Need an Opinion on my Squire

[UH_Dude]

Hi all,

Im kind of new to all this pup stuff and need help deciding. I have an affinity squire strat that just needs a tone upgrade. I usually only play with the bridge, so that was the only one I was going to replace. After looking at the tone chart and listening to the audio samples I'm thinking that cool rails is my best option. Any ideas or opinions would be helpful. Oh, I like all kinds of music, and was hoping for a steve stephen's top gun anthem kind of tone range.

Thanks
UH_Dude

[lateralus]

Re: Need an Opinion on my Squire

hey, and welcome to the forum

have you looked at the single coil sized humbuckers? The Jb Jr is a very versatile bridge pup in a strat, and it has the added bonus of you being able to split it if you want to. I like the Mini Screamin Demon, but despite the name its more of a growler than a screamer, probably my favourite pickup in a alder/ash bodied guitar

[Toenail-Tommy]

Re: Need an Opinion on my Squire

Cool Rails, if you liked the samples you heard, will probably please you. Easy to pop in. joy to play. only problem is that its going to make those squire stocks sound soooo poor...

[UH_Dude]

Re: Need an Opinion on my Squire

Hey guys thanks for the input. Lateralus, I looked at the JB and SD and they seem complicated in the way of setting the poles. I also still don't know what splitting means. Some info on this would be helpful.

Tommy, looking forward to blowing the stock pickups away!

or did you mean stock combined with the rail? That makes the guitar unbalanced right?

Thanks
UH_Dude

[lateralus]

Re: Need an Opinion on my Squire

they arent really that complicated. The pickups are made up of two individual coils, like a standard humbucker. The pickups can be wired so that only one of these coils is working at any one time, which produces a very different tone, but with lower output. The splitting can be operated by your selector switch, though it might be better to install a push-pull pot. The pot will replace one of your volume or tone knobs and turn it to the switch, while also acting as a tone/volume knob. i hope thats clear, im not sure

If you arent very experienced with wiring i wouldnt recommend you attempt it yourself, usually you can get them installed for fairly cheap, and a push pull pot isnt expensive either.

As for the stock squires, they are relatively low output, so your Cool Rails may tend to blow them away. If you dont really use them then it might not be a problem, but to keep versatility you should probably replace those as well.

hope that helps you

[UH_Dude]

Re: Need an Opinion on my Squire

Thanks again for the help the cool rails seem to be the way to go for me. I will probably replace the other stock pups when I get some more $$$. (Or possibly a new guitar)

UH Dude