Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Prozrenie

Prozrenie

New member
Hello, I need help picking 3 pickups for a cheap strat. I want at least one high output and also ability to play blues. (It's a Roland Ready, and I will use it mostly to do Synth work through a specialized fourth pickup), but I can't stand the idea of the loser MIM pups in there). It's a rosewood neck.

I received this recommendation from the seller.

One recommendation:

Neck
DiMarzio Area '58 (Appears to be single coil but DiMarzio somehow calls it "Humbucker"(?))

Middle
DiMarzio Area '61 (Again, appears to be single coil but DiMarzio somehow calls it "Humbucker")

Bridge
Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1 JB Jr. (High-output Single-coil-Sized Bridge Humbucker ("real" Humbucker the size of single coil)

Would love to get your reactions. Many thanks!!
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

I'm not familiar with DiMarzio's current stacks (they ARE humbuckers, just not side-by-side coils, instead they are vertical with no magnet in the second coil, as it only picks up hum).

I don't follow DiMarzio, I can't support their business practices. Particularly their creating a patent to cover Chris Kinman's hum-cancelling single coil pickup design, and blocking him selling pickups in the US that predate DiMarzio's ripoff, because he can't afford to fight the costly overseas legal battle with them. Not the first time they've done this sort of thing, either.

If company behavior doesn't concern you, and you like the tone of those singles, they should work fine. Cooler, brighter pickup in the middle, hotter, warmer in neck is a typical single coil setup for good quack in 2+4 positions.

If you want Seymour Duncan noise-cancelling singles to balance with the JBjr, I'd consider something like an STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus (hum-cancelling version of SSL-2) in the middle and an STK-S7 Hot Vintage Stack Plus (warmer hum-canceller for the neck, great for fatter neck tones, sort of overwound pickup that's liked by SRV fans who don't love massive strings).
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

I saw Duncan's site, and if you start with the assumption that, yes, you'll have high output Seymour Duncan SJBJ-1 JB Jr. in the bridge, here's the Duncan standard recommendation from their site:

"in an incredibly versatile set with an SJBJ-1b JB Jr. in the bridge, an SDBR-1n Duckbuckers in the middle and an SL59-1n Little '59 in the neck." FYI.
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

TO DESPAIR:

Hi, I don't like massive strings certainly, so the Duncan recommendation sounds good indeed. Thanks for all this feedback, much appreciated indeed.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

There have been threads of a few people returning duckbuckers in favor of STK-S4s and being much happier, as it's a more accurate single coil sound, and a particularly well known one (RHCP, David Gilmour, plenty of other famous artists known for using the SSL-1/2).

SL-59-1n is great if what you want is a humbuckerish neck pickup (it's not exactly the same as the full sized '59n) that doesn't require a new or recut pickguard (and possibly routing the body if your guitar isn't already routed for HSH or a swimming pool route). If you want something that sounds like a single coil but doesn't hum, a stack is what you want.

If you just want singles and aren't concerned with hum (or don't care about hum in middle- and neck-only), there's a lot of other options.

Also, what sort of high output tone are you looking for? Would you actually prefer a high output stack or single in the bridge? David Gilmour used to use the SSL-5 Custom (though I'd go with an SSL-6 for modern flatter radius fretboards). Hum-cancelling version of that is the STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus. Given I'd mainly use it for gain, even if I went with conventional singles I'd probably go with the hum-canceller in the bridge.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

How much do you want to spend on a guitar worth a handful of hundreds of dollars, that you will mostly use for "synth work?" IMHO, keep the thing stock. The Mexican pickups are fine. Their main weakness is when you try cranking them at max volume through your amp. They fuzz out.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Just because it's the predominant use doesn't mean other uses don't matter.

If the guitar plays nicely but the electronics sound bad, replacing the electronics is a good solution that works for a lot of people. Especially if finding another guitar you like is difficult, or money is tight and you need to do upgrades over time.

Also, if playing in noisy venues with bad wiring, near sources of radio interference or whatever source of hum/buzz/bizarre unpleasantness (which happen all over the world, often an unavoidable local misery), modern noiseless pickups are one of the more readily available and reliable solutions.

No, you probably wont get your money back if you sell the guitar with the improved pickups. If you can keep the old pickups, swapping them back in when you sell it will let you keep the pickups you like for another guitar.

ItsaBass is right that you should consider whether the improvement is worth the money before doing it, but I wouldn't be swayed much by arguments that it's a cheap instrument so it should only ever have cheap pickups.

You might start by just replacing the bridge & neck pickups, wired with a superswitch & autosplit, that'd give you 4 hum-free positions if you go with stacks/humbuckers. Then you can decide whether you need the middle replaced or not based on how it interacts with the other pickups, and whether you need to avoid hum in all switch positions.
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

You could even just start with the bridge pickup, as you mentioned wanting at least one high output pickup.

