Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

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Plotonis

New member
Hello there !

Last year i bought a 95' Mexican Stratocaster for a very cheap price . Now i realize , all electronics are total s**t . Im about to buy a pickup set , pots , jack and everything ...

Im a single coil type of guy so i thought California 50's set or the loaded pickguard would be perfect for me BUT since i wont be a professional musician and im gonna use that guitar for probably all my life , versatility is extremely important because its nearly impossible to play all the time whatever i want in the bands and i will need of some humbucker tones too .

Between California 50's , Everything Axe(Jb jr. in the bridge is too much power and output for me ) loaded pickguards and EMG DG20 system(its seems like the bang for the buck ) im stuck :S .

Which set do you guys recommend for versatility ? I dont want to lose that single coil , bluesy feel but time to time i need that humbucker type of output from the guitar like classic rock/hard rock bands/guitarists have ...
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Aiming for too much versatility can be counterproductive.

For example...going for a bunch of coil tapping, hum cancelling modern pickups means you will never get the vintage strat tone.
Going for all single coil means you wont get the humbucking sound. And if you go for humbuckers, a high output humbucker will not give you vintage paf tones and vice versa. What is the point of hot rodding a telecaster for versatility at the expense of the very sound that makes telecasters interesting? Why tame a fire breathing shredstick with vintage pickups? Mixing humbuckers and singles? Then you have to deal with whether you choose 500k pots to bring out the best in the buckers and get singles that are too bright, or 250k pots for the singles, but neuter the high end of the humbuckers.

Eddie Van Halen had the idea...he knew his favourite sound: one humbucker, one volume and rock out. He inspired a generation of guitarists.

Essentially every set of pickups you might choose has its own particular set of sounds - even the ones that purport to do everything. Nothing does everything, and things that try end up doing no one thing well. A bunch of bland or "close enough" tones is nowhere as rewarding as one or two killer tones.

So my advice is choose the sound you most love, install the set that will deliver that sound, then enjoy developing your playing and exploring the relationship you have with the instrument. GUitars and pickups wont make you versatile, but the way you play will. Aim to be a versatile player.

ANywyas...having said all that....try a pair of ssl-1s in the neck and middle and an ssl-5 (with coil tap option) in the bridge. That way you will get all the honest to goodness pure, rich, chimey strat tones, plus the option of a little extra grunt when you need it on the bridge.

While you are in there, upgrade all the pots, switches and caps. You can get a nice upgrade kit as well as some sprague caps for not much dough from guitarfetish.
 
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Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

I have a modified 1996 MIM Tex-Mex HSS Stratocaster. The stock controls were identical to an American Standard Strat except for a TBX lower tone control.

This guitar has sounded rather good with the following pickup sets.
1) Fender Fat Fifties set
2) Fender Tex-Mex N and C singles, SD Antiquity Texas Hot B
3) Lace Sensor Silver, Silver, Light Blue
4) SD STK-10n, SSL-52 RPRW, STK-10b

All of these combinations are versatile without losing a Stratty identity. In my opinion, the Sensor set is only good for distortion.

I wire the controls so that the lower tone pot operates on the middle and bridge pickups. A push-pull pot introduces the neck pickup to all selector switch positions.

The trick is to find a good valve amplifier and learn how to milk the guitar/amp combination for all that it is worth.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Plotonis said:
Now i realize , all electronics are total s**t . Im about to buy a pickup set , pots , jack and everything ...
Click to expand...

Well, do they work? Because it seems to me you're very undecided about what you want. If everything works then you might want to play that for a while until you really know what you want.

Plotonis said:
Im a single coil type of guy.
Click to expand...

Again, from the indecision you've got going on, you might not truly be a single coil type of guy.

Plotonis said:
Versatility is extremely important because its nearly impossible to play all the time whatever i want in the bands and i will need of some humbucker tones too .
Click to expand...

