The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

You know the true test of 'if you love your new pickups?' Yesterday evening, after installing them, I starting playing my Chieftain for a few hours, then another few hours, then went to sleep. I woke up this morning, and saw that I'd left my soldering iron plugged IN!! The tone was so great, I'd forgotten to go back, unplug the soldering iron, and clean up the mess!

Of course, I'll need more time on these pickups to be able to give a more thorough review, but so far, they blow away every set I've used up till now. I like the Custom Ant bridge since it's probably the most perfect strat bridge I've ever used. The 2nd position sounds exactly like a calibrated match...same with the 4 pos.
What I found surprising was that the middle pickup 6.3K is higher than the neck 6.03
By doing that, the notch positions sounds are better matched, I presume.
The technical poo means nothing to me. They sound great. I can't wait to plug my strat into my Bogner's maxed out Plexi mode tonight with the T.Rex Mudhoney Fuzz.
If an afro pops outta the ground, that'll be Hendrix wondering how to find his new tone. LOL

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

My fralin neck is exactly as you describe. It's 5.80K but the middle is a little overwound, 6.30K.

It needs to be said that I cannot get the chime of the fralins with the other strat s/c's that I know. But I wished they had more bass, more of that defined a5 strat bass, especially for the neck position.



My list of favorites would be surfers; van zandts (vintage hot neck and middle ~6.30K; and blues bridge ~7.10K) and fralin vintage hots. All great pickups for somebody like me who loves the a5 chime.

B

You have a 3% underwound neck Fralin too?!? But the middle pickup seems like a stock wound one. Did I sell those to you? That's actually a very nice combo because the stock middle pickup blends with the usually hotter bridge pickup so nicely. Both the neck and middle are underwound about 3% in my set...both just under 6K. I understand that SRV favored that too. Lew

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

You have a 3% underwound neck Fralin too?!? But the middle pickup seems like a stock wound one. Did I sell those to you? That's actually a very nice combo because the stock middle pickup blends with the usually hotter bridge pickup so nicely. Both the neck and middle are underwound about 3% in my set...both just under 6K. I understand that SRV favored that too. Lew

I wish I knew you 3 years ago when I got those fralins. It's somewhat luck that I got the %3 underwound neck and the regular middle. All I said to Lindy over the phone was that I wanted something as vintage as possible in the neck. When I was ordering I was gonna use them with a PG+ in the bridge, that's why (I remember) he got me the regular middle, and not the underwound one.

It has been a great purchase for sure, did not let me down for so long now. Don't think I ever will be selling/trading that set.

B

 

[Boleslaw Gers 666]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Hot Rails and JB Jr. UP THE IRONS!

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Let me guess.......Boleslaw Gers is the father of Janick Gers, who is the 3rd guitarist for Iron Maiden. He has a Hotrails and JB Jr. in his strat, and since 666 is the Number of the Beast, you do too. Ha Ha Ha. Pretty scary that I'm a psychic, huh???

 

[Boleslaw Gers 666]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Let me guess.......Boleslaw Gers is the father of Janick Gers, who is the 3rd guitarist for Iron Maiden. He has a Hotrails and JB Jr. in his strat, and since 666 is the Number of the Beast, you do too. Ha Ha Ha. Pretty scary that I'm a psychic, huh???

Wow very close. Boleslaw is Janick's father, yes yes. He is the third guitarist for Iron Maiden. 666 is the number of the beast, as Revelations 13:18 will yell you. But, Janick has a JB Jr. in the bridge and neck and sometimes middle, but Dave Murray, the other guitarist, has hot rails in all three positions. Very close though.

 

[flank]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

post clips gearjonsey lol

 

[Falstaff]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Anyway there are two reasons why I wanted to back to full set of surfers and antI custom bridge and fralin vintage hot neck and middle. The first concerns the bridge middle; bridge/neck; bridge/middle/neck positions with the surfer set, with custom ant I bridge they are not that glassy that sparkling anymore.
B

Doc (and any other Surfer fan)...do you think the Surfers can do this kind of thing? I'm more of a Tele guy but these are my favorite strat tones ever (if not my all time faves for any guitar) and I'm not sure I can get there with a tele bridge/strat middle combo. Please let me know what you think. Obviously there are other factors at work (including my complete lack of talent) but these sounds are pretty much my only reason for wanting a strat!

http://home.comcast.net/~mdm0027/gurls.mp3
http://home.comcast.net/~mdm0027/Car.mp3
http://home.comcast.net/~mdm0027/OhMy.mp3

 

[Farkus]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Maybe I'm really out of touch because I don't know, but who does the song 'Gurls'?

