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.