Pickups for strat

[Speedriff]

Hi guys. I'm looking for some pickups for my strat. I have a 98 deluxe with rosewood neck and vintage noiseless pups. These pups need to go. Here is what I want out of a pup;

1) I want more smoothness than crunch when I crank up the distortion

2) When I pull back the distortion I want to be able to get a light dose of strat twang for some of that good strat blues playing.

3) It needs to be responsive. Thats my main problem with the vintage noisless. I use a lot of touch in my solos, but it just doesn't come through with these pups.

I was thinking about getting some fender "hot" noiseless, because Jeff Beck is very close to the sound I want, but I'm afraid that JB's tone comes from JB and not so much the pickup. Do you guys have any ideas?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Pickups for strat

The neck and middle Duncan Classic Stack Plus Strat pickups get the tone of a '62 Strat pickup and the bridge pickup is slightly overwound for a hotter tone. If you're looking for noiseless with the vintage tone they're the best I've found.

Otherwise, I'd go for the Duncan Antiquitys with the 9.5K - 10K Custom bridge pickup: Ant. Surfers for the bright/chimey/deep tone of '62 Strat pickups....Ant Tex Hots for a tone with the same output but a warmer treble and more mids and slightly more "touch" sensitive tone.

If you're looking for smooth, go for the Antiquity Texas Hots.

Lew

 

[Speedriff]

Re: Pickups for strat

Thanks Lew. I'm not really worried about a vintage tone though. I just want good tone. If good tone comes in the form of vintage, then so be it, if not then thats fine too. Since I'm not worried about vintage tone would those still be the best bets?

 

[jimijames]

Re: Pickups for strat

I have the surfer neck and middle in my strat, and they sound fantastic, but under distortion they're only smooth on the top three strings (to my ears, at least). On the wound strings, they're much brighter, and have more crunch than smoothness. If you want smooth all around, I feel like alnico 2 is the way to go, be it the aps-1's or antiquity texas hots. And they would have less twang when clean than the surfers, but still have some twang, from what I hear. Really, they're both great pickups, both really responsive, and I don't think you can go wrong with either set.

 

[Speedriff]

Re: Pickups for strat

Sounds like the texas hots are what I'm looking for then. Thanks guys.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Pickups for strat

Sounds like the texas hots are what I'm looking for then. Thanks guys.

You're welcome!

The Texas Hots do have a smoother tone under distortion and more mids. Really chewey tone!

The Surfers are closer to what Hendrix used and when I play my Surfers through my Fulltone '69 and Clyde Wah Wah I feel like I'm able to pretty much nail Jimi's distortion and wah tones.

Lew