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my goal is to have 1 guitar do strat, les paul, and tele tones in that order, strat being the most important. no hum allowed. ambitious i know. my goal was not to convince the "tone gods", but have a lot good tones ready to go at the finger tips. this review is the result of months of research/reading and sleepless nights. part of the reason i'm doing this review is that i've taken so much info from this forum (and others) and i wish to give back a bit.
first of i would like share one of the BEST guitar gadgets i've ever used. the strat has a 5 way switch. in my opinion 4 of the 5 are useful tones. however, my opinion the middle pickup by itself is useless. you can do a neck on switch, but i find that clumsy.
hence the schaller megaswitch E, which allows
1) neck
2) neck + mid
3) neck + bridge
4) mid + bridge
5) bridge
neck + bridge is WAY more cool and usefull than just the mid pickup by itself. the space between the neck and bridge pickup is the key for nailing a tele tone.
i also went with the fender tbx, but i used the mod found in this forum. a .0022 cap for the bass cut and a .015 for the treble cut (clapton women tone).
i also used the Rothstein RG500D Custom Taper "Orange" Midrange Shaper with Center Detent. (www.guitar-mod.com). it scoops mid when you turn it down and cuts bass and treble when you turn it up.
the strat tones i'm going for is hendrix, but i dont want to tune down. i mess with keyboards a bit and i dont want guitar tunings to mess with my "perfect pitch". i dont have perfect pitch, but i keep trying. if i pickup a strat with vintage pickups, and tune down. sounds great! but vintage pickups with standard tuning sound thin to me. which is prob why hendrix/srv tuned down.
so i want vintage plus a more. i dont want to pull off crazy train or metal tones, so between single coil and humbucker. that is a HARD place to be. too many options and too much gray area. very frustrating.
i wanted rail pickups because i bend a lot and i didnt want to worry about string spacing. i went with dimarzio because i felt SD didnt have the rail pickups i'm looking for. from what i've read and heard from clips ; the cool rails dont have enough treble. the hot rails are too hot. the vintage rails are too piercing. i felt the fast track 1 had a nice treble spike and good mid and bass. the chopper looked good too because it had a treble spike and strong mid and bass, but would retain some stratness.
i put a SD hot stack in the middle position. i had the hot stack in the "pickup pile".
a few solder burns later. .. . . .
the fast track 1 in the neck is pretty amazing. it still has a nice treble top end, but has amazing bass response. i would not say mud, but i would say a very smooth buttery deep end. so i get some of that strings tuned down bass while still staying in standard 440. i could see myself going for the dimarzio cruiser in the neck, but i'm not sure it would keep up with the chopper.
the chopper in the bridge is awesome. it is exactly what i was hoping for. modern rock in the bridge. not crazy hot or mid for metal. i can also hit some zz top heavy tones. its almost a distortion pickup, but not quite.
first of i would like share one of the BEST guitar gadgets i've ever used. the strat has a 5 way switch. in my opinion 4 of the 5 are useful tones. however, my opinion the middle pickup by itself is useless. you can do a neck on switch, but i find that clumsy.
hence the schaller megaswitch E, which allows
1) neck
2) neck + mid
3) neck + bridge
4) mid + bridge
5) bridge
neck + bridge is WAY more cool and usefull than just the mid pickup by itself. the space between the neck and bridge pickup is the key for nailing a tele tone.
i also went with the fender tbx, but i used the mod found in this forum. a .0022 cap for the bass cut and a .015 for the treble cut (clapton women tone).
i also used the Rothstein RG500D Custom Taper "Orange" Midrange Shaper with Center Detent. (www.guitar-mod.com). it scoops mid when you turn it down and cuts bass and treble when you turn it up.
the strat tones i'm going for is hendrix, but i dont want to tune down. i mess with keyboards a bit and i dont want guitar tunings to mess with my "perfect pitch". i dont have perfect pitch, but i keep trying. if i pickup a strat with vintage pickups, and tune down. sounds great! but vintage pickups with standard tuning sound thin to me. which is prob why hendrix/srv tuned down.
so i want vintage plus a more. i dont want to pull off crazy train or metal tones, so between single coil and humbucker. that is a HARD place to be. too many options and too much gray area. very frustrating.
i wanted rail pickups because i bend a lot and i didnt want to worry about string spacing. i went with dimarzio because i felt SD didnt have the rail pickups i'm looking for. from what i've read and heard from clips ; the cool rails dont have enough treble. the hot rails are too hot. the vintage rails are too piercing. i felt the fast track 1 had a nice treble spike and good mid and bass. the chopper looked good too because it had a treble spike and strong mid and bass, but would retain some stratness.
i put a SD hot stack in the middle position. i had the hot stack in the "pickup pile".
a few solder burns later. .. . . .
the fast track 1 in the neck is pretty amazing. it still has a nice treble top end, but has amazing bass response. i would not say mud, but i would say a very smooth buttery deep end. so i get some of that strings tuned down bass while still staying in standard 440. i could see myself going for the dimarzio cruiser in the neck, but i'm not sure it would keep up with the chopper.
the chopper in the bridge is awesome. it is exactly what i was hoping for. modern rock in the bridge. not crazy hot or mid for metal. i can also hit some zz top heavy tones. its almost a distortion pickup, but not quite.
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