Active single coils for melodic solo work?

[Joejitsu]

I have a yellow (vintage white) fender roadhouse deluxe strat with large headstock that came with a battery compartment and active circuitry for thickening the sound. I have the guitar listed for sale, but have had to drop the price to lower than it should sell for. Right now it’s at $600 and there is no way in hell anyone will find a better strat for $600. I am only selling because I am trying to thin down my collection from over 20 guitars to 5-10. So I started thinking, if someone bought this guitar for $600, they have literally found an absolute steal and I’ll be sick over getting robbed. They might as well break into my home, kick me in the balls, sleep with my wife, and drink the beer in my fridge. It would be that egregious of a robbery for someone to walk away with this guitar for $600. I have bought and sold easily 50-60 guitars in my lifetime and I’m saying this sincerely. Unfortunately everyone tries to sell their guitars online and hypes them up as the best thing since sliced bread so there is no chance anyone will know How good this fender strat is until they actually kick me in the balls and take it from me leaving the $600 on my quivering corpse as a pity payment for their theft. It would be such a steal that even God would probably look down and say WTF joe? Anyway, you get the point.

I love, love the look of the guitar and I have been thinking of removing the listing to prevent the biggest travesty in music history by giving this thing away for $600, and using it as my melodic solo style guitar, ala joe satriani, malmsteen, etc.

Since it is already made for an active circuit, if I decided to convert it into a guitar as described above, what pickup set would be best? I am not familiar with active single coil pickups at all. I’m guessing EMG is a good place to start? I know and have had a lot of experience with various humbuckers, but not so much single coils. I definitely want to take advantage of active pickups. Any recommendations?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

In Duncan-land, you have the Livewire II set, which is like a boosted Strat set, that sound like ideal single coils without the hum. The other set is is the Blackout set, and this is more like a hot humbucker thing- great for metal. Don't rule out just getting a preamp to boost your passive pickups, too.

 

[Joejitsu]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

Sorry for all the pics. Forum wasn’t cooperating.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

without getting into the value of the guitar...


i have a set of blackout singles that i really love and they arent as metal as people suggest. they are a fatter sounding strat set but it still sounds like a strat, just not as hollow in the mids. there are two output options which i have wired to a switch so i can get a little volume boost when i want it. the livewire II is like dave describes, its kinda the idealized strat sound. clear top, pulled back mids and percussive bottom. i used emgs for years and the sv was my favorite of their line. for what you are talking about doing, id suggest the blackouts would be a good fit. the current electronics are designed to work with passive pups so might not play nice with actives so i assume you plan to pull them?

 

[Masta' C]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

The previous posts are spot on.

I'd go with the Livewire Classic II set (a true traditional Strat sound) or Blackouts singles (surprisingly believable Strat tones with more output and fullness) before I went EMG...and I think the EMG singles are great!

I really like Mincer's suggestion to consider adding an onboard clean boost and keep the existing pickups. You won't get the "noise cancelling" benefits of full actives, but man would that guitar sound GREAT!

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

Doesn't Fishman make singles?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

i believe this has a variable boost already built in but dont know what it sounds like. i think it also has vintage noiseless pups too so shouldnt be too noisy. blackout singles with an emg spc control would be a terrific setup

 

[Joejitsu]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

Thanks for the suggestions guys. The guitar right now has Texas specials. I’m going to play around with it a bit today and see how it sounds doing some high gain stuff. So if you had to compare the blackouts to the live wire 2 set, what sets them apart?

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

without getting into the value of the guitar...

Lol

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

Joe, Im not a much of a single player user, so cant really offer much. But I did want to say your post cracked me up and I almost spit coke on my comp. I have lost my A$$ on a few sales and it hurts... Hope you find a way to gel with the guitar.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

the livewires are scooped strat sounding pup. the blackouts have more mids and probably more output when the jumper is in place

 

[allstarrme]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

Don’t forget the fishman fluence single width set. They sound probably more like the livewire II’s but have a second mode for fuller thicker sounds like the
Texas hots but noiseless. They sound pretty good in the strat I have set up with them.

 

[EtaCarinae]

Re: Active single coils for melodic solo work?

Yep. The fluence single widith (strat set) is great. I can attest to them - both voices are stellar. I would get yourself the charging back plate, too. It makes for an expensive package, but it is super convenient to not have to change a battery every gig because you really do not know how much juice it has left. Just charge it before the gig without unscrewing anything.

When I bought them I was considering the Duncan set, but finding a demo of what they sound like is nearly impossible. Feel free to prove me wrong, I am still curious to hear these.