Sold only in a set of 3 direct from this site, not by Dealers
The new violet Synergy baseplate - see bullet point on this page
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It's official ....
The Gen-3 Kinman Magnum Opus is the new Gold Standard for Strat* pickups.
If you believe your boutique vintage scatter-wound Stratocaster* pickups are the finest vintage pickups money can buy .... think again!
Our new Magnum Opus 'Perfect Vintage' set had glassy highs optimized for each of the three pickups (MO '56' neck/ MO '56' middle and MO 'MV' bridge)
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 glassy 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 low output MO '59 produces a very pretty sound, should you want more bite and glassy cut on the plain strings choose our noticeably more powerful MO '56 model which is the middle and neck pickup in Our Magnum Opus 'Perfect Vintage' set. It has our MO 'MV' perfect bridge pickup.
The story behind the magic of the Magnum Opus 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.
The Magnum Opus is our Pièce de résistance, our masterpiece; the most memorable accomplishment of one's career or lifetime, our Magnum Opus of Stratocaster* pickups. Only Kinman has the technical mastery to cram so many refinements and upgrades and darn fine sound into such a small package.
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.
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 vintage Stratocaster sound for many years to come ... and quite possibly forever.
Kinman is the King of Noiseless and the Master of 50's Stratocaster sound.
As if that’s not enough the Magnum Opus also has the following benefits …
Signal chain requirements for best tone and dynamic performance: Like any pickup it's not a bad idea to use a low capacitance cable to get the incredible performance of these pickups and hear all the nuances you and your guitar can muster. Learn why here Any old cable won't do.
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.
Other Zero-Hum Magnum Opus models in the line up which sprang from the Gen-2 Impersonator models are ...
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A Hank Marvin model and our equivalent of, but better than, Fenders CS54 definitive 50's twangy Strat pickup. |
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Authentically replicated without the nasties, Joe's 'Bonnie' 1955 pickup sound. |
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Our equivalent of, but better than, genuine '56 Strat with bell ring with glassy bite and chunky girth |
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Higher output MV model for the bridge so it balances volume-wise with the neck and it avoids the nasty Ice-Pick while still sounding vintage and glassy ... mixed with MO 56 middle and neck with their glassy trebles. Position 2 still has a much vaunted Knopfler-esque quak. |
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Even higher output model for the bridge mixed with MO 56 & 55, thicker sound |
*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 100 so in reality our measured 6mv is inaudible. But 68mv is audible and by our standard where we think anything over 15mv is unacceptably noisy and not really fully hum cancelling.
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The fine craftsmanship, careful design and excellent engineering are evident |
Patents 5,668,520 6,103,986 8,791,351 Patents 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 extremely efficient and uses 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 varying degrees of 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. Our stocks will last for 120 years.
Kinman, like no other noiseless Strat pickup, has broken through the technical barriers and now you can compare 'Peaches that hum' to 'Peaches 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 it.
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 is slightly more robust and significantly louder than the Magnum Opus '59.
Synergy mode (Synergy)
Covers
Number of component parts
Magnet spreads
Magnet Staggers
Gold plated magnets
Connection means available
Hook-up wires
Output Polarity:
Mounting hardware included
We highly recommend consulting the Install Guide in the Technical section, even if you think you know it all. Kinmans' require some 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 of this website (click/tap MENU on the bottom Nav menu), so you get the best out of your Kinman pickups.
*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 there is no Strat-itis string warble.
I am hugely impressed with the Magnum opus for the Hank Marvin sound. These are really super pickups for the Hank sound and much more.
A few months ago I bought a Fender American Pro II in Roasted Pine. Great guitar, plays well, and extremely well made. But there were a couple of things I thought could be better. I swapped the tuners out for Fender Locking Tuners, mainly because all my Strats have Locking Tuners and I prefer them. And I swapped out the V-Mod II pickups for a set of Kinman Gen 3 Magnum Opus '59. The V-Mods were ok, but as my Luthier said, they don't compare to the pickups on my other Strats. OMG ... They do now.
How do you compare pickups when one set is incomparable?
The detail of the Kinman Magnum Opus 59 pickups is something else .. and when they say noiseless ... they mean noiseless (absolute Zero-Hum, I've heard noiseless before but this is eiry).
Also, Kinman is also the only company that makes narrow and intermediate spaced magnets in Strat pickups that align with Fender's modern narrow-spaced bridge. It's so good to see the strings properly aligning with the pickup magnets now, and I've got my top E string back. To make it work properly Kinman invented CSCTechnology (coil spread compensation technology) that prevents the losses of dynamic and sonic performance when magnets are spaced closer together. I am so so happy with the result.
The intention was to bring the Pro II up to the level of my other four Strats. Now it is by far the best sounding Strat I have !!
With a lower capacitance lead on the '59 (200pf) the top end attack was identical to the Fender CS54. But then the CS54’s overall sounded just a bit thin compared to the '59, the latter having a slightly more solid upper mid-range, with a nice chime particularly noticeable on the middle pickup (but still obvious on all 3). Bloody nice actually! By contrast, with the low cap cable, the CS54’s sounded quite harsh and brittle. I certainly won’t be putting the Fenders back in. PR
ED: FYI Paul Rossiter is one of Hank Marvins inner circle. He is the brain and genius behind the amazing TVS Echo Units and he is a very fine guitar player too. He played lead on the Play List of 10 vintage Shadows Tunes on the Magnum Opus '59 page.
