Fender's mystery pickups

[MarkyMarkRox]

Whether you love him or hate him (and I go back and forth between the two), John Mayer's got some real chops and some real tone. It's kind of SRV-ish but not quite. Looking at his signature axe from Fender he's got pups called "big dippers". Fender doesn't sell them on their site and nobody else seems to have them unless you get them with the John Mayer Sig Strat. Does anyone know of any duncan, fender, or other pickups that might have very similar tone? I was thinking fender texas specials but if anyone has other suggestions that would be cool

 

[jeremy]

Re: Fender's mystery pickups

noooo, the texas specials are nothing like those big dippers. if you want classic strat tone like mayer gets try the ssl1 in the middle and neck. a low wind alnico V pickup. fender makes a fwe things that would fit the bill but i wouldnt go for the texas specials. if you have the cash, get a pair of antiquity II surfers. they are perfect for a beautiful stratty tone

 

[Natman]

Re: Fender's mystery pickups

I have to say that there are squarely TOO MANY options out there for strats. They're not really that different one from the other until you start splitting hairs. YEs, Texas Specials sound darker and are more powerful, but that is a detriment to good "clean/sparkly/glassy" strat tone. You can always darken a tone, but you can not add clarity or treble that is not there to begin with. So many of the famous strat tones were just stock pickups, and the boutique market has probably gone too far in trying to offer every little minute tweak under the sun. (btw I agree John Mayer can play, I wish he would stay away from the girlie pop style). Mayer's tone sounds just standard, low output strat tone to me, so jeremy's suggestion is a pretty good one. If you pick a set of pickups that are trying to be too specialized, you stand to lose some tones that "normal" strat pickups should get.

Case in point, I used to LOVE Van Zandt Blues on my alder strat (ebony fb). I put the same set in a mahogany axe (rosewood fb) with the same tremolo and they sounded just plain flat. So all that so say that you can't go wrong with a middle ground tried & true good quality single coil such as the SSL-1 or other variant from Fender or whoever. When you get too wrapped up in the 50's/60's/70's/80's/90's/00's sounds, I think they're just playing us with little differences that hardly anyone can hear! (Better not confuse the fat 50's with the classic 50's with the '54 or '56 or '57 pickups!) Remember you can always turn your amp up for more drive and use the tone knob for controlling treble. There's also no telling what a player uses in the studio or off stage: compression? booster? a string of buffered pedals? $200 cables? NOS tubes?
Sorry for being so negative on this... This is all IMHO to be taken with a grain of salt

 

[BRHGM]

Re: Fender's mystery pickups

I agree. I played that guitar in GC and it sounded like regular alnico V singles like the old 50's guitars. The SSL 1 would do the trick. John gets his sound from his technique and his Two Rock amps.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Fender's mystery pickups

I'm a Texas Specials guy. I love those pickups and they're the only single-coils that I am truly 100% happy with. But I agree with jeremy that they're not the John Mayer type. Even though they are hotter than the norm, they're not THAT much hotter. They still sit in the vintage output category. The bridge is really the one with more to it, around 7.0-7.1k. The neck and middle still sit in the 6.0-6.5k range.

John's tone is cleaner, smoother, and a little more rounded off than SRV's tone. The Texas Specials are raw, yet still sparkly. They're not too dark at all to me. SSL-1's and even APS-1's would definitely suit the Mayer types just fine.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Fender's mystery pickups

I have to say that there are squarely TOO MANY options out there for strats. They're not really that different one from the other until you start splitting hairs.

...

So many of the famous strat tones were just stock pickups, and the boutique market has probably gone too far in trying to offer every little minute tweak under the sun. (btw I agree John Mayer can play, I wish he would stay away from the girlie pop style). Mayer's tone sounds just standard, low output strat tone to me, so jeremy's suggestion is a pretty good one. If you pick a set of pickups that are trying to be too specialized, you stand to lose some tones that "normal" strat pickups should get.

Yah. +1000 on this one.

Strats are Strats are Strats.

Mayer's gonna sound like Mayer NO MATTER WHAT guitar he picks up.

Get some good "strat" pickups and work on your technique and soul.

The man owns a slew of different guitars... vintage, new, stock pups, custom wound...only person who knows exactly what was used on any given record is him.

The "tone" comes from your hands.