neck / mid single coil suggestions

aestus

New member
I have a mahogany body strat with rosewood fretboard "bastardcaster" that needs new neck and mid single coils. The sound of the strat is kinda weird in that it's a hard instrument to "dial in."

For example, here's how the guitar reacted with the following bridge humbuckers.

Custom Custom pickup sounds fat, but has no bottom end and no high end. Severely lacks any high end and sounds very compressed. Great for 1 sound (one of my favorite tones) but thats all it can do with this pickup.

JB pickup sounded very thin and weak. Nonexistant bottom end, thin upper midrange and no top end.

59 pickup sounded very "scooped" and with a bit more mids, it would be balanced, but in this guitar it sounds too "metal" with no meat in the sound. Good high end, almost ice picky in the high treble.

Alnico 2 pro humbucker (current pickup) rounds out the top end ice pick and gives it just enough mid range grind. The mid range is in the upper range of the sound spectrum. Very percussive, but not deep sound. Could use a bit more low mids to fill out to give it a bit more chunk. This pickup sounds very "airy" on certain settings.

Anyways, thats just a description of how the guitar sounds with those pickups. I'm looking for a neck and mid single coil that is full and round. I like tones that are similar to the cleaner / slightly distorted tones of Hendrix and the latest bluesy type stuff played by John Mayer.

Any suggestions?


Thanks,

Tom
 
Re: neck / mid single coil suggestions

Hard not to recommend alnico 5 pickups...more highs and more lows than alnico 2. I made a mahogany Strat maybe 25 years years ago...didn't like it. Just wasn't the resonance I liked hearing from a Strat...sounded kind of thin and pingy, which surprised me. I thought the mahogany would make it have a thicker tone like a Les Paul. But it had the opposite effect.

So you may have a hard time getting yours to sound like Hendrix regardless of what pickups you put in it...you might need a lighter body like alder.

In any case, alnico 5 SSL-1's would be like what Hendrix and SRV used. Kind of like a '62 Strat pickup even though they're often compared to '57 pickups. '57 pickups would be a little weaker than the SSL-1's though.

SSL-2's are the same pickups with flat polepieces...a little smoother highs...maybe more mids...might be a good choice in your guitar.

You might like something hotter if you're going with a bridge humbucker...maybe Quarter Pounders?

If you want to go vintage '62 Strat tone but humbucking, go for the Classic Stack Plus pickups.

Lew
 
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