FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

P

Power Stack \m/

New member
Hey guys I just got this sick japanese 72 reissue strat and I love it to pieces except for the noise. Before I bought the guitar I was going to looking for some high output single coils or less-single coil-y as I have been used to high output humbuckers. I heard that the yjms and the dimarzio injectors are in between a single coil and a hum bucker.

However, now that I have tried the strat I realise I love the pickups in it but the noise is bugging me. I play yngwie and blackmore and Uli so I use a decent amount of gain. I noticed that Uli gets a very nice tone out of his bridge - not icepicky at all. I understand that its all in the fingers at the end of the day but hopefully the pickup will do something.

Since I love the pickups in the strat (idk what they use in the old japanese strats) I was thinking maybe a classic stack set? My question is tho do they sound good with lots of gain and fast shred playing? The stock pickups sound fairly tight and crunchy which I wasn't expecting - other single coils I tried mush up.

I was also thinking of the virtual solo in the bridge. I've heard its stratty but fatter and slightly ballsier. If it still retains a good single coil sound maybe thats the one. What do you guys think?
 
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

For Yngwie Malmsteen type tones, perhaps start with the Dimarzio HS3 in the bridge and neck as it's his most famous set prior to companies approaching him with signature pickups so any recording from before 1996 as the HS4 was made in 1995. So safe to say anything before Magnum Opus or Inspiration Now the middle pickup is up for debate. The newer stuff around but not exactly (no pick measuring) - the newer stuff after relentless you'd want the YJM fury pickup set.

and that is true Injectors, YJM pickups and so forth are stacked. Think of it like a two story house. One coil cancels out the other. They are as quiet as humbuckers. Rail pickups and other types exist too that have the same thing. I say start with what your heroes use and work your way from there. There are a ton of 4 wire pickups out there to see what works best.

wiring wise
A250k pot - any brand a good one will be as close to 250k whether it be the stock one or a snake oil brand. If the pots are old give them a clean. Crackle can be removed.

the tone controls I'm basing off of the 2018-ish incarnation of the YJM strat.
B250k - fender no load tone pot - neck
B250k - fender no load tone pot - bridge / middle pickup
without the no load tone pots the pickups will be very warm. Their DC resistance is 22k+ in DC resistance. Inductance matters just as much as the HS4 is only 3.3H which is not much but either way. The best approach to the pickups Yngwie went with you'll appreciate the same way he does is with no load tone pots. Or of course a blower switch.

capacitors up to you - I don't suggest ceramic capacitors like his play loud has. Find what works for you. Dylan pickups had a great video explaining why we pick certain capacitors and pots and what to expect

wire is wire, capacitor material the only bad ones are MLCC and ceramic discs if you play live as the heat will cause them to cause noise. This will save you a lot of money. The cheap green or red polyester capacitors are just fine. I need 1% tolerance snake oil capacitors about as bad as a 1950 fender broadcaster needs a lamborghini hood emblem to play faster.

if you don't see flat black paint or copper tape inside the guitar I highly recommend shielding it.

To get closer to the YJM tone I'd go with a
Dunlop Delrin 1.5mm pick - the lavender ones - he now has ones with his name on them.


classic YJM tones - pedals
DOD 250 overdrive pedal , or possibly the DOD 308 (whatever is cheaper online).
The DOD308 is very subtly different. I remember reading the schematic and thought to myself .. that's it. Very few capacitor changes.

Boss NS2 noise supressor - because of how much gain Yngwie uses on his pickups it's a must have

anything after 2015 instead use Fender YJM signature overdrive and anything else he updated to. World on fire would be the studio album with that and the Seymour Duncan YJM fury set.

there is a few rig rundowns of his gear in more extreme detail than this.
 
Last edited:
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

Power Stack \m/ said:
Hey guys I just got this sick japanese 72 reissue strat and I love it to pieces except for the noise. Before I bought the guitar I was going to looking for some high output single coils or less-single coil-y as I have been used to high output humbuckers. I heard that the yjms and the dimarzio injectors are in between a single coil and a hum bucker.

However, now that I have tried the strat I realise I love the pickups in it but the noise is bugging me. I play yngwie and blackmore and Uli so I use a decent amount of gain. I noticed that Uli gets a very nice tone out of his bridge - not icepicky at all. I understand that its all in the fingers at the end of the day but hopefully the pickup will do something.

Since I love the pickups in the strat (idk what they use in the old japanese strats) I was thinking maybe a classic stack set? My question is tho do they sound good with lots of gain and fast shred playing? The stock pickups sound fairly tight and crunchy which I wasn't expecting - other single coils I tried mush up.

I was also thinking of the virtual solo in the bridge. I've heard its stratty but fatter and slightly ballsier. If it still retains a good single coil sound maybe thats the one. What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

Personally, I use various Kinman's for noiseless Strat tones (when I don't use home made noise cancelling devices) but if you really like your stock pickups, the solution might be a Ilitch air coil. It would cancel 80% of the noise: https://www.ilitchelectronics.com/

Regarding "Uli Black s' Teen" : after +/- 40 years of tone chasing on the same track, I'd tend to say that pickups are only a part of the pic... In the three cases, there is/was "something" between Strat(s) and amp(s) and this "something" is/was playing a huge role in the final tone shaping IMHO/IME. But you surely know that already and I lack of time to develop further explanations so, more later, maybe. :-)

Good luck in your quest !
 
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

Pick your favorite noiseless single coils and run a Clapton midboost circuit.

Volume on 7 is normal strat volume. 10 is that same sound but as loud as a vintage style humbucker. Kicking in the mids fattens things up to p90 like sounds.

Adding mids, adds gain too. Cut the volume a bit to compensate and get very fat sounds. As well as the regular strat pallet.

I went from an HSH setup to SSS lace holy grails with the circuit. I love everything but the battery change BS.
 
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

Hi, 2 things. One, you can always install a humbucker that's the size of a single coil. Two, I'm not familiar with the sound, but I recomend going on YouTube. Also I believe its sweetwater that has a sound profile and sound files for pickups. It's either sweetwater or guitar center, can't remember. Anyway, go check out the pickups on those websites, they always have a good description of the pickups and what they can do.
 
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

Both the Classic Stack set and the YJM Fury set sound great with a lot of gain. To me the YJM has a little more high end, and the Classics have slightly more mids. So I'd pick the one with the EQ you like or need the most. Either set should sound great in 70s-type Strat like that.
 
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

Besides the YJMs, you might consider an STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus, it's the Stack Plus version of the SSL-6 Custom Flat, so it's a flat polepiece radius version of the bridge pickup David Gilmour often uses in his strats. [SSL-5 was early on also known as the SSL-1 Custom Bridge.]

I've been intrigued by Kinmans as well, but figuring out which ones for what particular sound in what guitar... It's great that there's a lot of options, but finding audio/video comparisons in similar guitars is harder than other brands...

Uli Jon Roth is using an active preamp in his guitars last I heard.
 
Re: FAT, GAIN and no noise...pickup?

If you like the tone but don’t like the noise, there is also the Ilitch hum cancelling system as an alternative.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top