Strat pickups with some warmth

LRS

LRS

New member
I got myself a second hand Fender American Performer Strat this week . I wanted a maple fingerboard strat next to my rosewood Eric Johnson strat. All stock, no mods (yet ). Although the guitar plays and feels very nice, I’m not too sure about the Yosemite pickups. They came installed very close to the strings and sounded very articulate, but on the harsh side. A little metallic I’d say. I lowered them more towards the pickguard, which helped a bit, but I wonder if people around here would suggest alternatives. I like beefy Strat pickups, but just not too harsh. A little bit of warmth would be welcome. The Yosemite pickups are Alnico 2 for the bridge and Alnico 4 for the neck and middle positions. They’re on the overwound side I’say (N/M/B I measured 7.5/8.5/8.9 kOhm). I know how to handle a soldering iron. Please let me know your suggestions!
Cheers,
Chris

cb2ff0e5ac1f31a8dad35fd4006a39f4.jpg
 
Last edited:
Depends what you mean by 'warmth'.


An SSL-5 will be quite a bit beefier than the slightly overwound pickups that you've got. Paul Gilbert's Injector set is also pretty warm - kinda half-way between a humbucker (sound very humbuckery if you roll back the tone) and a strat (tone full up) but have a low output middle so the option to do sparkly cleans is still there. Quarter pounders are very beefy in the mids - similar to a humbucker with a splash of single coil flavour.
 
Maybe I should’ve said “less harsh” instead of “more warmth”, those Yosemite pickups do sound stratty, but go towards the icepick IMHO.
 
Before you go changing pickups, check electronics. Do you have a treble bleed in your circuit right now? Might be worth clipping it and seeing if that helps. Also measure the pots and ensure that none of them are more than 250k.

Honestly, I quite like SSL2s for slightly warmer classic stratty sounds (except in the bridge, where I prefer an SSL6) . . . but they're a lower wind that what you've got so might end up brighter that you're hoping for.
 
I would turn down the tone control first, or re-EQ your amp. But the Antiquity Surfers are a great set, which don't have that quality at all.
 
I've always been intrigued by the 5/2's. Bite on the low pitched strings, thicker on the treble strings.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk
 
7.5k/8.5k/8.9k with #42 should be plenty fat, so i wonder if hamer fan is right and its wound with thinner wire.

how do you find the pups in your ej strat, stock i assume?
 
Demanic said:
I've always been intrigued by the 5/2's. Bite on the low pitched strings, thicker on the treble strings.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Five Twos are exceptional. I have them on my Warmoth guitar, and they sound fantastic.
 
im a fan of the 5/2 as well. its kind a vintage type wind, but the magnets tune things a bit. good stuff
 
Changing pickups is fun so I'm not discouraging you, but if you like the general tone but want to tone down the ice pick and make it warmer, all you have to do is lower your volume pot value. You can achieve this by clipping in resistors between hot and ground on your output jack to get a sense for what value you like. Then you can either solder in the resistor or install a volume pot with that value. Check out these 220k pots. I didn't even know this value was available until recently. If you get this lot, some of them will probably meter down around 200k which would be around 20% darker (theoretically) than a pot metering 250k.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3916310981...wC2Xu/C9/k7kpsQgP4Uivtlo3RSI|tkp:BFBMuoWkndBh
 
  • Like
Reactions: LRS
jeremy said:
7.5k/8.5k/8.9k with #42 should be plenty fat, so i wonder if hamer fan is right and its wound with thinner wire.

how do you find the pups in your ej strat, stock i assume?
Click to expand...


Thx for asking. The EJ Strat stock pickups sound very clear, on the hifi side I’d say, although not harsh. Articulate. I like them overdriven, but they never inspired me for clean sounds with the amp on the edge of break up. After playing with pickup hight I decided to replace those years ago with CS Fat 60s and never looked back. These can be considered as TX Specials with Alnico II magnets. Although I do like the Fat 60s a lot, I really want to consider different pickups for the Performer, just to have two Stratocasters with different sound and character.
 
Last edited:
jeremy said:
7.5k/8.5k/8.9k with #42 should be plenty fat, so i wonder if hamer fan is right and its wound with thinner wire.

how do you find the pups in your ej strat, stock i assume?
Click to expand...


Giving your post a second thought, I might try the EJ pickups in the Performer Strat, see how I like them in that guitar. That would be a very inexpensive test since I still must have those somewhere in a drawer…
 
Alright, I took out the Yosemite pickups and replaced them with the EJ pickups this week. Actually they’re not bad at all. I like them. They seem to suit the maple neck Performer Strat a lot better than the rosewood EJ Strat somehow. As described above, in the EJ Strat it felt the EJ pickups sounded kinda sterile. In the Performer Strat they’re quite nice. Clean is good, by far not as brittle as the Yosemite pickups, edge of breakup is pleasant, and overdriven they shine. I was pleasantly surprized how the EJ pickups behave in the Performer Strat! Thanks for the suggestion, I overlooked myself. For the time being they’ll stay right where they are!
 
glad you got something working for ya, especially since you had them already! makes me wonder about these yosemite pups, never heard em before and maybe thats not a bad thing lol
 
I really really don’t care for the Yosemite pickups either. I just don’t think they sound good. They don’t have a pleasing tone to me.

I hold the SSL 1/1/5 set in very high regard. Perhaps my favorite strat pickup set. They have a beautiful clean tone and sound awesome driven. And I like having a lead pickup in the bridge that can bring the heat. The set, in my book, is in the top 5 best ever pickups for Strats IMHO.
 
jeremy said:
glad you got something working for ya, especially since you had them already! makes me wonder about these yosemite pups, never heard em before and maybe thats not a bad thing lol
Click to expand...

From reading your posts on what you are inspired by, you’d really wouldn’t care for them. They are very forgettable. Quite bland and harsh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top