Pickups for my two strats.

benbenben

benbenben

New member
#1
Alder Body
Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard & Birdseye Maple Neck

#2
Swamp Ash Body
AAA Birdseye Maple Neck

Those are the two strats I'm planning to build this coming break. I've been looking around for pickups and suggestions on other places, but i thought SD would be a good place with lotsa info.

Firstly, how would the body and neck woods complement each other. I.e., would the alder and the rosewood/maple neck go well togeter, and the ash and maple neck go together?

Basically my plans for these two strats are..... essentially to be 'opposite'... I'm not looking after like a blues machine and a metal monster... but more so, two strats, that'll manage my blues and rock with two different view points.

My plans for the #1 were some Big Dipper (John Mayer) pickups. I'm quite a fan of that tone he has and i would love something along those lines. I believe the word is underwound? Was thinking either these http://torresengineering.com/newstpidimit.html OR some Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots underwound 5%.

#2 I want to be not so 'weak' in that sense. I was planning something possibly overwound or with more ooopmh. I was advised to possibly look into a set of quarter pounders. No idea what they'd be like, but i assume they are heavy.. which can work for me. I just don't wannna lose the essence of the strat. I really dont need something that'll do say 'humbucker' style tones... I'll have a paul for that.

Any help would be great! Cheers
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

Ben... what the hell. Both with birdseye maple necks... one with a Brazillian RW fretboard. Awesome!

Post pics of these guitars, dude!
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

Hahaha bee, i see you're quite the SD Fan nearly 4k posts! HUGE!

Yeh this is my holiday project. Can't wait to get these babies down and rockin!

Psst... who's the chick in the avatar?
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

One word..... KINMAN

If you really want versatility, get the no solder harness to go with it.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

benbenben,
I sent you a pm regarding the underwound Fralin Vintage Hots...

3Tone
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

benbenben said:
#1 Alder Body Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard & Birdseye Maple Neck

#2 Swamp Ash Body AAA Birdseye Maple Neck

Those are the two strats I'm planning to build this coming break. I've been looking around for pickups and suggestions on other places, but i thought SD would be a good place with lotsa info.

Firstly, how would the body and neck woods complement each other. I.e., would the alder and the rosewood/maple neck go well togeter, and the ash and maple neck go together?
Click to expand...

Don't know about the alder (although many good sounding strats are alder body with rosewood fretboard and maple neck), but the swamp ash with birdseye neck sounds great. I have a Lite Ash Stratocaster and that's the same thing.

benbenben said:
Basically my plans for these two strats are..... essentially to be 'opposite'... I'm not looking after like a blues machine and a metal monster... but more so, two strats, that'll manage my blues and rock with two different view points.

My plans for the #1 were some Big Dipper (John Mayer) pickups. I'm quite a fan of that tone he has and i would love something along those lines. I believe the word is underwound? Was thinking either these http://torresengineering.com/newstpidimit.html OR some Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots underwound 5%.

#2 I want to be not so 'weak' in that sense. I was planning something possibly overwound or with more ooopmh. I was advised to possibly look into a set of quarter pounders. No idea what they'd be like, but i assume they are heavy.. which can work for me. I just don't wannna lose the essence of the strat. I really dont need something that'll do say 'humbucker' style tones... I'll have a paul for that.

Any help would be great! Cheers
Click to expand...

My Lite Ash Strat has 3 Alnico II Pro Staggered single coils. I love this combination to death. Very beautiful, very versatile all the way to (but not including) metal, and it can do hard rock.

I'm planning on a Carvin strat some day, which will have an A2Pf neck, Custom middle, and Hot bridge....
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

^ I agree. Something A2 for the ash strat would be preferable.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

Where are you planning to find Brazilian Rosewood? It's been illegal to use it since 1992, so do you have old stock?



Cheers........................wahwah
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

benbenben said:
#1
Alder Body
Brazilian Rosewood Fretboard & Birdseye Maple Neck

#2
Swamp Ash Body
AAA Birdseye Maple Neck
Click to expand...
I would do the same combination with these pieces. For single coils try Kinman for both of them. I have experience with the Blues & Hank Marvin sets. Amazing tone, zero noise. I suggest the blues set in the alder strat and the Marvin set in the ash strat.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

I was planning on the lower output pups for the rosewood. Not a good idea?

I was sorta planning it around the john mayer sig as i like his guitar and i was gonna get something similiar to the Big Dippers. Are hotter-overwound pickups not so good for ash-maple strat?

Would the kinmans be.... different enough? I really want to stress "difference" between these two strats. Those kinmans are fairly pricey though, and u can get some other well branded pickups for much much cheaper.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

I guess also i don't want 'versatility' in that sense. I want one strat to excel in the cleans and light overdrive and the other to really be a rocker with a cranked amp and some booster for some awesome 'strat-styled' leads?
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

I like the idea of the quarter pounds in all positions of the strat.

"The result is a fat, punchy sound; similar to a P-90."

Description from the website sounds pretty good. Only thing I'm afriad of is does it lose it's strat-like character due to it's high output? I'm not one to want a 'progressive' strat tone but i want something that'll be a medium-hi gain strat beast. No metal or 'shred' or scooped mids or anything. Blues and rock mainly.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

I've got a Suhr strat the same as your #1 spec
Alder, braz/maple neck
Mine has the Kinman Marvin set with his K9 harness.
I'd agree that the Blues set with K7 might be a better match, in hindsight.
I still love mine and will never change it though.
100_0193.jpg
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

I'd say based on your questions:

1) Put A2Ps in your swamp ash body / maple neck model. They're considered medium output by some, but are very beautiful clean and should give you an excellent clean tone. I dunno about how "Mayer" it will sound because I've never played a Mayer strat, but his sound should be vintage staggered or alnico ii pro staggered, in terms of what Duncan pickups there are. The only other option I can see would be the antiquity surfers, but again I don't know the Mayer Strat's specs.

2) As for your "rocker" guitar, you could do what I'm planning on doing with a standard stratocaster: vintage staggered neck, custom staggered middle, and quarter pound staggered bridge. Everything from mild to wild right there, and all single coil as well :D
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

TwinReverb, those are good ideas, I believe. But for the rock'n'roll axe, I'd put QP bridge, Custom neck, andvintage to neck position, for more power for soloing with the neck pup. Although QP neck would also be great. In fact, I too like the idea of three QP's in a Strat, should be great for YJM, Ritchie Blackmore, and Uli Roth (For the first two, just don't use the middle pup). In fact, that is what I'm going to do some day.
Oh, and put these to the #1.
As for the #2, I'd suggest an APS or Surfer set.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

I've got some APS1s in an old Tokai and that sounds super vintage - classic early strat sounds. As an alternative, and retaining the strat sound, I'd go for the vintage stacks - quiet, clean, modern - maybe a hot stack at the bridge?. Quite a list of players who use stacks as they sound great in the studio - you'll find the APS1s noisy compared to many single coils - but that's how they get to sound so great. I think they rae a great, less expensive alt. to the antiquities.
 
Re: Pickups for my two strats.

Yeh! I'm pretty keen on these Surfers ey. Which strat would i put the surfers in? the alder/rosewood or the swampash/maple? I need a consensus on the 'rocker' strat. I really don't want something.... that'll do "this to this" I just want it to do "this" if that makes sense. I mentioned before i don't really want versatility.

I like the idea of all QPs, but that might be a bit over the top. What's another overwound set of strat pups that'll still sound strat, but have enough oomph... We don't have to SD do we? Unless it's because it's the SD forum :s
 
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