If you want cheap but solid single coil pickups, you might look into a set of Bill Lawrence Keystones, they get enormous praise on low cost, bang per buck and being particularly low noise for traditional singles.

True singles do tend to be cheaper than humbuckers of any sort. Vertical stacks are all particularly fiddly to build, and the Stack Plus series involves hand-tuning the noise-cancelling on each pickup to minimize noise.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Despair said:
Just because it's the predominant use doesn't mean other uses don't matter.
Click to expand...

I agree with this totally although I appreciate Itsabass's concern. You could even say I'm snobbish, but I'm just not going to deal with MIM pickups in my collection. You can switch off the synth and play straight in the middle of a show or you can combine the synth and the regular pickups on stage. For any of that, I'd take Duncans, etc. over MIMs, if I have the money. Working as I do in Iraq, I have the cash for this.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Is the body of this MIM RR Stratocaster made from Alder or Poplar? The natural frequency responses of each of these is very different and will have a bearing on my pickup suggestions.

FWIIW, my own Fender MIM mongrel Stratocaster (Classic Player alder body, Std maple neck) has Fender C. S. Fat Fifties single coil pickups. These give it a bright, raunchy tone that remind me of Richard Thompson.

Another way to breath life into the MIM RR Stratocaster is to upgrade the vibrato bridge.

If guitar synthesis is the main application for the instrument, I recommend setting the bridge to rest flat against the body. This will aid tuning stability and, hence, the accuracy of the pitch-to-voltage tracking.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Funkfingers said:
Is the body of this MIM RR Stratocaster made from Alder or Poplar? The natural frequency responses of each of these is very different and will have a bearing on my pickup suggestions.
Click to expand...

Thanks!! ALDER!!

"Alder Body, Maple Neck, Rosewood Fingerboard"
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

I wasn't trying to insult the guitar. I have and love many inexpensive instruments, including a Mexican Strat. I have spent more than I have spent buying an instrument just on modifying it (though only once, in a case in which the body/neck combination was rather unique, and it was only made as a Squier, not as a Fender, so I bought it knowing I was going to spend 2x to 3x as much in the end).

It just seems to me that you may want to wait till the need comes up, and spend some time with the stock pickups before dumping perhaps $200 at once into a guitar whose primary use will be with the midi pickup, just because you don't like the "idea" of using the stock pickups. And the Mexican pickups aren't loser pickups. The "idea" of anything doesn't make it through the amp to your listeners' ears. The "Mexican thing" is all in your head. Give them a chance first. They may do the limited job you have for them just fine. No, they aren't great, but it is not like they are pure trash, and one can find a way to get great results from just about any pickup by simply using it within it's limits. I set out to buy a Mexican Strat specifically for it's tone, in fact. They sound like a Strat well enough when played lightly, and they are really pretty decent turned up loud for punk music and other noisy overdriven trash rock. It's that trashy tone that I got when playing my friend's MIM Strat that made me want to go get my own. I like that they fit the classic Stratocaster mold: inexpensive, mass produced, versatile tonally, good enough for 80 percent of users for 80 percent of their purposes. They are more true to the original spirit of a Stratocaster than most American-made Fenders IMO. They're just too expensive and "souped up" these days, in general.
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

IMO, the Mexican-made single coils with the slug polepieces and underslung magnets are not as cork-sniffingly wonderful as a "properly" constructed American single coil BUT, in the context of the budget instrument, they give a reasonable account of themselves. If the typical Fender MIM guitar received an American treble pickup upgrade, it would meet the needs (and budget) of the average guitar player.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Funkfingers said:
IMO, the Mexican-made single coils with the slug polepieces and underslung magnets are not as cork-sniffingly wonderful as a "properly" constructed American single coil BUT, in the context of the budget instrument, they give a reasonable account of themselves. If the typical Fender MIM guitar received an American treble pickup upgrade, it would meet the needs (and budget) of the average guitar player.
Click to expand...

I agree, though I do use my treble pickup more than any of the others (loud).
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Despair said:
There have been threads of a few people returning duckbuckers in favor of STK-S4s and being much happier, as it's a more accurate single coil sound, and a particularly well known one (RHCP, David Gilmour, plenty of other famous artists known for using the SSL-1/2).

SL-59-1n is great if what you want is a humbuckerish neck pickup (it's not exactly the same as the full sized '59n) that doesn't require a new or recut pickguard (and possibly routing the body if your guitar isn't already routed for HSH or a swimming pool route). If you want something that sounds like a single coil but doesn't hum, a stack is what you want.

If you just want singles and aren't concerned with hum (or don't care about hum in middle- and neck-only), there's a lot of other options.


