MIM strat pickups advice

[James Davidson]

hi. i have a MIM strat and i want to pimp it up a bit with better pickups. ive got some irongear pigirons in at the moment and theyre not bad but i want more powerful pickups.

since i use the neck pickup 80% of the time and i can only afford to change one pickup, i thought i would change that one. i was going to get an ssl-3 for the neck but i heard that might not be a good idea.

im into shoegaze style music and playing post rock stuff and sonic youth style stuff. if i could get my strat to sound anything like a jazzmaster that would be great.

i just would like some advice about what pickups are good to put in the neck position. i want it to be a single coil because i just dont like the look of the rails.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: MIM strat pickups advice

Part of the distinctive sound of the Fender "offset waist" guitars is due to their idiosyncratic hardware. A Stratocaster - no matter how modified - is never going to sound quite the same.

I agree that the combination of an SSL-3 and two stock Fender MIM single coils is going to sound imbalanced. An SSL-3T would be a different matter.

My recomendation for the neck position would be something of "vintage" output. The Five-Two is one favourite. An APS-1L gives a Hendrixy vibe. (The low end response may go some way to creating the Jazzmaster illusion that you want.) Money no object? It has to be the Antiquity II Surfer.

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: MIM strat pickups advice

IMO, save your money for hamburgers, booze, and rubbers, turn up your amp and make more noise. Whatever type of pickup you have in the guitar will work fine for that style of music. I got my Mexican Strat specifically because it is really good at making godawful, cheap, overdriven noise! They are perfect for that!