the samarium cobalt noiseless (scn) series was a subsequent line of stacked electric guitar and bass pickups; these were designed by bill lawrence with the goal of further reducing noise while improving the "single-coil" tone of the pickup and were fine tuned by fender. introduced in 2004, they were similar to the vintage noiseless pickups, but lawrence's research into controlling magnetic eddy currents led him to employ miniaturized samarium cobalt alloy magnets instead of alnico 5. samarium cobalt is a rare earth magnet that is more powerful than the alnico 5 magnets traditionally used in pickup design. the scn pickups were a standard equipment feature on the american deluxe series stratocaster from 2004 to 2010, and were available for the telecaster and jazz bass, but are no longer manufactured by fender. the stratocaster scn pickups have the scn logo etched on the pickup covers, but the letters are not colored, making them hard to discern. the covers were available in white, black, aged white and parchment, but the tele sets were offered in black and chrome only.