Yes, if you've got one guitar you've got to compromise. I always found HSS to be a great compromise to be honest. This really depends on what kind of rock tones you want though. I like my HSS setups to have straight up vintage voiced singles and low output, PAF type humbuckers that are on the brighter side (so they work with 250k pots). However, other, less versatile options would be to have a hot single in the bridge, or a hotter bridge humbucker and hotter singles.

Trust me, I was in your place. My first post 7 years ago (this month, time flies by) was about putting an HSH setup in my Stratocaster.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Forgot to mention, my 1996 MIM Strat came to me with vintage style stamped steel bridge saddles and a full size sustain block - not the pot metal saddle, skinny block SUNG IL design. With a decent bridge, even the stock pickups with the underslung ceramic magnets can sound okay.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Thanks for the posts ! Well
Nothing does everything, and things that try end up doing no one thing well.
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so true but what i meant was i dont wanna lack a punch on the tone ... As an example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yftgeV8aV2g&feature=share in this video tone of the les paul overpowers so much but strat has that chime and quack . Individually i think tones are top notch but when they come together , it was bit harder to realize there is a strat on that video ...

Well, do they work? Because it seems to me you're very undecided about what you want. If everything works then you might want to play that for a while until you really know what you want.
Click to expand...
No , not anymore ... Only volume and 1 tone pot works , i got one of them wired to bridge and after that it just stopped working and im getting a weird , extra bassy , like a "closed" tone from the bridge pickup ...

Yes, if you've got one guitar you've got to compromise. I always found HSS to be a great compromise to be honest. This really depends on what kind of rock tones you want though. I like my HSS setups to have straight up vintage voiced singles and low output, PAF type humbuckers that are on the brighter side (so they work with 250k pots). However, other, less versatile options would be to have a hot single in the bridge, or a hotter bridge humbucker and hotter singles.
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Guitar is already modded , owner before me changed the bridge pickup to Hot Rails but i think its an old model ...

There is another issue , i live in Hungary and its kinda hard to find even the ssl 1 set . Some webshops do have shipping here but not everything ... So its hard for me to find the ssl 1 /ssl 1 /ssl 5 combo , i heard great things about it and its just a good combination of pickups ...

I might go for the EMG DG20 set actually , its easy to find , its cheaper than other loaded pickguards , decent tones but that vintage strat tone is not just there and battery issues etc ...
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Funkfingers said:
Forgot to mention, my 1996 MIM Strat came to me with vintage style stamped steel bridge saddles and a full size sustain block - not the pot metal saddle, skinny block SUNG IL design. With a decent bridge, even the stock pickups with the underslung ceramic magnets can sound okay.
Click to expand...

I agree. I good steel saddle & block bridge gave my Strat enough thickness to take it out of icepick territory. Of course, this doesn't answer your question about tougher humbucker tones...

In the end I had to get a second guitar with dual humbucker, because the Strat could never get the right tones. Even a fixed bridge, tune-o-matic guitar with a singlecoil in the neck and humbucker in the bridge couldn't get there. Only an HH guitar did the trick.
 
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Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

The California Set is three SSL-1's? I'd go for that. Great vintage style Strat pickups.

I'd also put the tone control that's normally on the middle pickup on the bridge pickup instead.

Rather than a hot bridge pickup, I much prefer a really good clean boost (like the Xotic EP Booster Robben Ford uses) or a clean boost/overdrive pedal that's designed to let me go from a rock clean tone to an overdriven rock tone using just my guitar's volume control. Those based on the Klon are my favorites and the EH Soul Food is a great pedal to start with as is the Aluminum Falcon from PCE.

You should be able to play just about any kind of music with that rig...assuming you have a good amp. I like Fender Deluxe Reverbs myself.
 
