dr.barlo
New member
Hey guys,
First I am not talking about the 2nd and 4th position quack. I am talking about the quack from a s/c pickup only. For example the quack rendered by the JD. If that is confusing, then lets call it quack' !!! :laugh2:
I have been through some bunch of strat pickups for my 01 sienna burst ash body maple neck lone star strat. It is a great guitar, and I wanna get a very strat strat out of it. Am not looking for the SRV tone, BUT the Clapton's tone on the Layla album (think of "I looked away"). It should be crunchy, defined, wild (if overdriven), crisp clear, not too powerful not needed, yet I need a very defined well pronounced bass, not ruining the chime and all.
On that guitar let me talk about the ones I have tried.
1. fender tx specials: were stock, they had an annoying mid hump, and not clear enough bass. It was more lowermids, than a defined bass. They sounded like overwound strat sc's (more mids less treble, less bass) and that's not what I want.
2. van zandt blues bridge; van zandt vintage + neck and middle: This is a great set and I have this set on my 90 sunburst. It does very good SRV, but for this guitar as I said above I want the more clear, the more strat strat tone. And there is no fun when all my guitars sound exactly the same no? Yet the van zandt blues bridge sounds very close to what I want. That's my default option for now. The neck and middle, well we'll see.
3. lindy fralin vintage hot neck and middle and SD ant custom bridge: That is a great set for overdrive. Yet all of them are a bit on the polite side. What I mean is:
3.a. Fralins in the neck and middle: They got the chime, they got the crisp clear tone, BUT NOT the bass, it is lacking. The definition is great, yet I need more well pronounced, room shaking bass. To get what I want imagine E7 in the fifth position, low E open. I want that low E to cut acros the whole chord and stand out. But meanwhile, I don't wanna get a too bassy pickup, no way. Basically I wanna retain all the qualities of the fralins and add more bass, more well defined and pronounced bass.
3.b. ant custom: great pickup, and I see why many LOVE that. It turns the stock guitar from an ice machine into a smooth, yet still strat tone machine. It almost can cope with HBs with the tone rolled down and all, and has a very singing tone. Yet it still is a strat bridge pickup.
I am not letting mine go, yet that pickup does not have the quack. It sort of has that upfront tone of p90s, no quack, (relatively speaking of course), is somewhat flat (again relatively speaking, is no way close to being flat in absolute terms).
In order to see if I can add bass and highs to scoop the eq a little bit and make it a more strat bridge pickup, I installed one fralin base plate to that pickup. It helped, yet still no cigar. So for those of you who think your bridge tone might use a little bit more highs and bass with the strat ant custom, spending $10 on a fralin bass plate does the trick!
So what do I do? The things that come to my mind (after Lew's input) are ant II's. As I said my default now is a van zandt blues bridge. I lvoe that pickup, but I guess this time given a high probability of success, I'd rather get something new.
Another thing I have thought of is to put a custom shop order for a JD to fit the strat bridge position. 7.80K with the base plate and all... There the problem is that I know the JD on a tele, hence the tele bridge and all. And that might affect the tone, I mean a JD in a strat might not sound as it does in a tele. What do you think?
BTW I'd love to hear from those of you who have tried other scatter wound ones, like voodoos, rolphs, (I don't mind the hum, in fact I like it :smack: so I am not listing kinmans here) wagners, and others I don't know.
Regards,
B
First I am not talking about the 2nd and 4th position quack. I am talking about the quack from a s/c pickup only. For example the quack rendered by the JD. If that is confusing, then lets call it quack' !!! :laugh2:
I have been through some bunch of strat pickups for my 01 sienna burst ash body maple neck lone star strat. It is a great guitar, and I wanna get a very strat strat out of it. Am not looking for the SRV tone, BUT the Clapton's tone on the Layla album (think of "I looked away"). It should be crunchy, defined, wild (if overdriven), crisp clear, not too powerful not needed, yet I need a very defined well pronounced bass, not ruining the chime and all.
On that guitar let me talk about the ones I have tried.
1. fender tx specials: were stock, they had an annoying mid hump, and not clear enough bass. It was more lowermids, than a defined bass. They sounded like overwound strat sc's (more mids less treble, less bass) and that's not what I want.
2. van zandt blues bridge; van zandt vintage + neck and middle: This is a great set and I have this set on my 90 sunburst. It does very good SRV, but for this guitar as I said above I want the more clear, the more strat strat tone. And there is no fun when all my guitars sound exactly the same no? Yet the van zandt blues bridge sounds very close to what I want. That's my default option for now. The neck and middle, well we'll see.
3. lindy fralin vintage hot neck and middle and SD ant custom bridge: That is a great set for overdrive. Yet all of them are a bit on the polite side. What I mean is:
3.a. Fralins in the neck and middle: They got the chime, they got the crisp clear tone, BUT NOT the bass, it is lacking. The definition is great, yet I need more well pronounced, room shaking bass. To get what I want imagine E7 in the fifth position, low E open. I want that low E to cut acros the whole chord and stand out. But meanwhile, I don't wanna get a too bassy pickup, no way. Basically I wanna retain all the qualities of the fralins and add more bass, more well defined and pronounced bass.
3.b. ant custom: great pickup, and I see why many LOVE that. It turns the stock guitar from an ice machine into a smooth, yet still strat tone machine. It almost can cope with HBs with the tone rolled down and all, and has a very singing tone. Yet it still is a strat bridge pickup.
I am not letting mine go, yet that pickup does not have the quack. It sort of has that upfront tone of p90s, no quack, (relatively speaking of course), is somewhat flat (again relatively speaking, is no way close to being flat in absolute terms).
In order to see if I can add bass and highs to scoop the eq a little bit and make it a more strat bridge pickup, I installed one fralin base plate to that pickup. It helped, yet still no cigar. So for those of you who think your bridge tone might use a little bit more highs and bass with the strat ant custom, spending $10 on a fralin bass plate does the trick!
So what do I do? The things that come to my mind (after Lew's input) are ant II's. As I said my default now is a van zandt blues bridge. I lvoe that pickup, but I guess this time given a high probability of success, I'd rather get something new.
Another thing I have thought of is to put a custom shop order for a JD to fit the strat bridge position. 7.80K with the base plate and all... There the problem is that I know the JD on a tele, hence the tele bridge and all. And that might affect the tone, I mean a JD in a strat might not sound as it does in a tele. What do you think?
BTW I'd love to hear from those of you who have tried other scatter wound ones, like voodoos, rolphs, (I don't mind the hum, in fact I like it :smack: so I am not listing kinmans here) wagners, and others I don't know.
Regards,
B
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