New Here Plus pickups questions

timrocker

New member
Hi Everybody,
Just found this place, see a lot to like and learn here.

I just got new pickups in my 91 Fender USA Strat. They are my Christmas present to myself.

It's an ongoing thing, this tone quest and I'm okay with pursuing it for as long as it takes.

Very very happy with the sound of the TB-11 in the bridge position. Also liking the sound of the APS-2's, with the middle being a RWRP. For hum cancelling ya know.

Trouble spot: Somehow the pole pieces on the singles don't line up with my little e and b strings. The e misses both of them completely, and the b is a little off center. I know that the magnetic field doesn't exactly correspond, but I have to confess I'm a little vain about the look of my axe. :_) Yes, it's true. I like it to look as good as I can get it to.

I also felt, after taking the guitar out to some jams, that there isn't very good coverage of the plain strings as you go up the neck. Was a problem with this guitar before these pickups were in, but now it seems even worse. To my ears. I had kind of hoped to treat that and improve upon it.

So I'm considering pulling out the APS-2's and getting a single size pup in the neck only. For simplicity. I have a Stew-Mac e-switch that taps the coil of the bridge bucker automatically, and uses both sides of the bucker in positions 2 and 3. So, in theory, one single with the bucker is plenty of sound choices.

Can anyone recommend me a pup to work well with my Custom Custom? I like classic rock strat tones, you know, Steve Miller, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Gilmour, etc.

Thanks much for any good suggestions!
 
Re: New Here Plus pickups questions

Examine photographs of any vintage Fender Stratocaster. The polepiece magnets never line up with the strings in all three positions. Not fatal.
 
Re: New Here Plus pickups questions

If it's not too far off, you might be able to tweak it a bit closer. Make it so rather than being centered on your low E and not under your high E, it's just a bit off center on each.

May need a new pickguard, if the problem is the pickguard slots aren't placed quite right.

A lot of people are perfectly happy tonally if they compensate by bringing the pickup a bit closer under the high strings. Especially with A2, string pull is pretty low, so as long as the string doesn't hit the pickup, you're good.

If you want to mess with different pickups, you might look at Five-Twos. Would give punchier low strings while keeping smoother high strings to balance well with the Custom Custom.

I'd try to get the pickup placement right before messing with more pickup swaps if you can.
 
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