$160 USD

No ORDER Form on this site. Please place your order on the mobile site :

Texas Jalapeno - spicy Texas tone at it's best

Texas Jalapeño v3 (pronounced Halopeno)- sweet sweet highs, intense piano mid-tones and lotsa spicy presence and aggression when you want it.  "Ancho Poblano" extremo (One of Fender's very expensive $500/set limited edition Custom Shop models).

Thinking up a name for our latest creation we were torn between Anaheim Chilli and Texas Jalapeno, both are great names.  Anaheim is the birthplace of Fender and chilli describes the sound and spicy performance of this pickup very well.  But Texas is BIG and the Jalapeño chili is hot enough for a great taste sensation but not so hot as to obliterate the taste of the food.  Yup, that's why we went for Texas Jalapeño.

Strat sound has just taken a huge step up, the Texas Jalapeño v3 overtakes all other Strat pickups with it's spicy high end bloom & outstanding glassy presence and thumping attack on the low notes, even more than SRV himself had in this piece.  To get this kind of super performance before was impossible without active electronics, but our Texas Jalapeño is a passive pickup ..... "look Ma, no battery" ..... just genius electrical and magnetic and coil winding wizzardy.

The standard version in the neck is versatile and good for SRV pieces such as Riviera Paradise and can do the opening notes of Pride and Joy with ease.  The middle in combination with the neck produces terrific new in-between 'strong cluck' sounds.  It's a funtastic pickup for Texas Blues and other emotive musical styles and even great for instrumental Surf tunes.  Unmistakable Strat sound with every desirable characteristic (except scoop) magnified x 2.5 ..... how's that?

Update 27-Feb-2023:  We have also upgraded the Texas Jalapeno EXTRA to the v3 which is designed specially for the bridge position.  It has extra output so it balances well with the neck and middle standard Texas Jalapeno v3 and our secret proprietary coil winding technique avoids the thin, overly trebly sound that is characteristic of bridge pickups which robs girth and punch.  But it retains a nice bite and it's still spicy and it sounds fat and punchy.

Set into our K9+ Goodbye-Soldering Harness the Texas Jalapeño set delivers serious versatility that's good from soft n pretty to ferocious rock and metal, even without the aid of distortion pedals.

Recommended especially for ALL clean sounds and does crunch and distortion exceptionally well too.

Outstanding sonic characteristics:  Turn your amp up until it's cooking and you'll be amazed with the ultra high frequency response, sweeter, purer, highs and more dynamic snap n spank than any other Strat pickup.  Outstanding presence factor thanks to more upper harmonics than a regular Strat pickup -and- there is no hint of ice-pick or upper mid spikes - just sizzling sweet gorgeous highs like you've never heard before.  Low wound strings have more than the much desired Fender snap & twang factors and the aggressive sound of Fender's Texas Special is instantly recognized as being seriously outdone, aaaaand without 60Hz hum.  Bloody remarkable.

Signal chain requirements:  Any old cable won't do.  As with any passive pickup it's a good idea to use a low capacitance cable to get the maximum incredible performance of these pickups.

Ejoyability factor on a scale of 1~10:  Thirteen, with the best Fender non-noiseless being 10.

Waxing the Lyrical: 

The sound can best be described as a very 'strong' Fender sound, but it has gorgeous tone too.  It packs a hallava wallop  and it's sound is very very lively.  This Strat type pickup is so good we gave it the 5 Gold Star rating because it actually sounds better than it's noisy counterpart that Fender reckon is in SRV's legacy Stratocaster.  This is nothing short of astounding considering this is a Zero-Hum pickup.  People can be forgiven for thinking these pickups fell out of a flying saucer they are that technologically advanced.

This remarkable new model is part of the reason that not only is Kinman the King of Noiseless but also the King of Fender sound regardless of hum or otherwise.

Works well in any Kinman Goodbye-Soldering Harness.

Some people will call these noiseless Stratocaster pickups but Kinman prefers to describe them correctly as Zero-Hum Stratocaster pickups.  That's because there are 2 types of noise, Hum which is cancelled in the pickup and Buzz which can only be minimized by shielding the wiring cavities (refer to >Technical >Perfect Guitar >Shielding for newer guitars
 

Technical & Application info:

Introduced 20-Sept-2018

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

Tech stuff:  The Gen-2 models have taller magnets and taller coil with Kinman's patented magnetic focusing device incorporated.  In concert with a squashed 600 Ohm hum-sensing coil all these new features produces non-aged sound.  As of 10-Sep-2018 the pickups that have narrow and intermediate magnet spreads incorporate our new CLCT (Coil Length Compensation Technology) which restores the t noticeable loss of attack, presence & cohesion when the magnets are placed closer together to align with strings off a narrow spaced twin Pivot bridge.  More technical info below.

