Best pickups for Clapton strat woman tone

[ezlos2112]

I am working on a Blackie project guitar from MJT, and using Blues Man tone wiring harness. Other than the Fender noiseless pickups what else would you recommend.
thanks

 

[Mincer]

Well, Clapton's woman tone was very different than his Blackie Strat tone, but if you are interested in his Blackie specifically, it had pretty low-output pickups. SSL-1s would be my choice for that sound.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Wasnt the woman tone era more in his Les Paul days as opposed to his Strat days?

 

[jeremy]

gibsons yeah, lp and sg. volume up, tone down.

if you want classic blackie tone, then ssl1 or surfers (normal bridge, not the hot one) would be what you want. clapton played a lot on the middle pup by itself, still does.

if you want modern clapton tone, id suggest duncan classic stack plus pups and the fender preamp. you can get the fender noiseless pups but i really think the stacks sound better and they work great with the clapton preamp. i dont like the tbx tone control on that preamp, i ended up swapping it out for a normal 250k control and .02 cap and it was great.

 

[Mincer]

Don't forget a tweed amp, which will certainly give some mids and body to the sound.

 

[EC Strat]

I had classic stacks 4 in my Clapton and they nailed Clapton’s current tones and they sounded great!

switched to SSL - 1’s and as Mincer and Jeremy said they are dead-on for his blackie tones. Gilmour / Hendrix too.

as far as his woman tones, you need PAF low output humbuckers and ideally a semihollow body guitar. Clapton used the bridge pickup with tone rolled off almost all the way. I have an artcore semi loaded with Seth lovers and it gets in the ballpark. Mind you he was using a 100 watt plexi that was dimed / wide open so there’s that small nuance lol. I play thru a Princeton so I can only get so close to his cream tones

 

[jeremy]

amps do play a big part in his tones over the years. mayall = jtm45 combo, cream = 100w stacks, the brownie/blackie years spanned a bunch of amps from a champ, dual showman, musicman 130, through slo100, the modern clapton tones are tweed twins

 

[EC Strat]

amps do play a big part in his tones over the years. mayall = jtm45 combo, cream = 100w stacks, the brownie/blackie years spanned a bunch of amps from a champ, dual showman, musicman 130, through slo100, the modern clapton tones are tweed twins

His blackie tones always sound like a classic fender blackface amp to me though I know he didn’t use fender amps much on the 70’s. is that what a dual showman sounds like?

when I listen to Clapton live in the 70’s I can swear it’s a fender twin

 

[jeremy]

a dual showman is a fender amp. i have a '69 dual showman reverb, its basically a twin reverb in a head. the musicman amps he used are also fender design and similar in some ways tonally.

 

[hamerfan]

The womon tone was created in the time Clapton played 'The Fool SG'.
I think the Strat woman tone works best with a mellower sounding pickup like the Lace Golds.

 

[EC Strat]

The womon tone was created in the time Clapton played 'The Fool SG'.
I think the Strat woman tone works best with a mellower sounding pickup like the Lace Golds.

Thought it was on his 335?

 

[PFDarkside]

It’s pretty interesting how many “eras” of tone he has and how many players each era has inspired. Even the modern Lace Sensor and built in boost tone is iconic, although not quite to the degree of BB, Cream, Derek and later Blackie solo stuff.

 

[GuitarStv]

I hear 'woman tone' and I immediately think of a two pickup humbucker guitar (with low output pickups) where you're playing with the tone rolled back to get that middy sound.

 

[hamerfan]

Thought it was on his 335?

Nope, earlier! First on Disraeli Gears.