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Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Good tone is mostly your amp. Pickups will only get you so far.
What amp are you using?
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

I too think that gibson175 has pretty much hit the mark. I went through the same sort of thing with my 1996 (i think) MIM Strat about a year ago. The main thing is you have to at least sort of know what you want out of the guitar before you start throwing new PUPs at it. In my particular case, I like a medium to high output humbucker in the bridge (I am more or a Les Paul kinda guy anyway, but I digress). I wanted a pickup with plenty of umph to push my amp. By the same token, I wanted a good single coil "strat" tone in the bridge as that is really the only "strat" tone I like. After some conversations with Scott at SD, I ened up with a SSL-5 in the neck and middle, and a JB (full size) in the bridge. The high output (for a single coil) SSL-5s balance well with the JB and still give me the "strat" tone I want. Now, the JB took a little fiddling with, and changing pots to all 500k, but after some time and tweaking, I couldn't be happier with the setup now.

The point? All of that is my long winded way of saying, know what you want, make smart choices based on what you want, and experiment from there.

Oh, and as gibson175 also points out, your amp has a lot to do with it too. A strat through a mesa tripple rectifier will never sound like a strat through a Fender Twin Reverb.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

If you're looking for specific suggestions, I use the JB Jr in the bridge, and 2 Lil 59" in Neck and Middle with Super 5-way for auto-split. ALL 5 positions have their own very usable voicing, one tone for neck and other for mid...
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

With respect, it does not matter much what anyone in the USA or Western Europe suggests if the majority of the SD product range is not readily available in Hungary.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

i have an ssl-5 brand new in an unopened box i can sell him.
I'll just order a new one for me to replace it.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Well, I'd like the poster to say what kind of rock tones he or she feels a traditional Stratocaster can't attain. Classic rock and hard rock are pretty broad, and it can quickly go from "sure, a single coil, some boosting and a loud amp can do it" to "hmm it'll sort of work but might as well just put a humbucker in there".
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

It might be worth you contacting http://www.thomann.de/gb/index.html - they cover a lot of European countries, though I don't see Hungary listed. It can't hurt to enquire though. If you do get a positive response, I've always found them incredibly reliable, with quick delivery.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Plotonis, i have a DMZ FT2/FT1/Chopper set in my strat, and can do "anything". Classic Rock + yngwie + metal + thrash + drop tuning nu-metal + jazz + dire straits quack + pink floyd shine on you crazy diamond, etc...
Mods :
FT2/Chopper wired for coil-splitting
Bridge FT2 connected to the mid tone pot (for shine on you crazy diamond type of tone).

Next mod :
- i am dumping coil splitting for more modern parallel switching, but this will need 2 push/pull pots (vol / middle/bridge pot) just for this
- engagement of bridge/neck pups in parallel with an additional push/pull pot in the neck pot position.

This will be a killer strat.

Word of advice : don't spend money on a strat that is poor sounding unplugged, poor sustain , etc... If your strat sounds good and has all the good tonal characteristics then by all means upgrade it, and it will make a lot of 1000+ EURO owners turn red..
 
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Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

Most of us end up with multiple guitars that do what they do well, instead of one guitar that does multiple things not very well.

Having said that, my number 1 is an HSS strat. An HSS strat does just about everything an SSS strat does and does it well, except the thin stock bridge pickup voicing, which many find useless, has been replaced by a possibly great humbucker voicing. The humbucker can split to go with the middle single coil in the 2 position. HSS is a great option to have if you have only one guitar ....or if you have 15 electrics.

I have both SSS and HSS strats along with a H/H Charvel strat and will be adding a single Hum strat to the mix I think too.

If you go SSS then follow Lew's advice and get a great overdrive and good tube amp along with the California set. And if you go SSS or HSS stick to true single coils for the single coil positions, rather than mix in pickups in neck and middle which can not do strat tones or do them well. The best strat tones come from the neck and middle pickups if those pickup are true strat pickups.
 
Re: Stratocaster ; Versatility vs Specialization

I really think a Strat with vintage style pickups like the SSL-1 in all three positions, a Klon Klone like the Soul Food or AF1 and a nice blackface Fender amp like the Deluxe Reverb is the way to go and offers everything I could ask for from one guitar, one pedal and one amp. With the Klone, my Strats can hang with any humbucker equipped Les Paul in terms of sustain and thick middy tone...and I've still got all the Strat tones.
 
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