help with strat tone

[Lewguitar]

Re: help with strat tone

Moving the pickup closer to the strings does make it louder but it also makes it brighter. Still, mine is set pretty close. I hold the strings down at the highest fret and then adjust the bridge pickup close - less than 1/8" away from the underside of the high E string on the treble side when the high E is held down at the highest fret and about an 1/8" away on the low E side. Experiment.

I'd move the middle pickup tone control to the bridge pickup for sure. Extremely easy to do if you can solder neatly, have the experience and own the tools.

Since I started using a PCE AF1 Klon clone, I no longer use an overwound bridge pickup in my Strat. My homebuilt Strat has three Duncan Antiquity Neck pickups, all just over 6K and more or less identical.

Purchase one of the new Klon Klones and learn how to use it so that it remains "on" all the time. Like Jeff Beck. Beck uses a Klon and does have the tone control on his bridge pickup.

[uOpt]

Re: help with strat tone

Strat bridge pickups are thin and bright. You've done one thing to address this by installing a hotter bridge pickup. You can also try heavier strings and tuning down a half step (ala SRV/hendrix). There are some strat bridge pickups that are darker/fatter, but then you are leaving the vintage strat tone behind.

The OP already has a SSL-6.

I think the SSL-6 sounding highly compressed, or rather repressed, might actually have made it worse.

[El Supremo]

Re: help with strat tone

I had the exact same setup, but with a tap on the SSL-5 and just one master tone and volume (other pot used for tap). Didn't have a problem with the bridge pickup being too bright (when the SSL-5 was full on).
I've also had a DiMarzio Heavy Blues in the bridge, but found that too dark. Might be worth checking out for the OP though.

Besides having a tone control for the bridge, I also use 10's up to 11's. You could also try using pure nickel string strings. Should sound warmer with less output.

[Scott Olson]

Re: help with strat tone

I haven't tried the STK-S6 but it's modeled after the SSL-5 and should be fuller/fatter with the stack design.

[jeremy]

Re: help with strat tone

i think you will be happy with moving the middle pup tone control to the bridge pup. put a .01 or .015 cap on it. that way youll only roll off the high end and a touch of high mids. if you have a .02 cap that might be ok but i think a .05 will roll off too much.

its a very simple and reversible mod that i think will get you where you want to be

[bluesfloyd]

Re: help with strat tone

hi,
big thanks to all you guys above for your posts , I have lots of ideas to try to get my bridge tone right,

thanks, bluesfloyd.

[tubecrunch]

Re: help with strat tone

Yikes. We like to over complicate things. +1 for moving the tone knob to the bridge. Eq pedals work nice too.

[bluesfloyd]

Re: help with strat tone

Yikes. We like to over complicate things. +1 for moving the tone knob to the bridge. Eq pedals work nice too.

hi tubecrunch,
you mentioned a EQ pedal, do you recommend the boss GE-7 EQ ??????

thanks, bluesfloyd

[Chickenwings]

Re: help with strat tone

you dont need an eq. maximize your guitar/amp sound first.
if that doesnt get you into the ball park, then look for a different combination of axe and amp.
You cant make roast beef out of chicken.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: help with strat tone

you dont need an eq. maximize your guitar/amp sound first.
if that doesnt get you into the ball park, then look for a different combination of axe and amp.
You cant make roast beef out of chicken.

Yep, yep...and yep!

[Chickenwings]

Re: help with strat tone

roast chicken is still very delicious tho.

[dr. ad]

Re: help with strat tone

+1 on going up to 9-46s
i'd do that before anything else, there's lots of good advice here though

[Mr. B]

Re: help with strat tone

Be careful, because next you are gonna think, "Hey maybe I'll just put a humbucker in the bridge space to fatten it up". Then "Hey this humbucker seems kinda muddy and dull, maybe its the 250k pots. I wonder if there is a wiring scheme that lets me use two different value pots in the same guitar? Oh, crap, that doesn't work well. Can I fit some extra tone pots on my pickguard? I wonder what the singles sound like with 500k pots. Oh no, they are too bright with 500's, but now the humbucker sounds good. I wonder if there are any humbuckers that work well with 250k pots. The JB does? Ok, I'll try that. Hey this JB sounds great with 250k pots, but now it overpowers my traditional single coils. I wonder if there are any single coils that would keep up with the JB, but still sound like a traditional single coil. Maybe I'll try hot singles or stacked singles or these boutique singles made by a mythical guru who received them directly from heaven. Hey, maybe I can get rid of this 60 cycle hum while I'm at it. Can I coil tap these hot noiseless singles to get a more traditional tone while keeping my beefed up tone? What? why didn't someone tell me there were 300k pots!!... dang it! I could be using a Custom or CustomCustom in this strat. Oh well, I finally have it the way I want it and everything balances and works perfectly.

You know what would be nice though... If I had another strat that just had a set of traditional single coils....."

[bluesfloyd]

Re: help with strat tone

Be careful, because next you are gonna think, "Hey maybe I'll just put a humbucker in the bridge space to fatten it up". Then "Hey this humbucker seems kinda muddy and dull, maybe its the 250k pots. I wonder if there is a wiring scheme that lets me use two different value pots in the same guitar? Oh, crap, that doesn't work well. Can I fit some extra tone pots on my pickguard? I wonder what the singles sound like with 500k pots. Oh no, they are too bright with 500's, but now the humbucker sounds good. I wonder if there are any humbuckers that work well with 250k pots. The JB does? Ok, I'll try that. Hey this JB sounds great with 250k pots, but now it overpowers my traditional single coils. I wonder if there are any single coils that would keep up with the JB, but still sound like a traditional single coil. Maybe I'll try hot singles or stacked singles or these boutique singles made by a mythical guru who received them directly from heaven. Hey, maybe I can get rid of this 60 cycle hum while I'm at it. Can I coil tap these hot noiseless singles to get a more traditional tone while keeping my beefed up tone? What? why didn't someone tell me there were 300k pots!!... dang it! I could be using a Custom or CustomCustom in this strat. Oh well, I finally have it the way I want it and everything balances and works perfectly.

You know what would be nice though... If I had another strat that just had a set of traditional single coils....."

hi,
I understand what you mean from the above post, big thanks for your time to reply, first, I have got a guitar man who repairs guitars , he's got my guitar now, and will connect the tone to the bridge, he did mention to me about the single coil humbuckers ,that they give a fatter sound etc, so that could be plan B, but when I get my guitar back, I will be most interested in what as changed with the tone bridge thing, I will not rush, and will take each stage slowly, but a sure fact I am learning more and more from this and you guys, big thanks to you guys for the help so far, will keep you posted with my progress,
all the best, bluesfloyd.

[toneseeker74]

Re: help with strat tone

gibson175 nailed in in post #10.

FWIW, I get a great tone out of my Fender 57/62's. I expected the bridge pup to sound bright and shrill, but with the tone rolled back a little bit it is suprisingly tough/punchy/middy.