good pickups for strat?

J

joeydude

New member
joey here,

ok my set up is:

highway one hss strat (humbucker in bridge) through a messa boogie triple rect through a marshall 1960 sl 4by 12 cab

im thinking of getting a custom custom in the bridge and hot rails in the neck.

i mostly play metal but i need this guitar to also be able to do evrything from funk to acid rock. do you think these pickups would sound good in my setup? suggest others that might work.

also im thinking of getting a replacement single coil in the middle position for crisp clean sounds, any recomendations?

thanks
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

Welcome dude! :)

I'd suggest the Custom for the bridge. Less vintage than the Custom Custom, but has that PAF sound and suprisingly very good versatility. Great harmonics and compressed dynamics for funk that also work for Heavy Metal, obviously.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

I'd go with a JB/Vintage Rails/Cool Rails. Set up the JB with a push/pull pot for series to parallel wiring, and you're set.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

Benjy_26 said:
I'd go with a JB/Vintage Rails/Cool Rails. Set up the JB with a push/pull pot for series to parallel wiring, and you're set.
Click to expand...

+1
But if you want a custom in the bridge, and a bit more distortion, I would go with Custom/Cool Rails/Hot Rails.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

I would say it depends on your preference. Are you looking for a really hot sound, for something still PAFish, or something in between. The Custom would be good in the bridge if you want a kicked up in between tone, with a good amount of thump.

The JB would be a good choice too. It will give you a hot A5 sound with lots of hamonics and high mids.

Of course there is the distortion too. Lots of output, lots of harmonics, lots of grind, very cutting.

Luke
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

Custom and JB sound better than a Distortion when clean. They also split nicer and sound better with the volume knob rolled back a bit.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

The JB can do almost everything on a bridge position. Great all around pick up! Can be a vintage sounding pup or a metal monster
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

Benjy_26 said:
I'd go with a JB/Vintage Rails/Cool Rails. Set up the JB with a push/pull pot for series to parallel wiring, and you're set.
Click to expand...

+1
that's what im using now and it works really great since JB is a
can-do-everything pups..
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

whats with all of this "rails" crapola?:laugh2: if you want 3 bucker, put three bucker in. If you want single coils that sound good and can growl a bit, check out some Fralin Blues Specials. I figure you will do most of your metal work with the bridge anyway, right?
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

The Livewire classic singles and hot bridge are terrific but a bit expensive. I have no experience with the livewire series humbuckers.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

You could try JB/Duckbucker/Lil'59. Basically the everything for Strat set up, just with a full sized JB. That should give you a good range of funk tones as well as your driven ones.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

Benjy_26 said:
I'd go with a JB/Vintage Rails/Cool Rails. Set up the JB with a push/pull pot for series to parallel wiring, and you're set.
Click to expand...

I like this idea, too.

The VR in the middle and CR in the neck is very versatile and will do just about anything you want them to. I used mine with a Screamin' Demon in the bridge and that set worked very well for many styles of music. The JB would work just as well as the Demon with those two pickups.

stevie_bees said:
You could try JB/Duckbucker/Lil'59. Basically the everything for Strat set up, just with a full sized JB. That should give you a good range of funk tones as well as your driven ones.
Click to expand...

That'd be a good choice, too, given how similar (identical?) the Vintage Rails and Duckbucker are and tonally how close the Cool Rails and Lil' 59 are.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

I'd say for bridge, either a Custom 5 or a JB, like Tone Wizard suggests. If you only play metal, you can also do the neck and middle pickup hot rails thing, like the Tone Wizard suggests, although in my opinion you should at least get a cleaner neck pickup for the "just in case I play something other than metal" thing, like maybe a cool rails or vintage rails in the neck only.

I'm not one of those people who recommend the JB for everything, but I can see it doing what you wanted, although it will sound like a JB (duh). Not everyone likes the way the JB sounds, although I do. But the JB can do funk well, in my experience. The Custom 5 would be what I would try first.

Just my 2 cents.

The Custom Custom sounds good, but in my experience with it is in a rather bright bodied guitar. It's Alnico II, and not usually recommended for metal because it's bass is not as tight as, say, a JB or Custom/Custom5. Still, the CC sounds spot-on match for more vintage sounds. Also, Sevendust's guitarists used the CC. I won't say "don't use the CC", but I'd recommend a C5/JB over a CC for metal.
 
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Re: good pickups for strat?

I just installed a JB (with 250k pots) into my strat and its the best pickup I've tried so far in my guitar. And I've tried the Distortion, Air Zone & Custom Custom (also with 250k pots). They all have their merits, but all had unnatural ice-picky cleans in my Califonia Strat (similar to HWY 1). Lew was right, the JB is smoother than a CC if your using 250k pots :bowdown:.

I don't think I will be able to find a better HB for my strat. For the first time I was having as much fun playing the HB position as the single coils! And it gets heavy too.

I will say if you plan on using the HB for mostly distorted tones like eddie van halen stuff, the AZ & CC will do it nice, but forget about using cleans (even with the tone knob rolled down on the HB they still sucked for clean). If you want metallica like distortion the DD will gat you as close as you can in a strat but don't even think about using cleans you will hurt your ears! :laugh2:

The JB with 250k pots is real smooth in my strat. I like it better than the classic stacks +'s I just installed with it, which are a bit "vintagey", but I haven't given them enough time yet to be fair.

Rick
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

Here's what I say: JB, ssl1 (middle), little '59 neck. I agree with everyone else about the JB. The little '59 is a good neck pickup for quasi-paf style neck tone. It can be a little mid heavy, but it makes a strat very versatile. You might also look for a brighter single coil type pickup for the neck, if you don't want that mid-honk. Most importantly, if you are planning on doing funk, leave a true single coil in the middle position. That will get you those split position tones that you need. I use the neck/middle split position for all strumming of funky clean rhythms. This position works for me when I play jazz standards, smooth jazz/r&b and funk.
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

the reason i was thinking about the custom custom is caus it says bass:3 mid:7 treble:7, which is about exactly how i like my shred tone, and i have a triple rect so im not worried about there being not enough low end.

what dose "alcino II" mean?

and ok this might sound retarded, but what do people mean when they talk about the "tightness" of low end?
 
Re: good pickups for strat?

joeydude said:
the reason i was thinking about the custom custom is caus it says bass:3 mid:7 treble:7, which is about exactly how i like my shred tone, and i have a triple rect so im not worried about there being not enough low end.

what dose "alcino II" mean?

and ok this might sound retarded, but what do people mean when they talk about the "tightness" of low end?
Click to expand...

Alnico II / V are magnets. Higher the number usually means higher in strength. Read the "How To Pick A Pickup".

As for tightness on the low end, tightness means it doesn't mush out or over-saturate the low end. It's like the bass knob on some radios: turn it up too high and everything starts sounding krappy when the bass is too high, it's harder to hear the individual notes in the bass, etc. It's hard for me to describe: you just know it once you've heard it. Tightness is when it doesn't sound like krap: tightness is when there's not too much bass.

The CC won't do shred, at least in my opinion. Get the Full Shred, JB, or Invader for shred. The CC is going to sound more vintage, so maybe you could do AC/DC and Sevendust with it, but not (in my opinion) heavy metal and shred.
 
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