Farkus

 

[Falstaff]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

It's a band from the early 70's called Big Star; the song is called September Gurls. The Bangles covered it a while back IIRC.

 

[mark]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

I love the G&L stock alnico 5s that come in the Legacy.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Doc (and any other Surfer fan)...do you think the Surfers can do this kind of thing? I'm more of a Tele guy but these are my favorite strat tones ever (if not my all time faves for any guitar) and I'm not sure I can get there with a tele bridge/strat middle combo. Please let me know what you think. Obviously there are other factors at work (including my complete lack of talent) but these sounds are pretty much my only reason for wanting a strat!

http://home.comcast.net/~mdm0027/gurls.mp3
http://home.comcast.net/~mdm0027/Car.mp3
http://home.comcast.net/~mdm0027/OhMy.mp3

I hear you. (Sorry for the late reply I was out for the weekend.) A tele bridge would be too strong for these tones. To get pretty close to it, you'd need a strat as you were saying.

From what I heard I can say that there are 3 strat pickups (that I came across) you wanna check. Surfers would definitely be able to do much of it, but the surfer bridge is sort of more solid, has more bottom you know. Don't get me wrong that's not a bad thing. On the contrary for other tones that's exactly what many want. Yet if you are really picky in that bridge tone the surfer bridge might be just a bit more than what you need.

The other two sets would be either Fralin (blues bridge vintage hot neck and middle (getting them %3 underwound, especially the neck, gives it great chime and clarity)) or Van Zandt's (blues bridge, vintage + neck and middle). Apart from the bridge Van Zandts' are pretty similar to the surfer neck and middle (the fralins aren't). But as what you are after definitely involves the bridge pickup, I'd say ask yourself how much bottom vs chime you need. VZ's have this great bass with thumb that I love on strats. While Fralin's lack that bass, they have more chime and a bit more uppermids than the VZ's. I mean VZ's (and surfer neck and middle and still the bridge while being a little bit on the stronger side) I think are more Rory Gallagher while Fralin's are more Clapton a la Brownie (on Derek and the Dominoes), if that makes sense.

I'd say you'd like my fralin set (7.00K blues bridge without the base plate -afterall I like you wanna stay away from the tele territory regarding this set, regular vintage hot middle (6.20-30K) and %3 underwound vintage hot neck (5.80K)).

B

 

[Falstaff]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Doc...thanks for the great response! Lemme digest it and I'll post more. I really appreciate it.

 

[dr.barlo]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Doc...thanks for the great response! Lemme digest it and I'll post more. I really appreciate it.

Don't mention it. Am glad I could help. Lemme know if I can do more.

B

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Has anyone had the Duncan Custom Shop make a set of custom wound strat pickups?

 

[fusion101]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

kinman traditional set.

 

[Imp]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

so if i were looking for like the jimi hendrix sound, the bill lawrences could give that?

seymour duncan 5/2s. amazing live jimi tone.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Ultimate (and most accurate) Jimi tone: alnico five Strat pickups.

Surfers, SSL-1's or Fralin Vintage Hots.

Same pickups for the ultimate Clapton/Layla tone and every other Ultimate Strat tone where a vintage Strat made between '55 and '70 was used.

However, I've been loving the heck out the mix of an Antiquity Texas Hot Custom bridge pickup and Antiquity Surfer neck and middle in my "new" homebuilt Strat.

My Texas Hot Custom is a 10K alnico 2 bridge pickup and the tone is not as glassy as a Surfer bridge pickup and has ALOT more of that sweet compressable midrange needed for shaping the tone with my fingers and squeezing those solo tones out like toothpaste from a tube. There's a slight compromise in tone when it's combined with the middle Surfer, as Gearjoneser has pointed out, and that combination is not quite so bright and chimey as it is in my '63 Strat with stock 41 year old pickups.

But right now, the Surfer n & m and Texas Hot bridge is my favorite set of Strat pickups.

Lew

 

[tce44]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

How about the QUARTER POUND strat pickup?
I've been hearing alot of great reviews about these,that RITCHIE BLACKMORE used them(not sure if true or not)for that ice picky bite sound!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

If you're talking about Blackmore's Strat tones with Deep Purple, I don't think the Quarter Pounder had even been invented yet. I think the pickups were stock in his black Strat...the one that inspired Yngwie to play a Strat. Lew