mex strat upgrade

[andy4tune]

I've got a mex stratocaster and I love the feel of the neck so I'm not
looking to get rid anytime soon.

The switches are getting a bit worn and the pots are a bit crackly so it's
definitely time to have the pickguard off and do some maintenance. While I'm
doing this I fancy hot rodding it and replacing the original pickups which are, letsface it, not brilliant. It seems to me to be worth upgrading the pickups as
the cost is still nowhere near buying a custom loaded strat (and I can
always sell the pickups if necessary!)

I haven't got a particular style in mind but nearly always play the strat on
neck or neck/middle selector because of the trebly, but rounded strat sound
of this combination. I almost never play the bridge position because of the
noise. I want to stick with single coil size pickups throughout.


What I'd like is a round humbucker sound at the bridge & bridge middle
position, with a bit of the original strat type sound at the neck. This
definitely calls for a humbucker at the bridge and probably middle but I'm
not sure about the neck pickup.

I've listened to the pickups on the SD website and have narrowed my choice
to

Hot Rails Bridge, Lil 59 Middle and Duckbucker Neck position (this is
probably my favoured combination)
Hot Rails Bridge, Lil 59 Middle Cool Rails/Vintage Rails Neck

What do you think of these combinations or have you got any recommended alternatives?

Thanks for your help!!

[jeremy]

Re: mex strat upgrade

welcome to the forum!!

i have a mexi strat that i put a set of antiquity II's, new pots, and a new bridge (the block on the stock one is about a third to half what it should be. it is now a great guitar that id put up against most things out there.

if you want a real high gain bridge then the hot rails is a good choice. if you want a traditional strat quack tone then youll need something like the vintage rails or duck in the middle or neck. a lil 59 is a great middle pup.
with that setup hot rails/lil 59/duck youll be able to get a thick high output tone from the bridge, a bigger middle/bridge tone, a killer balanced mid tone, a more traditional mid/neck tone and a vintagey neck tone.

[Empty Pockets]

Re: mex strat upgrade

Oh and someone should probably mention that the Vintage Rails and Duckbucker are the same pickup, 'cept the duckbucker has pole pieces and vintage rails has umm...rails.

Anyway, when I had your problem i went with a hot rails in the bridge and it's a great tone for distortion and decent for cleans. defintely does what i want a humbucker to do.

my neck and middle pickups are from a 60's strat and they get that "strat tone" pretty well i don't know anything about the hum-cancelling pickups that are supposed to sound vintage but these pickups made my Strat sound how I think a Strat should sound.

but i gotta say, i liked Jeremy's hot rails/lil 59/duckbucker idea and it made me think i'm not crazy for wanting to try a JB/lil 59/vintage Strat combo

-X

[Kevin@BlackRose]

Re: mex strat upgrade

Have you considered a calibrated set of the SSL-1 Vintage Staggered?

[andy4tune]

Re: mex strat upgrade

Wow!!

Thanks for the quick replies! I got one from Jeremy within minutes of posting!!

This is a new thing for me changing pickups, most of my other guitars are humbuck loaded apart from the tele and I am definitely erring on the side of humbuck rather than single coil. I figure that it will be easier to play around on a relatively cheap body and maybe look out for a good used strat so that I can become more familiar with single coil stuff. I paly bass mostly now but over the Xmas period spent several days re-acquainting myself with my guitars!

Jeremy - when you say you replaced the bridge did you replace the whole assembly or just the block? Are the bridges available as replacement parts OK or is there somewhere that you can point me to that has the required item?

Empty pockets - (nice handle!) I hadn't realised that the two were the same and that's useful since I'm having trouble tracking some duckbuckers down - VR were my next choice although I fancied having adjustable pole pices.

Kevin - Hadn't really thought about single coils but thanks for the idea. Are you from Blackrosecustom? If so I'll be getting in touch about stock availability. I'm looking to order these from the US simply because even taking shipping and duty into account its still about 50% cheaper in the US than the UK.

Thanks very much for your help!!

[WahLikeMe]

Re: mex strat upgrade

Im also new to replacing pickups and from UK. Can you really get them shipped over from US?? Maybe guitars you cant.... where from?

Cheers.

[Imp]

Re: mex strat upgrade

ebay can sometimes sort you out, but everyone seems to play their cards real close to their chests in terms of price..

im in surrey, and i use the trading post on this forum.. 5 pickups, 4 trades, no hitches yet

[Kevin@BlackRose]

Re: mex strat upgrade

Yes I am with Black Rose Custom. Another suggestion I have read here on the forum are JB jr in the bridge, Duckbucker in the middle, and a Lil 59 in the neck. Maybe this was covered already.

[andy4tune]

Re: mex strat upgrade

cheers kevin. Hopefully the order was placed last night our time.

Too much choice, not enough time, I'll give the pickups I ordered a whirl and maybe even change the order at some point in the future.

Look out for more posts when i get round to installing them.

WahLikeMe - there have been several suggestions on this forum for suppliers. Far be it for me to recommend any specifc dealer but an internet search on seymour duncan pickups should turn up a fair few there was thread earlier that asked a similar question:

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=25421

See Ya!

[tone4days]

Re: mex strat upgrade

i own a duckbucker and love it's tonal properties .. that being said, if i had to do it over again, i'd get a vintage rails instead because i bend strings alot and the tiny pole pieces, while adjustable, do not provide a consistant enough 'focus' under the string when bending .. a rail would have prefectly consistant focus .. this effect is more noticeable in the neck and middle positions than in the bridge position ...

as for your choices, single coil sized humbuckers (stacked or side-by-side) sound like the way to go, for sure ... hot rails (b) / lil'59(m) / vintage rails(n) might get you some seriously cool tone in the veign you are looking for

good luck
t4d

[jeremy]

Re: mex strat upgrade

just got the block. i definitly noticed a difference, more sustain and a more resonant tone.

i got mine thru callaham. i believe that they do a whole bridge but since i dont whammy i wasnt worried about a bar and screws and such since the bridge plate is flat on the body

[Imp]

Re: mex strat upgrade

im interested in blocks now.. jeremy, would you describe the difference as a real, night-and-day kinda thing? im in the same kinda position, but i'm pretty happy with the stock MIM and MIJ if its not that noticeable..

[mrfjones]

Re: mex strat upgrade

now that we are completely off topic, i would also like to know about the callaham blocks. I have loved their other hardware, very high quality