NGD (sort of): Champagne Sparkle Strat

[JB_From_Hell]

My wife asked what I wanted for Xmas, and I told her a Strat. She said ok, and I found this one for sale around the corner. It’s a 2011 MIM in my new favorite Strat color, Champagne Sparkle. Stock aside from the tortoise guard.

She was gone for work when I got home with it, so I took the opportunity to wax the board, polish the frets, and restring it before asking if I have to wait for Xmas to have it, lol.

The other part of the gift is better pickups, but the stock ceramics really don’t sound bad. Might roll with these awhile and see if I feel like changing them. Otherwise, it has a chunkier neck than I expected (yay) with zero wear on the neck, board; or frets. It’s pretty light, my PRS is a little over 8lbs and this feels lighter.

[beaubrummels]

NIce. Nice looking as is. (Though I can't see the champagne or sparkle in the photos) Classy looking.

I tried lowering the ceramics in my MIM to get some spank out of them and thin the mids. Kinds worked a bit. If it was my only guitar I wouldn't have known the difference, but I had a better Strat on hand to compare, so I had some Antiquities available, so they went in. Now it's a pretty competitive Strat to my '62 RI and my '66. I've gigged with it. Does everything you want out of a Strat really well.

[Obsessive Compulsive]

??? That's not sparkle. And to my knowledge there was no sparkle in MIM standard color. Looks like aged arctic white.

[Mincer]

Seriously excellent, unique color. Congrats on the awesome Christmas gift!

[JB_From_Hell]

??? That's not sparkle. And to my knowledge there was no sparkle in MIM standard color. Looks like aged arctic white.

It’s an extremely poorly lighted photo with extremely reduced resolution so I could upload it here. I googled 2011 MIM Strat, then found a few with the same finish as mine, listed as having that finish. If you saw it in person, it’s definitely not white.

[Benjy_26]

Nice!

I like the MIM standards. As far as pickups, I rolled with the stock ceramics on mine for a good while. They're not the most "vintage" sounding, but they have some good tones in them , have plenty of output, and take well to distortion. I moved the second tone control to tje bridge pickup on mine and rocked it like that til I swapped in a PG/Tex Mex set up in a HSS pickguard.

[JB_From_Hell]

I’m up in the air on what I’m doing with it pickup wise. Haven’t spent nearly as much time swapping full sets of singles as humbuckers, and I want to let this thing be a Strat. No HSS or mini buckers.

Might just start with SSL-6/2/2 and go through different stuff. Most of the time I’m plugged into my iRig/iPad, which negates a ton of noise by not being plugged into the wall, so I’m sticking with real singles for the time being.

The second tone knob is definitely moving to the bridge pickup.

And the bad news… I do have to wait until Xmas to use it

[Benjy_26]

Full on SSS strat?

I'd do the Tex Mex set. GuitarSatan has the full set for 89 bucks.

[JB_From_Hell]

Full on SSS strat?

I'd do the Tex Mex set. GuitarSatan has the full set for 89 bucks.

I’ve used and like those. Kinda wanna try something different just because. Looking at the aforementioned SDs, DiMarzio Velvets, various Fender, and Bare Knuckle Bootcamp Old Guard.

[Demanic]

I would go with something with A3's in them. Or maybe the 5/2 set.
I love the way a vintage spec A3 sounds in the neck slot. And worse case, you can thicken it up a bit with a compressor.

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[GuitarStv]

SSL6/2/2 is a great strat set. Get a tapped SSL6 and you can do pretty decentlow output strat bridge tones too.

[Mincer]

Yeah, a tapped bridge pickup is a beautiful thing. It should be more popular than it is.

[JB_From_Hell]

I had a tapped QP, wound up only using the full pickup.

[GuitarStv]

I had a tapped QP, wound up only using the full pickup.

I don't use my SSL-6 tapped all the time, but it's handy occasionally. The bridge/middle sounds are clearer with it tapped, and I can't get a good Dick Dale tone without tapping. It really does sound a lot like a regular strat bridge when tapped - losing a lot of the mids.

If I remember correctly, the QP has very high inductance when tapped which keeps it from sounding too much like a regular single coil.

[Benjy_26]

My favorite beefy single coil for a strat bridge is the Rio Grande Stelly, fwiw.