50's strat pickups (fender? fralin? zhang?)

drew_half_empty

drew_half_empty

Looking for Real Life
Honestly it'll probably be a couple months before i get to it, but my #1 strat still has the stock ceramic 50's pickups in it, it's an '88 MIJ reissue. Anyways, I kinda like the stock ones, I mean the EQ on them is pretty decent other than being too shrill sometimes, but the main thing I don't like about them is just the way they compress like ceramic pickups do. I also like how they're flat and not staggered, it seems like i get a little more output and better note clarity in chords vs staggered.

The best neck SC sound I've ever had was this GFS NYII in the neck of a gretsch electromatic jet i ended up selling because of a wire issue i never could fix & some tuning instability, but it had the chimiest tone ever that never got shrill and had so much clarity and note definition with still being organic in the mids and clear in the bass... it was great. I'd really dig that kinda tone mixed with a maple neck strat. It read I think about 6.5k and had alnico 3 magnets, and I ran it with 500k pots. For the strat with 250k pots though and the whole 50's strat vibe I'm thinkin something wound a little lower than that would be best? Maybe the standard 5.5k or so for 50's strat pickups?

The middle i'm not as picky about, i never use the middle by itself and usually only use 2 and 4 when I'm messin around, so really i don't see a need to change it, but again with the stock ceramics I like how the bridge compresses a bit and seems kinda focused in the mids with the middle tone pot connected to it. I just wish it had a tiny bit more low end and wasn't as shrill in the highs. For this one I'm thinkin maybe an alnico 5 50's pickup or maybe even a 60's for more mids? Either should theoretically have more lows than the alnico 3 in the neck.

So what do you think? Suggestions?
 
Re: 50's strat pickups (fender? fralin? zhang?)

Just gotta say this. you can ignore me...

the middle position on a strat is my favorite!!

sorry...
 
Re: 50's strat pickups (fender? fralin? zhang?)

PM Zhang. Tell him exactly what you wabt. He'll make it happen.
 
Re: 50's strat pickups (fender? fralin? zhang?)

Meh. I personaly love thw fender 62's. They sound fantastic. Also on my #1 strat too BTW
 
Re: 50's strat pickups (fender? fralin? zhang?)

drew_half_empty said:
Honestly it'll probably be a couple months before i get to it, but my #1 strat still has the stock ceramic 50's pickups in it, it's an '88 MIJ reissue. Anyways, I kinda like the stock ones, I mean the EQ on them is pretty decent other than being too shrill sometimes, but the main thing I don't like about them is just the way they compress like ceramic pickups do. I also like how they're flat and not staggered, it seems like i get a little more output and better note clarity in chords vs staggered.

The best neck SC sound I've ever had was this GFS NYII in the neck of a gretsch electromatic jet i ended up selling because of a wire issue i never could fix & some tuning instability, but it had the chimiest tone ever that never got shrill and had so much clarity and note definition with still being organic in the mids and clear in the bass... it was great. I'd really dig that kinda tone mixed with a maple neck strat. It read I think about 6.5k and had alnico 3 magnets, and I ran it with 500k pots. For the strat with 250k pots though and the whole 50's strat vibe I'm thinkin something wound a little lower than that would be best? Maybe the standard 5.5k or so for 50's strat pickups?

The middle i'm not as picky about, i never use the middle by itself and usually only use 2 and 4 when I'm messin around, so really i don't see a need to change it, but again with the stock ceramics I like how the bridge compresses a bit and seems kinda focused in the mids with the middle tone pot connected to it. I just wish it had a tiny bit more low end and wasn't as shrill in the highs. For this one I'm thinkin maybe an alnico 5 50's pickup or maybe even a 60's for more mids? Either should theoretically have more lows than the alnico 3 in the neck.

So what do you think? Suggestions?
Click to expand...

David (Zhangbucker) wound me a Custom SC Set to perfectly fit my PRS SE EG, and here's my review, posted in the My Les Paul forum:

"Because of the misalignment of the polepieces with the strings in my PRS SE EG (SSS, 25" scale), I had to compress the bejesus out of it just to make it sound even.

Not being happy with it, I've asked our fellow forumite Zhangliqun to build me a Vintage-y sounding SC set with three different polepiece spacing, 49.2mm for the neck, 50mm for the middle and 53mm for the bridge.

Not such an easy task, due to the lack of parts to meet those standards, so he made by hand every single component to make this possible. The outcome was a lot more than I've expected, starting with the perfect fit of the three spreads, perfectly aligning the strings with the rods.

Now that the honeymoon period is over, I'd like to describe my experience:

Neck p'up: this is SO SRV that makes your head spin! Full voiced and always in control responding to your picking nuances like there's no tomorrow.

Middle p'up: my request was a clear middle p'up to be used mostly to chord, rhythm and arpeggio work. This p'up does this exactly as requested and then some, as it excels in soaring leads with a OD pedal in front, something I didn't expect to happen.

Bridge p'up: we worked together on this one, he dialed-in a commanding tone without any of the so common shrillness found in this kind of p'up. Very clear and through-cutting without being glassy. He adviced me to go with the Alnico rods A5/A2 config to achieve this and boy, was he right about it!

Last, but not least: the quack. I thought I knew quack... until I've tried this set. THIS IS QUACK. The most musical quack I've ever heard and it's coming from my own guitar!

So, folks. If you're not happy with your tone anymore, just shot an e-mail to Zhang and ask what you're looking for. You won't be disappointed, I can vouch for that.

Zhang just DELIVERS!"

HTH,
 
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