly allow us to refer to their Trade Mark names

** our hum measuring apparatus amplifies hum by a factor of approximately 500 so in reality our measured maximum of 6mv which, realistically at 0.012mv, is inaudible.  But  68mv is audible and by our standard we think anything measuring over 25mv is unacceptably noisy and not really fully hum cancelling.
 

Technical & Application info:

Patents  5,668,520   6,103,986   8,791,351    Patent Pending

To cancel hum we add a sonically transparent 600 Ohm Hum Sensor coil to the bottom of the pickup which is designed with a low profile coil so it doesn’t make the pickup too tall.  This Hum Sensor is very efficient and allows us to use big wire and low turns count to minimize parasitic coil capacitance so there is no impact on the string signal as it passes through.  The Hum Sensor is so transparent it can be disconnected without causing any difference to the sound of the pickup (except it will have hum of course).  Additionally, the low profile Hum Sensing bobbin allows us to make a taller string sensor which in turn and in combination with a Patented magnetic invention along with our low capacitance magnetic shields, both made of transformer grade grain-oriented Silicon Steel, and our special semi-isotropic rod magnets, allows the pickup to produce non-aged sound.  That is ….. bright and sparkly with low-mid scoop just like the best 1950's Strat pickups. 

Footnote:  Transformer grade Silicon Steel is extremely troublesome to make our magnetic components with, it comes with a thin glass-like insulating coating that is almost impossible to remove.  Way back in 2003 we designed and constructed in-house a very special continuous feed machine that strips the coating off both sides and leaves the strip shiny and ready for laser cutting and the subsequent black-zinc non-conductive coating process.  We have recently added another 1 ton of Silicon steel to our 10 ton stock of various grades.  Yup, we never want to run out of this stuff so we buy up big.  Out stocks will last for 120 years.

Kinman, like no other noiseless Strat pickup, has broken through the formidable technical barriers and now you can compare 'Apples that hum' to 'Apples that don't hum'.  We believe the Magnum Opus is the most remarkable vintage pickup among a plethora of ordinary copy vintage pickups and so we give it vintage cloth covered Push-Back hookup wires, the only Kinman that has them.

Height adjustment:

With the 12th fret closed the all three pickup gaps between top of magnet and bottom of E-6th and E-1st should be 2.2mm.  This is our experience and a good starting point but might need to be tempered somewhat for different amps, strings and guitar responses.

Mixing and matching with other Strat pickups: Most players will love the Magnum Opus in all 3 positions (bridge, middle and neck) to get nicely balanced authentic '50s vintage sounds from all 5 positions and this is the purpose of the Alchemy Series sets.  This yields absolutely authentic Knopfler-esque sound from positions 2 & 4.  For players who want a more powerful and thicker sounding bridge pickup the Magnum Opus '56 and Magnum Opus MV are slightly more robust and significantly louder than the Magnum Opus '59.  Ask for either one in the Additional Notes box on the delivery options page when ordering (no additional cost).

*Stratocaster and Strat are a Trade Marks of Fender Musical Instrument Corp.  Kinman is not connected to Fender.

** Alnico-K is a unique proprietary rod magnet developed by Kinman in 1985.  It has 40% less string pull than Alnico-5 so sustain is longer and there is much less clatter from string crash and no Strat-itis string warble.