"Quacky"/Rock pups for Squire upgrade?

[bassface732]

Hi all!

My father-in-law has an old Fender Squire Stratocaster with surprisingly good feel and playability, and decent tone. I'm thinking of buying it off of him and making a project out of it; seeing what I can do to get it feeling and sounding more like a higher-end guitar

In a perfect world, I'd like to get as close as I can to "classic" Strat tone in the notch positions- that spanky, quacky goodness that does funk and blues like nothing else can- but with a more aggressive rock tone in the bridge position. I'm thinking maybe the Hot Rails-Vintage Rails-Cool Rails combo, but I'm not sure... I'd really love to hear everyone's thoughts! What do you think of the Rails set? Are there other pickups you would recommend to get close to the tone I'm describing? Is there something specific for a Squire upgrade that I should take a look at?

I'm also open to any other, non-pickup-related advice for undertaking this type of project. In addition to new pickups I plan to replace hardware (including the bridge), sand down some pokey frets, and do some general cleaning/setup work. This is my first time doing this type of thing- are there other adjustments I should consider making to get this guitar sounding and feeling better? Any general tips or things I should look out for?

Thanks so much in advance for any and all tips and suggestions!

 

[Mincer]

If you want a Strat tone, go for 2 Vintage Flat pickups, and for the rock sound, get an SSL-6. If you want hum-cancelling, get 2 Classic Stacks, and a Vintage Hot Stack.

 

[CK71]

Another option is to see if there is room under your pickguard and convert it to an HSS. I had this set up with a 59/custom hybrid in the bridge and ssl-52 in the middle and neck. The humbucker was set to split when in the notch position and it quacked really well.

 

[jeremy]

i love the vintage hot stack but its not all that much hotter than the normal classic stack bridge, just a little less bright with more mids and bottom. still sounds very much like a strat pup which may not be hot enough for your rock tones. the stks6 or stks9 might be a better choice for the bridge if you want more muscle.

the ssl2 neck and middle with ss6 bridge is a fantastic set of single coils, classic strat neck and middle tones with a hotter bridge.

the rails would be a great setup but wont nail those classic strat tones. the cool rails is a great pup but sounds more like a clean, clear humbucker than a single coil. the hot rails sounds like a fat loud humbucker, also great but not very stratty. of course people hear things differently so ymmv

to replace all the hardware with high quality stuff would cost more than the guitar itself and may not really get you much in return. i would start with the fret work, make sure the nut is properly cut, replace the pups and go from there. play it for a while and see what, if anything else really needs to be replaced. ive found that cheap tuners dont hold tune after a while, but if these are working, then no need to replace them yet

 

[GuitarStv]

I run SSL-2 neck and mid with an SSL-6 in the bridge in a strat, and it's a great combo. Lovely cleans and enough oomph in the bridge to bring a smile to your face. If you get a tapped SSL-6 you can split it to get better cluck from the bridge/mid sound, but it works nicely untapped too.

 

[bassface732]

I run SSL-2 neck and mid with an SSL-6 in the bridge in a strat, and it's a great combo. Lovely cleans and enough oomph in the bridge to bring a smile to your face. If you get a tapped SSL-6 you can split it to get better cluck from the bridge/mid sound, but it works nicely untapped too.

Love the idea of splitting the SSL-6 to get even more cluck in the bridge/middle position! Any chance you could direct me to where I can learn to do this mod? (Coil-tapping, if I'm understanding you correctly)

 

[Mincer]

Are you talking about auto-tapping in a particular position, or adding a switch so you can tap it at will?

 

[bassface732]

I guess whatever's easiest... I assume I would always use it tapped in the bridge/middle position so auto-tapping in that position might be simpler from a playing standpoint, but I'm open to adding a switch or a push-pull pot as well!

 

[GuitarStv]

Love the idea of splitting the SSL-6 to get even more cluck in the bridge/middle position! Any chance you could direct me to where I can learn to do this mod? (Coil-tapping, if I'm understanding you correctly)

I did mine up like this with a push pull pot (you can ignore the treble bleed, smaller cap, and 500k pot - I like to be able to get a really bright sound from the SSL-6):


Pot up will split the bridge, pot down is full on. You use a mini switch too if you don't like push/pulls. This wiring is for tone on bridge and neck, but not middle - move the pink wire down one lug on the switch if you want the traditional 'no tone on bridge' strat wiring.

 

[Synapsys]

Hot Rails / Vintage Rails / Cool Rails with push-pull pots the get series / parallel wiring on both the bridge and neck.

Versatile tones all across the board, and convinciing notch tones for classic Strat sounds.