The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Yeh,I didnt think that sounded right,some of these reviews are really off!
Lew,do you think the ANT II SURFERS or TEXAS HOTS would capture his tone?
Kind of in your face with a bite!
I know most of it is in his hands and setup.
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Well, I think the Surfers would be closest to the stock pickups in a 50's, 60's or early 70's Strat. I like a full set of those or a set of the Surfers with the Texas Hot Custom bridge pickup which is sweeter and less glassy than a Surfer Custom bridge pickup.

Then you'll need a 200 watt Marshall and an old tube reel to reel tape recorder used as booster pedal. That's what Blackmore used for those Deep Purple recordings.

My first fuzz was a Webcor and then a Wollensak reel to reel tape recorder too!

You plug the guitar into the microphone input, set the tape recorder as PA (you don't use the tape recorder function) and then plug a guitar cord into the speaker out of the tape recorder and into the front of your guitar amp.

Instant SATISFACTION tone...that Rolling Stones fuzz tone. Though I think Keith used a Maestro Fuzz Tone for that.

Lew
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Sounds complicated and only Ritchie could get that sound I quess,SURFERS w/TEXAS BRIDGE looks like a good deal.
Would the bridge or Neck pickup be full enough to cover harder stuff like ZEPPLIN,BAD CO,etc?
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

tce44 said:
Sounds complicated and only Ritchie could get that sound I quess,SURFERS w/TEXAS BRIDGE looks like a good deal.
Would the bridge or Neck pickup be full enough to cover harder stuff like ZEPPLIN,BAD CO,etc?

Well, it won't sound like a humbucker! But it'd be plenty hot enough to cover any and all Strat sounds created by a vintage pre-1970 Strat. Lew
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Sorry to hijack (I do this a lot :s), but can you get anty's in black?

Bee
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

I have two favorite strat combos, one is vintage, one....isn't

I feel bad every time I say it here, but a Rio Grande Tallboy neck and Middle and then a Muy Grande in the bridge does it for me. The Rio Grande pickups blow me away. Awesome tone, it's unbelievable.

My other setup would be in a guitar with a bucker bridge, and that'd be two cool rails and a distortion bridge with coil splitting on all pickups.
 
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Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

which is brighter & more glassy of the two surfers, or ssl1's. My ultimate strat tone is jimi's neck pup on the black strat he used alot (band of gypsys-who knows, my all-time favorite strat sound). I really can say I like strat pickups but not the whole glassy thing, this is the weird part. In the late 60's fender used less windings on their pickups and the dc resistance shows, however to my ears I hear jimi's pups to be the bubbliest thumpy energetic warm thin wood lows and airy-est highs, with a great big open midrange that aids the woody air thing (power to love?)

I've said this before somewhere, but when I hear SRV's pups they seem more glassy chimier than jimi's, big strings and all just not as squaky, overall I'd say "ponkier" bigger more authoritive and louder more present and bigger attack but still brighter and less vocal/expressive than jimi's. Clean/overdrive/fuzz/octaviated I hear jimi's being just so damn vocal and wah-wah like with the wah off. I'm not just a hendrix cult member he's just got the coolest tones to me and that's as good as it gets in the neck pos.

grey bobbin, wire type, smoke exposure? what the hell is it, even on clean raw sounds like the apartment tapes, it's awesome. I was leaning towards the aps-1 earlier today because of the fattness and mids he gets out of his strat on band of gypsies, smoother, less glass, and cooler distortion. But then he used alnico 5 wound under 6k, fender CS 69 is supposed to be just that, but some reviews said they we're just too thin and weak. Christmas is coming around and I know I'm already at the point where I just have to get and see, then worry about it.

