Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

[Maximusgordon 2.0]

Hi all,

It's official. I'm on a bit of a pickup swapping tear.

Next up is changing out the pickups in my new Strat. It's an American Standard Strat FSR in surf green with an ash body and a rosewood fingerboard. It currently has Fat 50's in all positions, so that's my tonal reference point for my descriptions of the sounds I'm looking for. The Fat 50's are good, I love the sound for rhythm, but I need something that sings a little more when driven.

I want to keep using true single coils, and maintain the spanky tone the Strat is known for but a tad less harsh and with a touch more umph. I've already bought a SSL-5 Custom Staggered but haven't installed it yet. That would work for the bridge, I take it? I just got it so I may exchange it if there's something better. I also have an RW/RP Texas Hot Antiquity that I'm thinking of putting in the middle? I'm guessing that would be good.

The big question is what to put in the neck. Would I be wise to get a matching Antiquity or maybe a Antiquity II Surfer for the neck? Has anyone mixed the two kinds of Antiquities in the same guitar?

That's where my head is at, but I'm open to any other suggestions. Trying to keep an open mind.

Thanks!

 

[Mincer]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

The SSL-5 is a great bridge pickup. The RW/RP Texas Hot is actually the same polarity as normal Duncans, as it is one of the only ones that, normally, are wired opposite of all non-RW/RP Duncans. I will say the Antiquity Surfers are astounding pickups. I've used them with Texas Hots before, and they work well.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

Have you messed with the height settings much? I want thrilled with my Texas Specials at first, but after a lot of tweaking, I like them a lot.

Are yours vintage staggered? Flipping my TS around 180 degrees thickened up the plain strings a little.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

Next up is changing out the pickups in my new Strat. It's an American Standard Strat FSR in surf green with an ash body and a rosewood fingerboard. It currently has Fat 50's in all positions, so that's my tonal reference point for my descriptions of the sounds I'm looking for. The Fat 50's are good, I love the sound for rhythm, but I need something that sings a little more when driven.

I want to keep using true single coils, and maintain the spanky tone the Strat is known for but a tad less harsh and with a touch more umph.

That's actually a big hole in SD product line. For spanky strat tone you'll need Alnico V, but strat pickups SD has with them are SSL-1's and SSL-5's. SSL-5 being too hot for "touch of umph"...

I have VZ Blues in neck, which is exactly what you described: Classic strat spank with touch more output and tad less harshness.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

There's the 8k A2 Twang Banger and the 10k A5 Surfer bridge.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

What you are wanting is precisely where forum bro Zhangbucker winds most of his pickups.......hot but still vintage tone.

The twangbanger is nice for sure, but the 10k Surfer bridge is misleading as it uses thinner wire and therefore has output the same an the 8k Twangbanger more or less (without the baseplate of course). Whether or not these would be ok in a neck slot is a guess.....both are wound for the bridge.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

I wonder how the Surfer Bridge or Texas Hot Bridge would sound in the neck? :scratchch

 

[Jeffblue]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

For me, I like a P90 in the bridge, strat pickup in the middle and a Tele pickup in the bridge which requires some routing and a special pickguard.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

For me, I like a P90 in the bridge, strat pickup in the middle and a Tele pickup in the bridge which requires some routing and a special pickguard.

For P90 like tone, QP is really good option for strat no routing required.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

ssl1s are really hard to beat.
Similar to a fat 50 but more clarity and detail to my ears.
I'm also a fan of the texas specials in the neck too for a ballsier tone, but you might need to set them a bit lower.

 

[Jacew]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

I still think SD should come up with ~7k wound version of SSL-1.

The most usual thing people say about vintage spec strat pickups is that they'd like them to have touch more output.

And I believe many (if not most?) strat players do want "strattiness" and don't want to go for significantly hotter pickups.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

Ssl1 is 6.5k anyhow.
That difference is not going to do anything

 

[jeremy]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

i wouldnt say it wouldnt do anything but not quite enough. 7.5k would be better imo

 

[Jacew]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

i wouldnt say it wouldnt do anything but not quite enough. 7.5k would be better imo

You surely know better. I just threw a number there

 

[Maximusgordon 2.0]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

This is all good stuff.

Yeah, I'm surprised Duncan doesn't have something that sits between the ssl-1 and ssl-5 in terms of output. It seems like a spot a lot of people want to be. I'm probably gonna install the custom staggered in the bridge and the antiquity texas hot in the neck and see how it goes, but may try other stuff.

I'm looking into other brands as well. Perhaps Lindy Fralin Blues Specials? Any other great Strat pickup manufacturers I might not know about?

 

[Maximusgordon 2.0]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

The SSL-5 is a great bridge pickup. The RW/RP Texas Hot is actually the same polarity as normal Duncans, as it is one of the only ones that, normally, are wired opposite of all non-RW/RP Duncans. I will say the Antiquity Surfers are astounding pickups. I've used them with Texas Hots before, and they work well.

So are you saying that if I put the RW/RP Antiquity in the neck, and keep the Fat 50's in the middle, I should be able to get hum cancelling in 2 and 4 (that's how they are set up with the Fat 50's set currently)?

 

[Returned]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

Since you have it coming and are in a mood to swap, put that SSL-5 in the neck and give it a listen. It may just change your mind about what the common wisdom is about neck pickups needing low output to sound sweet and musical.

 

[pgedney]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

In my experimenting I found a P-90 to have the most bass of any pickup I tested making it an ideal choice for the bridge position because there is a very little bass at the bridge position and it needs all the help it can get there .. it is also quite bright and extremely high gain all of which make it an ideal pickup for the bridge ... with that said I found most of those characteristics work against the P-90 in the neck where I found it to be extremely boomy ... after extensive testing I found a fender single coil to be the best pickup for the neck position because 1) It's bright and the neck position needs help in the high frequencys and 2) It's low on bass response making it resistant to the huge quantities of bass in the neck, similar to using a sure 57 to mic a bass cabinet instead of a large diaphram condensor mic - sometimes smaller is better when there's tons of sound pressure..

You can hear side by side comparison of Single Coil, P-90, Wide Range, Humbucker and Pearly Gates in bridge, middle and neck positions here ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j80eF85cIDM

 

[Adieu]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

CS 69's are single coils at their most gorgeous imho

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

Re: Finding the right Strat neck pickup!

The most usual thing people say about vintage spec strat pickups is that they'd like them to have touch more output.

And I believe many (if not most?) strat players do want "strattiness" and don't want to go for significantly hotter pickups.

It's funny because you just described the Fat 50's to a tee.