Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

[Thor]

Hello wise ones!!

I messed up. :smack: I assembled a strat from parts and every choice I made along the way accidentally made it sooooo bright sounding. I'm talking "sparks coming from clenched teeth" bright!

The body is Norther Ash (hard and dense...like it's owner!) the fretboard is ebony, the bridge is brass and the nut is bone. Planet waves locking/trimming tuners. Got a "car guy" to put the paint on (never do this) and I think he filled it full of primer.

The thing feels great....heavy strings and big frets and I have hands that can crush walnuts (no really!) so the look and feel of this thing is sweet.

BUT the bright!!

I am thinking of sinking some new warmer sounding pickups. I still want the single coil size....but I want pearly gates warmth! hot, fat.....I am not picky!

JUST NOT AS STINGINGLY BRIGHT!! AAARGH!!:yell:

I'm looking for any and all advice on the cool rails, hot rails, little '59 or some other brand (I feel terrible even typing that) that will take the edge of my beloved.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

Have you thought about the strings you're using? Maybe buying a set of Pure Nickel strings, which are darker than regular nickel/steel would help to tame the brightness in that guitar. I would say give that a shot before switching out the pickups.

 

[revolution]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

Read Lew's post on the Live Wires...excellent! May be your saviour! Linky:

https://forum.seymourduncan.com/showthread.php?t=73335

 

[thucydides]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

I've always disliked the bridge pu in my stats. I own one Strat currently, with a lil 59 in the bridge. I like it. It does not seem as warm as a full size 59, but it sounds warm enough to be sure. I've also used the hot rails: Big, fat, hot, and punchy! A much higher output beast than the lil 59. A buddy had a JB jr in his strat, and he liked it quite a bit. I only heard it a few times at jam sessions, so I don't know it well enough to say that I like it. It seemed to be closer to the Hot Rails in terms of output, but with an upper mid spike. Maybe someone else can correct me re the Cool Rails, but it seems that posts I've read in other threads indicate that you may find it is too bright.

Good luck!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

Yes the Hot Live Wires might be a cool choice if you want everything from Strat clean to Pearly Gates humbucker type output to overdrive your amp.

But if you want a more conventional Strat, I'd consider alnico 2 Strat single coils like the Duncan APS-2/Twangbanger set or better still (IMO!) the Antiquity Texas Hot set with the hot Texas Hot Custom bridge pickup.

Good luck!

Lew

 

[More-Gear-Than-Skill]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

Check out the Quarter Pounder, flats. How about a little circuit to boost mids/bass.

 

[Pecan]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

Main reason I think i dislike "most" guitars with an ebony fretboard. I don't know anything about duncan single coils, apart from the cool rails which I have been checking out lately. The cool rails are defiantly not bright. Then again I've only played them in two differant guitars

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

I like ebony fret boards, but they are preferably matched up with warmer body woods. I have an ebony fret board matched up with a mohogony/maple cap tele body sporting humbuckers on one guitar. This is an awesome combonation.

I think you can approach this problem in two different ways. One is to go to a rosewood neck and use your ebony/maple neck on something else. A rosewood neck would dramatically counter the excessive brightness. I have a ash body strat paired with a rosewood neck that is nice and warm sounding. This neck was actually too dark and thick paired with basswood or alder. This option allows the use of strat pickups to retain strat mojo.

The second option is darker pickups that may work, but probably not as effectively in retaining strat mojo. Dimarzio makes a strat sized rail version of the Tone Zone. The TZ is the proven bridge position solution in too bright super strats. A TZ bridge paired with cool rails in the other positions may be the way to go?

On edit: By rosewood neck I mean all rosewood, not maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: Strat too darn bright! Rail pickups?

I think the solution is something wound pretty hot with Alnico 2 magnets. The Twangbanger (8.2k) in the bridge as Lew suggested is a good start, though I suspect you might need something even hotter than that. I don't know of any big names that make a hotter Alnico 2 neck and middle (by which I mean significantly above 7k) but there are some smaller guys that do.