Anyway, I love playing more than anything just did some cool ass blue note label/wes montgomery stuff and I hate how I think about pups in the middle of class, night, after playing etc. when I play I just play to tell you the truth, and I don't really complain about my tone in my head while I'm playing, unless I do a bend on the 15+ fret on the high e string. It's when I listen back. I just want to get it dialed in and jam until there's no tommorrow then listen back when I have time to reflect.
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

ive come to the realization that i actually prefer A2 in strat pups than A5........i like the warm woody and smoky sounds.......i love the Aps1 pickups
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

I've listened to your clips flank, not bad. I think I might actually dig your preference, but then there's the whole thing of a2 taking the hype bounce funk rhythm jangle thing out of it. 100$ say I'll end up being confused no matter what!
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

ill record my Aps1 middle+ twangbanger bridge position in a funk tone........maybe you might dig it
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

I'm an A2 convert since being on the board the last couple of years.

I could never get the phrase "the musical magnet" out of my head, so I had to see and hear for myself.

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although this is somewhat sacrilegious, I don't think Jimi always had the best strat tone, but his playing made that kind of a moot point
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

flank said:
ive come to the realization that i actually prefer A2 in strat pups than A5........i like the warm woody and smoky sounds.......i love the Aps1 pickups

I Like an A2 bridge pickup,but prefer the A5 for my neck and middle...Seems I retain the chime and jangle and have less highs and more mids for my bridge position...The Surfer neck and middle are perfect for me..Lew is sending me another Texas Hot bridge to mate with the Surfers....

John
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Curly said:
I'm an A2 convert since being on the board the last couple of years.

I could never get the phrase "the musical magnet" out of my head, so I had to see and hear for myself.

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although this is somewhat sacrilegious, I don't think Jimi always had the best strat tone, but his playing made that kind of a moot point
totally agree!
I was a little too over the top in the other post, but man! Band of Gypsys= holy crap! it's also the fact that he's playing in the fattest acoustic place for the neck pup, acoustic place I mean fret area of guitar not the auditorium whatever, 7th-12th frets sound the fattest and most vocal there. Anyway, the tone on band of gypsys is not glassy but rather rounder but it still has the whole jump around twangy vocal fender thing.
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

bump like trump........... keep all single coil strat pup threads alive!
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Yep, I think Seymour did the ole SLAM DUNK with the new Antiquity II Surfers.
They're SO authentic, I even laughed out loud when I pulled them from their box/bag.
The covers looked like they had 40 years of nicotine stained on them, and the pickups themselves were dusted with what looks like 40 years of filter dust taken off the backside of a vintage pickguard. The aesthetic effect is almost as magical as their tone. They actually look old and dusty, right out of the boutique boxes they come in.

I've been using my reverse metallic blueburst strat a lot lately, so I put the Surfer neck and middle alongside a tremspaced Custom 5, and made it my Hendrix meets VH guitar. I found that I really love the tone of the Surfer middle and full C-5 in the 2nd position. A bit funky and quacky, but even fuller sounding. A nice surprise, actually.

My other main strat still has a full set of Fender Fat 50's, which I'll always love.
A little hotter and fatter than the Surfers, but the Surfers have a clear, 3D, tone that's breathtaking through the right clean amp.

I'm set for now, but if I end up selling one of me Teles and getting another strat, I'm going to put Surfers in it, along with the Surfer Custom 9.7 bridge. I'll keep them all Alnico 5, since my ears always prefer that over Alnico II strat pickups.
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

Lots of great info here folks. Let's keep it going. I have three Strats, and my musical tastes are primarily classic rock, folk rock and blues.

One is an alder MIM with Kinman Traditionals which are quite outstanding.

Another is an American Deluxe also in alder with the stock Vintage Noiseless. Many people knock these pickups, but they work for me.

The third Strat is a CIJ in natural ash that has become something of a project Strat to find the right pup combo. Right now it has a set of Delta Tones from a MIA Strat. OK, but nothing special.

How does an ash body affect the recommendations made in the preceding posts?
 
Re: The Greatest Strat pickups EVER??

are all CIJ strats ash-bodied? i dunno what the hell wood mine is, but its got a lil '59 and a 52 in at the moment, and it kicks major ass. covers or approximates every base i think i could ever need.
 
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