1976 Stratocaster Pickups

[Detroitblues]

I have a 76 Strat with all original 70's gray bobbin flat pole piece pickups. I have replaced the original wiring harness with a five-way switch and modified with a tone control on the bridge and middle/neck share a common tone control.

But I'm wondering if there are some better Stratocaster pickups I could use. I don't really like noiseless or single-coil size humbuckers.

Any suggestions?

[Lewguitar]

If those pickups are stock all three should be wound more or less identically. These days a lot of players like the bridge pickup to be wound a little hotter.

I like the Duncan Antiquity Surfers.

They'll sound like yours but have a little more snap.

If you get the Surfer Custom Bridge pickup you'll have a hotter bridge pickup that won't sound weak or thin and it'll balance better volume-wise with the neck and middle pickup.

[Mincer]

This would depend on what you feel the stock pickups are lacking (instead of just wanting 'better'). Hotter? Different EQ?

[esandes]

SSL-1 set.

[jeremy]

what you have is a low wind a5 magnet set, clean and clear usually from that era. lots of options depending on what you want to change from what you have

[ItsaBass]

They are good sounding pickups IMO, if you know how to make low output pickups sing. But the lack of pole stagger is rough on a 7 1/4" board IME. I hate the way that sounds. The D string is way, way too quiet for me. Might be fine for a primarily lead player, but chords don't sound the way I like with flat poles and 7 1/4" radius.

There are probably more Strat pickups available than one person can process. You should think more about what you want first, so the field can be narrowed. "Better" is a near meaningless term in and of itself. Better at what is what you need to be thinking about.

[Archer250]

IMO Grey Bobbin pickups are some of the best pickups for a strat. I'd keep them.