Surfers over Blonds

[Zhurh]

Bought a 60's mex last fall. Had Fairbanks luthier do bone nut, callaham setup, and set of lollar blonds. My amer strat has surfers. Now I haven't raised the lollars yet, but initial impression thru my Bruno Cowtipper;;; SURFERS Hands Down; preference thing I guess. Wifey likes the Blonds. I am going to change the blk amer strat over to callaham; can hear difference.

Ya know, Greg from Laguna Beach told me, won't find better pups to complement Cowtipper than surfers, also said sell everything and get a Lentz; you'd think it would eventually sink in.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Surfers over Blonds

I was glad to see this thread, because out of all the strat pickups out there, the Lollar Blondes interest me most. I've tried a lot of strat pickups, and have realized how much tonal difference there is between strat pickups, even if the specs are almost identical. They all have their own character.

Surfer Custom bridge/2 Surfers remains one of my favorite of all time, but also the sets I have from Mike Gray at Chubtone. His 63's are very SRV/Mayer, and his 69's have a real Hendrixy/Blackmore vibe. I'm not sure if he's in business anymore though. I've always been very interested in Lollar Blondes, ever since I compared all the Lollar strat pup soundclips. I liked the Blondes on tape the most.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: Surfers over Blonds

Also, I was looking at the bridge on your MIM strat, and the intonation looks way outta whack! The saddles should follow a pattern like your US strat.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Surfers over Blonds

i know one of tonys main strats has a set of antiquitys so im sure that may have something to do with how nice that guitar sounds thru the tipper

 

[Zhurh]

Re: Surfers over Blonds

Ya, Cowtippers (pricey but best money I spent last 4-5 years) have that dark but 3D sound; need a bright switch and somewhat brighter sounding pups to get where I like. I have my surfers just right when action is low 4/64; use SOB's 12-54's vintage; if I raise action I somewhat lose that sweet spot even with surfers. I'm sure once I raise them blonds, It'll get better and I'm not even bad-mouthing lollars; all these pups have their own unique sound. Once I get into town, I'm going to have this guy build me a guitar from scratch and try fralin blues on it. You know how it goes, Seymour didn't get to his market status by making an inferior product, I just enjoy trying out different pups. Most people where I live have standard fender single coils, kinda direction I got to travel.

I'll check the saddles on callaham. Slight dead spot on E, might have him look at bone nut, hard to beat those LSR's for function but not sound. That blue guitar plays nice just the same and callaham is good option.

I'll probably go thru 2-3 guitars and upgrades then finally break down and order a lentz, should wise up and just send him a gran to start one. Main thing that stops me is an Anch friend. He finds sweet older guitars on craiglist for couple hundred all the time, boy do they play; always adds in what he got her for too, ha ha. I guess nothing wrong with a few guitars, some of my friends have 30-40 of them.

 

[Zhurh]

Re: Surfers over Blonds

I was glad to see this thread, because out of all the strat pickups out there, the Lollar Blondes interest me most. I've tried a lot of strat pickups, and have realized how much tonal difference there is between strat pickups, even if the specs are almost identical. They all have their own character.

Surfer Custom bridge/2 Surfers remains one of my favorite of all time, but also the sets I have from Mike Gray at Chubtone. His 63's are very SRV/Mayer, and his 69's have a real Hendrixy/Blackmore vibe. I'm not sure if he's in business anymore though. I've always been very interested in Lollar Blondes, ever since I compared all the Lollar strat pup soundclips. I liked the Blondes on tape the most.

I got around to getting strings up some & raising Blond neck pup to that sweet spot. Now the blonds seem to have more bite than surfers; not good or bad just different. So I got decent pups on 2 geetars, so does that mean I need twice the time playing everyday for satisfaction??? You know how that all goes.

I really notice the callaham bridge & block, boy it's a must on all strats. Sure sounds sweeter.

I asked luthier about saddles and he said he used some kind of tuning system and claimed ok. It sounds ok to me, so until I get in this summer, I'll leave her there. Going to start looking in books just the same.

The callaham saddles are slightly wider than originals. I might grind them down some on edges.