Help selecting pickups?

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doozy

New member
A little while ago I upgraded a Peavey Raptor Exp (HSS strat) with a little 59' neck, a classic stack+ middle, and a P-Rail bridge with triple shot ring, along with some switches for some extra features. The pots are 250k for a brighter vintage tone and I absolutely love how it turned out. It has some smooth tones but despite the pickups it's very strat-like, thanks to the pots toning down the signal a little.
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Now I want to upgrade a Squier and I would like to have 500k pots and humbuckers at each position. I love the little 59', so I think I'll keep that in the neck and test it out with the 500k's. In terms of pickup size, I'm not sure yet if I want to get a new pickguard and go HSS again, or if I want to get three mini humbuckers that would fit a strat pickguard.

My goal is a very silky smooth les paul-like sound. Something in between Slash and Steve Vai, if that makes sense. Any suggestions for the mid and bridge?
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hamerfan I appreciate the suggestion! I actually really like the JB Jr suggestion for the bridge, but the Duckbucker seems a little higher treble/twang than I'm going for. Is there something that might be a little warmer and less bright?
 
no reason you couldnt use a lil59 in the neck and middle with a jb jr bridge. i really like the lil59 bridge model in the middle position
 
If you feel adventurous, try the new Little 78. Since it has more bass, i would suggest: Little 78 Bridge, JBjr middle/neck in the middle and Lil59 middle/neck in the neck.
 
I'd put a Hot Rails in the neck, Little 59 in the middle and JB Jr in the bridge. No one would mistake for sounding like a Strat.
 
the hot rails neck sounds great. thick and warm in series and spanky and brighter in parallel
 
Thanks all for the suggestions! I think I'll probably go with a little 59' in the neck, a bridge version of the little 59' in the mids, and a JB Jr in the bridge!

Definitely going to check out hot rails for a future project though! Just seems a little high output for the sound I'm shooting for.

Also just a correction on my original post. I was using 500k pots on that last project, I wanted to try 250k's on this one for a rounder, warmer, more mellow les Paul tone.
 
doozy said:
My goal is a very silky smooth les paul-like sound. Something in between Slash and Steve Vai, if that makes sense. Any suggestions for the mid and bridge?
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Have you looked at the Red Devils? They were created to sound like an LP:
Meet the Red Devil for Strat set. All the fat, P.A.F. tone and Texas hot-sauce sizzle of Billy’s signature sound, in a pickup that will fit in any Strat-sized single-coil rout—proving that tone as big as Texas can come in deceptively small packages. The Red Devil for Strat set features three unique pickup winds, with specially calibrated Alnico 5 magnets.

The bridge is wound like an extra spicy P.A.F., with enough meat to beef up your Strat and provide the fat tone that Billy is known for. The neck and middle back off the heat a little and brush on sweet, smoky blues—making them perfect for ringing clean tones and chunky rhythms, but with the horsepower Billy demands for lead playing.
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i really like the red devils, the bridge pup is a beast. got a strat loaded with a set, neck and middle with coil split, bridge with series/split/parallel. a fat sounding set of pups in series for sure
 
jeremy said:
i really like the red devils, the bridge pup is a beast. got a strat loaded with a set, neck and middle with coil split, bridge with series/split/parallel. a fat sounding set of pups in series for sure
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How hard I try to love my Fender Strat with vintage output/sound single-coils, it's not happening. I always telling myself that I might need that sound one day or another...
I'm on the fence of getting a new pickguard and getting Red Devil neck and bridge with a 3-way switch and new pots/caps/output jack. But I already have a Les Paul...
 
im very much into the vintage strat sound but i like to have options. a strat with red devils wont sound like a lp, but itll sound good!
 
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