L
Lewguitar
Guest
My buddy Mark Meyer, a terrific guitarist here in the Boulder/Denver area, brought me his '75 Fender Strat to see if it could be improved. This is a hardtail Strat, no vibrato, and made from very HEAVY alder. The stock '75 Strat pickups from this period are a little weak, and were very bright and thin sounding in this particular guitar.
I replaced everything: New 5 way switch, 250K volume pot & tone pot and added a Fralin Blender pot. I went with a .02 Mallory 150 tone cap and replaced all of the plastic covered wire with new cloth covered black and white wire.
I wanted humcancelling when the neck and bridge pickups are combined with the Fralin Blender pot, and also humcancelling when the neck and middle pickups are combined, so I installed the RW/RP SSL-1 in the neck and regular SSL-1 in the middle position this time.
So how does it sound? Great of course! The SSL-1's are my favorite stock Duncan Strat single coils and are very similar to the Antiquity Surfers...though not quite as throaty and complex.
The Twangbanger is the big surprise: in this particular Strat, which is HEAVY, especially for an alder bodied guitar, the Twangbanger sounds brighter than I've ever heard one sound. It's the guitar that's making it sound so bright, because the Twangbanger usually sounds much warmer, middier and pluckier.
Really goes to show me how differant the same pickup can sound in differant guitars...it almost doesn't sound like a Twangbanger.
Of course the guitar sounds tons better now. Much richer and ballsier and livlier. The SSL-1's have a lot of personality, strong/deep bass and bright, lively, glassy highs. Very Hendrixy.
And the Twangbanger sounds like the bridge pickup in a Tele...full and throaty but bright. Like I said, brighter than I've ever heard one in a Strat.
I've always thought alder was a brighter sounding wood than lightweight swamp ash, but in this hard tail Strat with the heavy 70's alder body, the Twangbanger really sounds as bright and twangy as the bridge pickup in some Teles.
Lew
I replaced everything: New 5 way switch, 250K volume pot & tone pot and added a Fralin Blender pot. I went with a .02 Mallory 150 tone cap and replaced all of the plastic covered wire with new cloth covered black and white wire.
I wanted humcancelling when the neck and bridge pickups are combined with the Fralin Blender pot, and also humcancelling when the neck and middle pickups are combined, so I installed the RW/RP SSL-1 in the neck and regular SSL-1 in the middle position this time.
So how does it sound? Great of course! The SSL-1's are my favorite stock Duncan Strat single coils and are very similar to the Antiquity Surfers...though not quite as throaty and complex.
The Twangbanger is the big surprise: in this particular Strat, which is HEAVY, especially for an alder bodied guitar, the Twangbanger sounds brighter than I've ever heard one sound. It's the guitar that's making it sound so bright, because the Twangbanger usually sounds much warmer, middier and pluckier.
Really goes to show me how differant the same pickup can sound in differant guitars...it almost doesn't sound like a Twangbanger.
Of course the guitar sounds tons better now. Much richer and ballsier and livlier. The SSL-1's have a lot of personality, strong/deep bass and bright, lively, glassy highs. Very Hendrixy.
And the Twangbanger sounds like the bridge pickup in a Tele...full and throaty but bright. Like I said, brighter than I've ever heard one in a Strat.
I've always thought alder was a brighter sounding wood than lightweight swamp ash, but in this hard tail Strat with the heavy 70's alder body, the Twangbanger really sounds as bright and twangy as the bridge pickup in some Teles.
Lew
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