Also, what sort of high output tone are you looking for? Would you actually prefer a high output stack or single in the bridge? David Gilmour used to use the SSL-5 Custom (though I'd go with an SSL-6 for modern flatter radius fretboards). Hum-cancelling version of that is the STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus. Given I'd mainly use it for gain, even if I went with conventional singles I'd probably go with the hum-canceller in the bridge.
Click to expand...

Okay, let's begin with my humble recognition that you know loads, loads more than me about this ****. And it's a, uh, straight SSS strat, single coil everywhere.

Right, so I begin with the notion that if I've got 3 pups, I can afford to make one of them high output. (I'm not into, you know, the symphonic romance of nuance, here.) Now, I don't want to do any carving, so then the STK-S6 sounds fine for the bridge, from what I understand. I do want one pickup to make classic Strat single-coil sound, so if STK-S4 does that, that's fine too. And actually,
SL-59-1n sounds fine in the neck, too: I suppose it's a different enough sound from the STK-S6 in the bridge, more than merely enough I would think?

Thanks ever so much for this very productive dialogue.

And by the way, I'd still love to here from Funkfingers on how the woods used in the construction might impact any of the above. Many thanks to all!
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

The woods may make a difference, but I would say it depends more on the sonic characteristics of individual pieces of wood than on generalizations about this species or that. I have guitars that meet the same specs on paper, but don't sound anything like each other. In short, you just never know. You can make sweeping generalizations, but they are about as useful as sweeping generalizations usually are.

IME, pickups, amps, and what you do with your right hand have far more to do with tone than the materials used in the construction of the body and neck...and there also isn't a whole lot of point in extreme tone sniffing if you are running through 50 effects anyhow.
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

ItsaBass said:
The woods may make a difference, but I would say it depends more on the sonic characteristics of individual pieces of wood than on generalizations about this species or that. I have guitars that meet the same specs on paper, but don't sound anything like each other. In short, you just never know. You can make sweeping generalizations, but they are about as useful as sweeping generalizations usually are.

IME, pickups, amps, and what you do with your right hand have far more to do with tone than the materials used in the construction of the body and neck...and there also isn't a whole lot of point in extreme tone sniffing if you are running through 50 effects anyhow.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for staying involved in this pre-purchase thread! The wood, whatever it's worth, wouldn't be much of a factor when I were playing through synth, I think we can agree on that! And I do know what you mean about the powerful effects of IME, pickups, amps -- definitely an important perspective.
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Just saying that it can be important, but not to obsess over it too much, especially on an instrument where you are basically stuck with what you've got. Building up a new instrument is probably a better place to think about wood's effect on tone than when modifying a complete one that you already have. Also, that if you follow the generalizations, you may generally be happy, but you may also get the odd curve ball. It is more common than one might think to find a piece of wood of a certain type that doesn't follow the stereotype.

IME = in my experience
 
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Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

People have used the STK-S6/STK-S4/STK-S7 combo in alder/maple+maple and alder/maple+rosewood strats (and clones) with great success. Same is also true of the JBjr/STK-S4/SL59-n1 combination.

As far as going with single coils to avoid routing: have you checked under the pickguard? A lot of models have larger routes in the wood, under the plastic. So using full size humbuckers is an option if you want to nail a particular sound (a full size JB is a killer rock pickup). But mixing full size humbuckers, particularly high output ones, can be a real problem with single coils for volume balance, particularly if you want to preserve the brighter tone of a low output single.

If you have room for full size humbuckers under the pickguard, that changes options a bit.

I don't know if the JBjr balances better with singles [including stacks as singles for purposes of tone discussion] than a full sized JB does. Haven't heard discussion of that. I tend to prefer HH or SSS pickup arrangements these days, though if you only are using one guitar and need strat sounds, HSS makes a lot of sense. Or even HSH if you want bridge & neck humbucker tones with some stratty options.

Easiest way to choose between the options is use patterns. If you dedicate a different amp/channel/patch to the bridge pickup, how it balances with the other pickups matters a lot less.

If you need typical thrash rhythm or 80s rock tones, that requires a side by side humbucker rather than a single/stack.

But if you just want an all around great strat sound, with a warm, moderately high output bridge pickup, the Custom/Vintage/Hot Vintage arrangement works quite well, with great individual tones and good pickup balance [neck and bridge louder than middle, but not ridiculously so].

Hopefully I'm helping clarify choices, rather than contributing to option paralysis. (:
 
Re: Choosing three pickups for MIM ("Roland Ready")

Personally, I would never have a humbucker in the bridge position on a Strat unless it was able to be coil split. I would hate to give up that wiry, rough, single coil bridge tone, or the bridge/middle combo just to have a humbucker there. Two of my favorite sounds from a Strat. I say if you put a HB in the bridge slot, definitely get a splittable one.
 
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