Fender Pick-up sellection?

The short answer is 'yes'. The more complicated answer depends on how close you want to get to the Hendrix 'experience'. (Sorry for the pun!) You see, the Strat pickups from the 1960s have staggered magnets. That is to say, they were made different heights to compensate for the different output levels from one string to another. So when Hendrix took a right-handed Strat and restrung it left-handed, he inadvertently made the pickup magnets line up with the 'wrong' strings. This has a subtle effect of the string-to-string balance and you can buy Strat pickups that have the magnets the left-handed way round, specifically for right-handed guitarists who want to get closer to the Hendrix sound. (I think Seymour Duncan makes them.) If the pickups you are going to fit don't have staggered magnets, they sound the same whether you're stringing left or right handed.

Simon Croft
June 2010