Mixing fender CS pickups

[smudge]

Hi

I know its been discused a little before but, looking for some help with mixing fender CS PUPS.

I have a Fender 62 Vintage reissue strat, its kind of been a problem guitar, trying to getting the sounds i want from it.

Its quite a middy sounding guitar, kind of a lower mids or upper bass emphasis, and i found the fiited 57/62 pups a little weak and kind of bland, so i stuck a set of CS 69 pups in, and found a slight improvememnt, clean tones and moderate overdrive are now pretty good, i especialy like the neck position, But looking for a little more focus especialy in higher gain situations.

So contemplating replacing the middle and bridge pickups with possibly Texas specials, but in view of the guitars already slightly middy nature, do you think a fat 50 in the middle, and a TX spec in the bridge may be a better choice?

I have other guitars with TX specials sets in and CS 69 sets, without issues, but i have never played the Fat 50s.

Thanks

[jeremy]

Re: Mixing fender CS pickups

i would leave the cs69 in the neck. you can totally mix and match pups with no issue.

i love the fat 50's pups, my favorite fender strat offering, and really dont like the aggressive upper mids of the texas special bridge pup.

do you use the middle pup by itself or only with the neck or bridge pup?

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Mixing fender CS pickups

Texas Specials have the most mids of any Fender CS Strat pickup with Fat 50's not too far behind...the biggest difference is that Texas Specials are more of a upper midrange that sort of hard sounding and Fat 50's are more lower mids and are softer in their attack...

Seeing that you're talking middle and bridge positions the fat 50's might work if you keep them sort of low in terms of height...

[smudge]

Re: Mixing fender CS pickups

Thanks,

i am generaly just a neck and position 2 and 4 player, i do quite like the TX specials as a set in one of my other strats, for those heavier moments, they do focus well, as you point out they are quite aggresive in the upper mids.

I do have a set of CS 69s too in a maple board strat, and very nice too for cleaner tones.

I put the CS 69s in this particular guitar in in effort to counteract the lower mid boost of the actual guitar, is kind of worked in the neck, but the bridge and middle dont seem to have much character., not in this guitar anyway.

I guess really i need to suck it and see, i have a spare set of TSs, i think i will try a TS in the bridge, then look out for a Fat 50s middle pup.

Thinking out loud as it were this guitar may possible benifit from a little more upper mid push.

Thanks.

[jeremy]

Re: Mixing fender CS pickups

if you already have both ts then id try em both and see whatya think. keep em low and it might be nice

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: Mixing fender CS pickups

Fo sho...if you've already got pickups on hand try 'em and see!!!

[GilmourD]

Re: Mixing fender CS pickups

In this case I'd actually not suggest a Duncan pickup but a pickup that my brother-in-law had wound for his American Standard for him by Bryan at BG-Pups.com. Basically they're Bryan's clone of the John Mayer pickups. They have a good emphasis on bass and treble with a dip (not so much a big scoop) in the mids. They sound fantastic clean and with a decent amount of gain. Unfortunately my BIL's lefty, so I can really play it all that well, but when he plays they sound awesome.