Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

[Nightburst]

Hi guys, it' s that time again. Can you suggest me what to look for in strat pickups for my new project?
It's a swamp ash body and a thick rosewood board. Would this be a bright or warm combination? I'm kind of thinking this would require a brighter set of pickups. Then again swamp ash is supposed to have big bass and treble going on, so I'm not sure.

Going to move the middle pickup back next to the bridge pickup just like a certain famous strat has.

I'm really liking the Fender custom shop 69 pickups from youtube videos I have seen. Would those be alright for a guitar with before mentioned config? I'm trying to keep things balanced. I also really like Hendrix and Mayer strat tones.
I do not want things to get overly compressed, wooly nor do I want to have too low output, I find low output pickups hard to play.
What am I looking for? Please chime in with your thoughts.

Not looking to get a specific brand or anything just a ballpark idea. Love to hear your thoughts.

here are some video's I think are great examples of the sound i have in my head when it comes to strats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUEINMJ6xko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW9mklrC92A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjWt79eNyMM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jo8NeMxenI

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

SSL-1s are balanced really nice. Definitive.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Ash is quite variable.

Light and it has less of the crisp highs, heavy and you get the dull mids with sharp attack.
Unless you have had pickups in it before then you don't know any baseline to work from.

 

[RolanTHUNDER]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Had Air Classics (DiMarzio) in my PGM401 and it was an Ash body with a rosewood fretboard. the pickups complemented it well but were on the PAF/low output of the spectrum.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Are you sure it is Swamp Ash and not Northern Ash? (I've had both and really like them–but mine had different responses.) Swamp Ash (I prefer Roasted) is super nice for showing the wood grain and is typically lighter (especially if Roasted) in weight. Northern Ash sounds good but typically does not have as nice of grain...then again, probably the solid painted "ash" guitars are just ugly pieces. lol

Wood tones are not concrete–there are "warm" and "bright" sounding examples from many pieces of wood. (With that being said, I do hold to the generalities of wood's impact on tone.) That combo should be fine but you won't know how the guitar as a whole will sound/respond until it is built.

The 69s are very nice pickups (I prefer Fender Fat 50s personally but they definitely are not the end-all-be-all.) What style of music do you play/will this Strat be used for?

Go with what you want and see how it turns out–sounds like you on track for a really nice Strat.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Are you sure it is Swamp Ash and not Northern Ash? (I've had both and really like them–but mine had different responses.) Swamp Ash (I prefer Roasted) is super nice for showing the wood grain and is typically lighter (especially if Roasted) in weight. Northern Ash sounds good but typically does not have as nice of grain...then again, probably the solid painted "ash" guitars are just ugly pieces. lol

Wood tones are not concrete–there are "warm" and "bright" sounding examples from many pieces of wood. (With that being said, I do hold to the generalities of wood's impact on tone.) That combo should be fine but you won't know how the guitar as a whole will sound/respond until it is built.

The 69s are very nice pickups (I prefer Fender Fat 50s personally but they definitely are not the end-all-be-all.) What style of music do you play/will this Strat be used for?

Go with what you want and see how it turns out–sounds like you on track for a really nice Strat.

Not sure , it has nice grain and is on the heavy side. I'm probably too focussed on the woods at this point lol.
Going to do something similar to the masterbuild bronze strat: 54 neck, 50s middle and 69 bridge. I wonder why the custom shop picked that combination?

Here is a pic of the body, need to do more sanding. There is some sort of sealer layer on the body, luckily it's thin so I dont have to sand too much but it's keeping the stain from sinking down the wood to give it that nice cherry color.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

that seems like an odd setup to me, the 69 in the bridge is probably the weakest of the three

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

that seems like an odd setup to me, the 69 in the bridge is probably the weakest of the three

I'll take any suggestions. Why would the 69 be too weak?

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

The grain on that body looks like swamp ash to me. It can have less graining, like on yours pictured, or heavy grain like this one I built a few years ago.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Looks great Jeff! Got any pics of that guitar with finish? Please tell me you stained it in a nice color.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Looks great Jeff! Got any pics of that guitar with finish? Please tell me you stained it in a nice color.

Yes, I decided to have it done in a translucent white with nitro lacquer. Sort of Mary Kaye style. I thought I had more pics on this tablet, but I only have the one below where I obviously didn't wipe it down well. I'm in the process of having an aged mint green pickguard made for it.

Didn't mean to hijack your thread.

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

I'm not much help with single coil pickups. Mine has SSL-1/A2P/A2P singles in it. I had an SSL-5 in the bridge, but it was too imbalanced. If I were to try another set of singles, it would likely be the Antiquity Vintage Surfers. I've read a lot of praise for those pickups on this board.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: Pickups for swamp ash strat with rosewood board

Beautiful guitar Jeff! It's all good, was gonna ask next what pickups would be in it.

Yeah the A2P are definitely on my 'to try' list.

Im gonna correct myself a bit here, the bridge 69 I was talking about should be a 65 over wound. That should be nice and balanced with the 54 and 50.