Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

[BachToRock]

The ultimate Strat bridge pickup?
I popped it into my vintage workhorse Strat this morning... all I can say is... whooooh!
Thanks to Black Rose Customs for the good deal on the Phat Cats...

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Cool! I've heard bad things about the phat cat in the bridge though, that it's too dull compared to a P94 or normal soapbar. The clips I've heard of it were clean though, if you play hardrock or punk I'd love to hear some clips.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Cool! I've heard bad things about the phat cat in the bridge though, that it's too dull compared to a P94 or normal soapbar. The clips I've heard of it were clean though, if you play hardrock or punk I'd love to hear some clips.

I don't have clips of it, but I can tell you from first hand experience that the Phat Cat is a wonderfull pickup at the bridge or neck. I have a set in an Epi Sheraton (I got my bridge unit from Blackrose too, great guy to do business with). Clean, I love the neck for a big, jazzy vibe. The middle position is good for funk and clean chording. It's clean and chimey, but still punchy. The bridge is great clean, it has kind of a bottom heavy tele vibe to it, and with distortion, it screams. It has a nice chunk when palm muting and enough mids to punch through when riffing, though, thru some amps, it can get kind honky. I like it a lot.

 

[Artie]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Wow BtoR; I love the beautiful simplicity of that. If it was a hardtail, it'ld be perfect.

 

[Evan Skopp]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Phat Cat dull? Never heard that before. My experience is exactly the opposite. What pots are you using?

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Phat Cat dull? Never heard that before. My experience is exactly the opposite. What pots are you using?

I wasn't talking from personal experience. If they don't sound dull in the bridge then that's great!

 

[BachToRock]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

250k CTS... sounds fantastic!

 

[brinton]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Sorry to go off the topic, but is string spacing really all that big of a factor becuse I don't think Eddie Van Halen had a 1961 PAF "Trembucker" and he had a floyd so those don't exactly line up straight but his tone (early) is probably my favorite distortion tone. Those phat cats weren't made with trem spacing either right and you seem to love it where it is, so maybe it's no big deal right.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

It's not as big a deal as some people make it out to be. I for one can't notice the difference between a trembucker and a regular 'bucker. I use trembuckers in my trem equipped guitars because I preffer the look of the polepieces lining up with the strings.

 

[John Wymore]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Wow, I would have never thought of doing that but when you think about it a nice fat A2 single coil in the bridge spot would be great for the tones you are describing. Nice idea!! :cool3:

 

[BachToRock]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

I am using the Gotoh bridge from Warmoth that has the slightly closer humbucker string spacing... I change the crappy cast bridge block to the machined type used on the USA Vintage Reissue bridges for better tone.
I am thinking of doing another Strat with 2 Phat Cats and a sigle coil in the middle!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

Really cool idea for the Strat...it's a beauty!

Lew

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Cat in the Hat... Phat Cat in the Strat

I usually just raise the polepiece on the string that's too quiet. Do you think that maybe the Wilkinson VS-100 is narrower than a Floyd or Vintage Fender trem?