Loudness:  Noticeably louder than a Fender Texas Special and our Impersonator E56 and MV mdodels.  Judical pickup adjustment can achieve a balance with 3 of the same pickups.  A fully graduated set of three would have the Kick-in-the-Arse Standard in the bridge and the Texas Jalapeño in the neck and middle -OR- a Texas Jalapeno at the bridge and our Impersonator MV middle & E56 neck.

Comparison to others:  In side-by-side comparison with our amp cooking the Texas Jalapeño has more top end sizzle and greater clarity than the real Texas Special which sound a bit ordinary in comparison - unbelievable but true.  Ordinary single coils can not be wound to sound like our Texas Jalapeno because they lack the sophisticated architectural elements responsible ... and become harsh and spikey.  The Texas J is something else and that's the reason we called it the Texas Jalapeño.

Tech stuff:  The Gen-2 models have taller magnets and taller coil with  Kinman's patented magnetic focusing device incorporated.  In concert with a squashed 600 Ohm hum-sensing coil all these new features produces non-aged sound.  As of 10-Sep-2018 the pickups that have narrow and intermediate magnet spreads incorporate our new CLCT (Coil Length Compensation Technology) which restores the slight but noticeable loss of attack, presence & cohesion when the magnets are placed closer together to align with strings off a narrow spaced twin Pivot bridge.  More technical info below.

Update Apr-2021: Now with our new Synergy baseplate that allows switching off Hum Cancelling as well as switching to 'Synergy' mode for those that think hum is part of Fender sound.

Covers

• Standard Kinman cover without height extender bushings included. 
• Available in White, Ivory, Aged White, '62 Relic and Black,
• With and without Kinman logo.
• White covers can be tinted with food stains such as Coffee and Tea.
• Generic covers will not fit Kinman Strat pickups.  We sell replacement covers in three colors.

Hook-up cable

• Slightly longer that required for standard Strat control layout.
• Robust Single wires (Color coded) for when shielding is present in the wiring and pickup cavities.
• 2 conductor shielded for when there is no shielding in the wiring cavities.
• Middle pickups when supplied with a K9 or neck pickup with a TK4 harness have 3 conductor shielded.
• 3 conductor by request with Order.
• Custom lengths by request with Order.

Connection means available

• Bare wires for soldering.
• Kinman connectors for plugging into any Kinman Goodbye-Soldering Harness.

Dimensions

• click for dimensions page

Pot & Capacitor values

• Best with 250k Ohm (measured minimum) volume pot.  Less punch and more bright with 500k.
• Tone pot is usually the same value as the volume but for a little more top end brightness can be 500k, 1meg or a No-Load.
• Stock pots can actually measure as low as 175k.  Pots in our Goodbye-Soldering Harness are guaranteed to measure no less that 250k.
• Normal tone cap value of 0.022uF, 63 ~ 100 volt Polyester.  Smaller uF value lessen the severity of Treble cut, higher values increase it.
• The voltage rating of Caps is not important but 63 ~ 100 volt have thicker lead wires that result in a neater job.

Magnet spreads (ensures magnets align with the strings in each position regardless of bridge spacing)

• Narrow 49.5mm
• Intermediate 51mm
• Standard 52.5mm
• Option to specify your magnet spreads of sets and singles in our after-payment 'Additional Questions' email we send you.

Magnet Staggers

• Normal improved Stagger to suit 7" ~ 14 inch uniform radius fretboards including USA Custom Guitar Compound 7-1/4" ~ 9-1/2
• Flat Stagger 14" ~ 20" for specific compound radius fretboards (Warmoth 10 ~ 16 inch and Post 2010 Fender Deluxe 9 ~ 14")
• Option to choose your magnet stagger for sets and singles in our 'After-Payment Supplementary Questions' email we send you.

Output Polarity: 

• in-phase with Gibson and Copy humbuckers
• in-phase with all other Kinman pickups
• opposite phase to Fender Strat (phase reversible with 3 Conductor hook-up cable)

Mounting hardware included

• 2 x 6-32 UNC Pan head mounting screws.
• 2 Silicon Rubber tube springs.

We highly recommend consulting the Install Guide in the Technical section even if you think you know it all.  Kinmans' require specialized knowledge and sometimes there is updated info.  There is also a handy wiring diagram available.

We also highly recommend consulting the Adjust & Set-up page in the Technical section so you get the best out of your Kinman pickups.

** Alnico-K is a unique proprietary Alnico rod magnet developed by Kinman in 1985.  It is Alnico-5 but 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.

* Fender and Stratocaster and Strat are registered Trade Marks of Fender Musical Instrument Corp, Inc.  Kinman is not associated with FMIC but they kindly permit us to refer to their Trade Marks to reference our products.

NEWS update 9-Mar-2020:  We have added the Texas Jalapeno EXTRA which is designed specially for the bridge position.  It has extra output so it balances well with the neck and middle Texas Jalapeno and our secret proprietary coil winding technique avoids the thin, overly trebly sound that is characteristic of bridge pickups that robs girth and punch.  But it retains a nice bite and it's still spicy and it sounds fat and punchy.