How can I get this tone........help!

[southernspreadhead]

These are some videos of the tone I like. The band is Widespread Panic and the lead guitar player is Jimmy Herring. He plays a strat with SD 59 humbuckers into a Fuchs head into a Tone Tubby cab. I have an American strat with standard single coils. What Single size pickups could help me get this tone? I know the Hot Rails are good but whats the best combo?? Are lace pickups even worth looking at??? I know tone has a lot more to do than just pickups, but help me out!! Here is some video of the tone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_fwgkpghtM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZFc5OECE6c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqNIUpzoLsI

 

[supernosher]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

If your Strat has the routing done already, you just need a pickguard and the pickups. Then you have the guitar end covered. I think the Fuchs sounds like a Fender Deluxe, like a blackface reissue maybe... or the real thing... I used to play through my dad's silverface Deluxe Reverb and it had that basic tone, but with the speaker it had (which was not a good speaker and tired / worn out) it didn't have as thick of a midrange tone. I think the blackface's had thicker mid's, while the silverfaces had a bit more treble. Whatever it is a Fender will get you in the ballpark.

 

[southernspreadhead]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

If your Strat has the routing done already, you just need a pickguard and the pickups. Then you have the guitar end covered. I think the Fuchs sounds like a Fender Deluxe, like a blackface reissue maybe... or the real thing... I used to play through my dad's silverface Deluxe Reverb and it had that basic tone, but with the speaker it had (which was not a good speaker and tired / worn out) it didn't have as thick of a midrange tone. I think the blackface's had thicker mid's, while the silverfaces had a bit more treble. Whatever it is a Fender will get you in the ballpark.

I guess Im more or less asking what single sized pickups can best emulate the humbucker sized SD 59's that are in his guitar??

 

[Sanford]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

Lil 59's? From demo vids and clips, I'd say they do a pretty good job. The first vid showed him using the switch in the middle position (both humbuckers), so you may have to do some re-wiring in that respect.

 

[jeremy]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

lil 59's would be my suggestion. i love jimmy herring, really nice guy and one hell of a guitar player. he has been using a h&k tube factor, the duncan 59 loaded strat or a three single coil strat, a bf super reverb or the fuchs, and some wah pedal that sounded like a decent crybaby.

the tube factor has a fairly distinctive sound to it

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

That IS a fat tone!

 

[southernspreadhead]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

lil 59's would be my suggestion. i love jimmy herring, really nice guy and one hell of a guitar player. he has been using a h&k tube factor, the duncan 59 loaded strat or a three single coil strat, a bf super reverb or the fuchs, and some wah pedal that sounded like a decent crybaby.

the tube factor has a fairly distinctive sound to it

Would you suggest I put lil 59's in all 3 positions???

 

[supernosher]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

So you can get the neck + bridge position, like that dude in the videos, you should add a toggle switch that makes the neck pup active at all times when one way, and flip it so the 5-way acts like a normal strat switch the other way. I did this a while ago, and I believe I had a SPDT On/On switch, so one side goes to the perma-hot tab of the 5-way, and the the other side goes to the regular neck tab on the 5-way, with the pup's hot wire on the middle tab of the SPDT switch.

 

[jeremy]

Re: How can I get this tone........help!

Would you suggest I put lil 59's in all 3 positions???

you could and that would work pretty well but like others have said you would need to be able to put the neck and bridge together. if you wanted to go this route, i would suggest a lil 59 neck for the neck and bridge models for the middle and bridge. using a mini switch is a fine way to get both pups on but i would wire the normal 5way switch so you have N/NB/B/BM/M a little different but very usable. you wouldnt have the NM option but i tend not to like the sounds i get from that position when using single coil sized buckers. the lil 59 bridge model in the middle position is a killer tone, fat and punchy with a nice balance between highs and lows. if you keep the height up a little and wire the 5way as i mentioned above you get flip the switch to the last position and get this tone which is killer for leads.


having said all that, no single coil sized pup is going to sound exactly like a full sized humbucker, the amount of string that the pup sees isnt the same and there isnt really any way to compensate for that. the lil 59's do a good job and will get you about as close as you are going to get and will work well as a platform to get the tones you are looking for.