Can new pups save my Strat?

A

aerial7

New member
'92 American Strat with maple neck, and I just can't seem to get this thing to rock. Looking for classic, tasteful distortion (think Heart / Benatar / maybe Donnas) as well as a little bit of the current harder sound occasionally (think P.O.D.). I don't want any of that "quack" or "glass", but I realize that's what a Strat is for....

So, upgrade the pups or the guitar?
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Are they still stock or have you changed them? I feel the same about mine, just seems to lack some mojo.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Nah -- the guitar is still totally stock. It has mojo, but I think I've outgrown it.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Pups can get you there. try for a double fat strat combination.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

If you want to keep that guitar and it's routed for 2 'buckers, I'd go with a Pearly Gates in the neck and a Custom Custom in the bridge. I really liked the Big Apple wiring that Fender came out with a couple of years ago, it might give you what you're looking for.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Thanks for the responses.... My concern is that if I spend the time and money trying out replacement pickups that I'll still wind up having to replace the guitar, that I'm asking the Strat to do what it wasn't designed to do....
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Well IMHO the stock pups although decent just don't do it most of the time. Strats are very sensitive, finincky guitars.

I put alnico 2 pro singles in mine and it really rocks now. Just about 2 weeks ago I pulled the Alnico 2 pro flat out of the bridge and put in a CS pup that is essentially an un-aged Texas Hot. It is absolutely amazing. This guitar has finally arrived...at least to my ears.

Also I replaced all the wire with cloth push back wire, I put in CTS pots, and a switchcraft 5 way as well as an orange drop.

I started from scratch because I wanted to keep my big apple pickguard intact. Then I decided to use the good wire.

Luke
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Does the guitar turn you on when it's not plugged in? In other words, do you enjoy playing it and strumming it acoustically? If so, and you just don't care for it's electric tone, then by all means swap out the pickups for pickups that are more to your liking. Lew
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

+1 One on Lews Post... a guitar that sounds balanced can be made to be almost everything with the right pups... is it an SSS HSS or HH?
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Lew is right on. The beautiful thing about your Strat, since it's MIA, is that there is a very high probability that you have the swimming pool route so your pickup choices are pretty much endless. All you'd need is a different pickguard if you decide to go anything other than 3 single coils or want full size humbuckers instead of the mini-buckers.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Lewguitar said:
Does the guitar turn you on when it's not plugged in? In other words, do you enjoy playing it and strumming it acoustically? If so, and you just don't care for it's electric tone, then by all means swap out the pickups for pickups that are more to your liking. Lew
Click to expand...

Lew's spot on with this. And if the answer to his questions is "No" - buy a Les Paul! :)
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Lew makes a great point (as usual), as the guys have said. If the guitar sounds good acoustically, then a pup change will do it for you. Check out the Duncan sound samples and get an idea of what you want. As for Fender pups, I'm using Fat "50's in my '95 Amer. Standard and they sound great. However, you have a much wider choice with Duncan.

Good luck,


Jeff
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

There is no reason a MIA Strat, even one with three singles, can't rock. You can definitely save this guitar with new pups. Look for something with a heavy midrange and modest highs. If you wanted to go the dual hum route, Benjy's picks of PG neck + Custom Custom bridge are spot on. If you want to stick with the single-sized, I'd say try a JB Jr bridge, and Hot Rails in the mid and neck. That would be a great rock Strat.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Try a humbucker if you can.I just did the same thing.Played the same Strat for 6 years,loved the guitar but no matter what combo of SC's or lil' HB's it just didnt full out rock.I recently grabbed one with humbuckers and it is a world of difference. I've tried the JB,Custom and now have the JB with a ceramic magnet and really liked them all.The JB ceramic and the Custom are my favorites though.They just plain rock.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

aerial7 said:
Thanks for the responses.... My concern is that if I spend the time and money trying out replacement pickups that I'll still wind up having to replace the guitar, that I'm asking the Strat to do what it wasn't designed to do....
Click to expand...

A> countless people have rocked a strat.
B> Wasnt designed?? One name Dave Murray
C> Try a buker in the bridge
D> Send it to me free of charge.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Had the same problem with my '94 MIM Strat. Loved the way it played, HATED the sound. Threw in an EMG-85, never looked back.
...... Or maybe it was the Buck Owens paint job? :laugh2:
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Kamanda~SD said:
B> Wasnt designed?? One name Dave Murray
Click to expand...

Doesn't Dave Murray use Hot Rails in his? I think so... Or maybe Hot Rails and JB Jr.... look it up somewhere...
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

There is a lot you can do to a 92 MIA Strat. My 98 MIA has been through quite a few sets of pickups and I've changed out most of the hardware as well. The only things left original on my Strat are the body, neck and jack plate.

The pickups I finally settled on are a JB in the bridge, a Hot Stack in the middle and a lil59 in the neck. I've installed the Hot Rails and lil59s into Strats before and they are great sounding pickups for what you are looking for but I really wanted the tone and output of a std humbucker in my guitar. I tried the CC, C-5 and Custom in this guitar but when the JB went in it stayed there.

I wanted to keep a ballpark Strat tone in the 2 and 4 positions so I went with the Hot Stack in the middle position. It's hotter and warmer sounding than traditional Strat pickups and that helps keep the middle positions a bit more balanced both tonally and in output.

The lil59 is probably my favorite Strat neck pickup. It has a nice full humbucker tone but still retains a little of the characteristic Strat neck position vibe. It's great for both warm clean rhythm work as well as having a killer lead tone under gain.

I have 500k pots in the volume and tone positions and the guitar is wired single volume, single tone with a .022 mf cap.

Since I prefer the simplicity of single volume/tone control guitars I removed the rear tone pot and installed a dpdt toggle switch and then I drilled a hole between the mid tone pot and the hole for the rar tone pot and installed a second dpdt toggle. One toggle is a series/parallel switch for the JB and the other toggle is an on/off switch for the JB which allows me to combine the JB with the neck pickup.

Doing this gives me the following combinations

JB series
JB parallel
JB series - Hot Stack
JB parallel - Hot Stack
Hot Stack
Hot Stack - lil59
lil59
JB series - lil59 (mid position LP tone)
JB parallel - lil59 (fat Tele tone)
JB series - Hot Stack - lil59
JB parallel - Hot Stack - lil59

It's a guitar that covers a lot of ground tonally.

I have also installed Sperzal locking tuners, a LSR roller nut and a Shaller Floyd. While most Strat purists cringe when they see it, most hard rock guys really dig it when they see it and try to buy it off of me when they hear it.

Strats are great guitars to modify to taste because the pickguards are easy to work on and the 90s MIAs with the pool route will accept almost any pickups. I wouldn't sell the guitar but tricking it out is definately something to consider.
 
Re: Can new pups save my Strat?

Folks,

Thanks for all the great replies -- most are summed up by "countless people have rocked a strat".

Just an update: I've decided to take a conservative approach, since I have no idea what upgrading pickups is like -- what the logistics are, what kinda results you can get, etc. So, I have an 89 Ibanez-style Squier Strat that has enormous sentimental value (and I play it twice as much as my MIA Strat). It has hum/sing/hum, and I'm going to upgrade all its pups now.

As for the MIA Strat, I didn't know about the "swimming pool rout", but I'm glad it was mentioned because I'm inclined to go full-sized 'buckers depending on how the other Strat's upgrade goes....

Thanks again everybody!
 
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