help me choose a Strat pickup

[yledbetter72]

ok, i just bought a hot seymour duncan pickup for my Strat in the bridge position, and its not what i wanted. what i want is something similar to an Eric Johnson style thing. I want it to be a lot less harsh, as in even out the trebles, but i dont want it to be any hotter, like no more distortion than an average single coil. and i want it to look like a normal pickup is in there, no humbucker or anything, oh and i have a 57 reissue strat if it makes a difference,

thanks a bunch guys, i gladly apprecaite your opinions!!!

 

[midnite_man]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

I've went through quite a few Strat bridge pickups, and I've got to say that the Antiquity Custom Bridge is about the best I've used to date. Surprisingly powerful, but not harsh. Smooth sounding vintage Strat tone.

 

[jeremy]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

welcome to the forum!!

alot of erics tone comes from the rest of his rig. his lead tone sounds thick and warm with a strat or 335 of whatever else he plays. i think an alnico II pro will get ya there with the right rig, but you might find it a little too thin.

what is the rest of your rig?

 

[Curly]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

ledbetter,
welcome to the forum!

although I love the Hot strat in the bridge, I admit it's not a vintage tone ...

I'm an advocate of a little 'hotter than vintage' bridge pickup, with the switch jumper to give you some roll off on the 'bridge only' position, otherwise, I find you have a thin, weak bridge tone
( for the mod, see http://www.tokairegistry.com/pup_replace.html )

check the first pic ...simple! and, I've read that Eric also uses this mod

personally, I like to see a couple strat bridge production pickups, both in Alnico 5 and Alnico 2, wound to around 10K ... the Twangbanger is close to that, with a baseplate

that said, I'd go with midnite_man's advice ... I can't think of one person here, of the many who've tried the Antiquity Custom bridge, that haven't loved that pickup!

Peace

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

A third vote for the Antiquity Custom bridge...tho Eric Johnson doesn't use one. He uses a Dimarzio stack with one coil disconnected. But it doesn't matter how Eric gets his tone...we mere mortels have to find our own way. LOL! Lew

 

[yledbetter72]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

hehe, thanks guys, everyone seems so darn nice around here!!!! i appreciate it tons.

anyways someone asked what the rest of my set up is,....

i have a Fender Blues Deluxe amp 1x12, 40w. and a Tubescreamer TS808 distortion. I don't get hardly any distortion out of it, so i'm thinking about trading my amp in for a Hot Rod Deluxe, but that shouldn't be much of a difference on the tone level.

thanks a lot fot the advice guys, i'll give it a shot

 

[yledbetter72]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

i just realized that i can't find the antiquity custom pickup on the site!!!! can anyone point me to where it's at?

and if i went for the alnico, would you reccommend the flat or staggered, for the tone i described earlier?

thanks again

 

[Curly]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

led,
here's the page, with specs:
http://www.seymourduncan.com/website/products/antiquitydescr.shtml#texhotb

 

[midnite_man]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

i just realized that i can't find the antiquity custom pickup on the site!!!! can anyone point me to where it's at?

and if i went for the alnico, would you reccommend the flat or staggered, for the tone i described earlier?

thanks again

One thing about tubescreamers, they're more for boosting your signal than distorting it. They can be modded to deliver more distortion, however.
STRATDELUXER97 would have more input on that topic.

 

[midnite_man]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

i just realized that i can't find the antiquity custom pickup on the site!!!! can anyone point me to where it's at?

and if i went for the alnico, would you reccommend the flat or staggered, for the tone i described earlier?

thanks again

The listings for "Antiquity" pickups are in the "Products" drop-down menu on the "Welcome" page. They're the 4th item down that menu.

Staggered or Flat depends on the type of neck your guitar has. If it has a standard neck, with a flatter shape to it and therefore the strings would be laying more flat across the pickup magnets, you could go with flat poles. If it's a more rounded "C" shape kind of neck with the strings laying in a more contoured position, you'd want to go with staggered pups, but you could get away with a flat pole pup in the bridge.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

I've went through quite a few Strat bridge pickups, and I've got to say that the Antiquity Custom Bridge is about the best I've used to date. Surprisingly powerful, but not harsh. Smooth sounding vintage Strat tone.

Welcome to the Antiquity Texas Hot club buddy...I feel the same way today about these pickups than I did the day I installed them...Maybe not true and total vintage but they sure sound great and solved my wimpy strat pickup tone problems in a hurry...Just great stuff..

John

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

One thing about tubescreamers, they're more for boosting your signal than distorting it. They can be modded to deliver more distortion, however.
STRATDELUXER97 would have more input on that topic.

Yes,the Tube Screamers aren't meant to generate distortion.They are purely an overdrive pedal or used to "boost" your amp's preamp by dialing the level all the way up and dialing the drive way back or off...You can mod the series for more overall gain,but you still end up with an overdrive pedal that has the ability to overdrive a bit more at full drive settings...

John

 

[yledbetter72]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

Welcome to the Antiquity Texas Hot club buddy...I feel the same way today about these pickups than I did the day I installed them...Maybe not true and total vintage but they sure sound great and solved my wimpy strat pickup tone problems in a hurry...Just great stuff..

John

would it be too much to ask to post a clip of you playing on the bridge pickup w/ some overdrive???

 

[Curly]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

led,
well, till John shows up, I posted some clips here:
http://www.bluestheater.net/bluestrat.html

no OD, though, just pure tone

 

[beandip]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

man, Gary. I love the way you play.

 

[Curly]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

man, Gary. I love the way you play.

aw, shucks, thanks ... but I'm a hack!

now, send those pics

haha ... j/k .... whenever you figure it out.

 

[yledbetter72]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

ok, well this is probably my last question!!! lol

since i already bought the hot for strat pickup, and i wanna switch it out, its been less than 21 days, and lets say i go back to the guitar shop i bought it at, could i switch it straight up for an Alnico II pro? and lets say i went with the antiquity, could i possibly switch it out, and pay the difference? or do i have to get something the same value of cheaper?

 

[beandip]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

Gar, they're comming. She uploaded them to her computer yesterday, but I'm being nice and taking her to the zoo today. She did quite a job with them in Photoshop. They look really pretty now. LOL

 

[beandip]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

yeah, ledbetter, you should be able to. I know that a shop has the option to respect the 21 day exchange policy, but most do.

 

[Curly]

Re: help me choose a Strat pickup

ok, well this is probably my last question!!! lol

since i already bought the hot for strat pickup, and i wanna switch it out, its been less than 21 days, and lets say i go back to the guitar shop i bought it at, could i switch it straight up for an Alnico II pro? and lets say i went with the antiquity, could i possibly switch it out, and pay the difference? or do i have to get something the same value of cheaper?

I think the exchange policy reads "for equal or lesser value", but it seems like most shops should let you trade up and pay the difference. That's my guess, at least.