Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

[MrFoster]

I've started building a strat from the ground up, going well so far!
Planning to have a light mahogany body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard. Doing as much as I can to give it lots of wooden parts so it's going to have a maple pickguard with a leaf pattern burned onto it, and I'm getting those ebony knobs from StewMac, it's going to be beautiful.
But the only thing I can't decide on now is the pickups, it's going to be a SSS setup of course, and what I'm after is something really warm with a little less definition on the pick attack, I'm starting to think to find a set of single coils might be near impossible unless they're custom shop, honestly.
But nonetheless, if I can't I'll get an Antiquity set from SD and do my best to learn 2112 on it.

 

[esandes]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

i'd get the SSL-1 set.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

what I'm after is something really warm with a little less definition on the pick attack,.

Sounds like alnico 2.

The nicest set would be the Antiquity Texas Hots with a Texas Hot Custom bridge pickup.

Next up would be the APS-2 neck and middle and a Twangbanger for the bridge pickup.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

+1

Listen to Lew, can't beat his advice when it comes to strats, and its free.

You might also consider going with a mahogony neck as well. Maple works okay too, but mahogony will be warmer yet and some experienced guitar builders like to match mahogony bodies with mahogony necks.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

Mahogany for the body wood will give you a warm tone anyhow.
Be a bit more careful with strat pickup choice.....you can't just swap in magnets to give you more bite if you go too warm.
The ssl1's I find to be a thicker toned singlecoil than other vintage offerings anyhow.....you could always roll the tone down a bit.

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

Well not always. I built a mahogony strat with a maple/rosewood FB neck years ago that was still pretty bright. I'd say just as bright as alder in that case, but more sustain. SG's are still fairly bright in gibson land. You never know how it wil turn out. The OP won't know really until its together.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

For softer plain string attack with twangy wound strings, get the SD Five-Two for the neck and centre positions. The Twangbanger goes nicely with these BUT magnetic polarity issues mean that you have to either modify its wiring or connect the three pickups like so.

Bridge - Twangbanger
Centre - Five-Two
Neck - Five-Two RP/RW

 

[darthphineas]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

APS-1 or APS-2 are nice options, depending on if you want staggered or flat.

 

[esandes]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

the pickup height makes so much difference and it's often overlooked. too much bite can be dialed back. the other way around is risky, money wise.

 

[MrFoster]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

APS-1 or APS-2 are nice options, depending on if you want staggered or flat.

I'm still to experiment with staggered and flat poles
What would be the difference?
So far it seems to be a tossup between the Texas hot, SSL and APS

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

I'm still to experiment with staggered and flat poles
What would be the difference?

If you use 10's or lighter strings and if your fretboard is fairly flat with a 10" radius or more you will probably want flats.

 

[MrFoster]

Re: Building a Strat but can't find the right pickup

If you use 10's or lighter strings and if your fretboard is fairly flat with a 10" radius or more you will probably want flats.

And if it's a compount radius going up to 12"? Seems like I still would want flat