the pickups in SRV's #1

[mrfjones]

i am not going to ask how to get the tone or anything, but i just wanted to share what i read the other day in a guitar mag. There was a whole story about the fender team that inspected and duplicated Stevie's strat. they found some interesting things like a very large crack just behind the neck, but most importantly they found that the coils of the pickups were shielded. It went on to say that the pickups were really on the weak side for strat pickups, but they didn't givethe dc resistance or anything else spec wise.

What do you guys think about this "fact" and who here has tried it with their strat pickups.

 

[Farkus]

Re: the pickups in SRV's #1

I think I read the same article. Team Fender was really suprised that they were low output as they were. I'm sure that they didn't reveal the spec's b/c they're building a new 'tribute' strat that is as close as possible a copy of #1.

I've never shielded my singles, so I can't comment on that.

I think that a lot of factors contributed to the SRV tone and I don't find it that surprising that the pickups are low output. Do you guys?

Farkus

 

[Monty-Jay]

Re: the pickups in SRV's #1

Not really, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Lower output, but with all the boosting/super loud/clean amps, it's nice and fat/full sounding.

I've got a couple other articles with SRV's tech where he talks about some of the simple mods he did. The caps, a dummy coil, shielding, etc....I'll see if I can dig them up.

MJ

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: the pickups in SRV's #1

Every interview I've read with his techs, Rene Martinez and Cesar Diaz, indicated that SRV used vintage Fender pickups that measured 6K or under. With his powerful hands and gigantic strings, SRV had a hard time getting a Strat tone as clean as he wanted. SRV could play so clean! I was surprised when the Texas Specials came out on the SRV guitar and they were a little overwound, because everything I'd read was that SRV used slightly underwound pickups.

I guess Fender's idea with the SRV Strat was to overwind the pickups a little so that mere mortals like us (who play with .010 - .046 strings) could get a beefy, SRV-like tone. Lew

 

[B2D]

Re: the pickups in SRV's #1

That was indeed a surprising read... i could belive it though as the Texas Specials do indeed sound too hot and i think it lost a little tone that way too. Also there was the busted myth about the neck and the body being a different year from each other...

Its interesting to see what happens when you do some detective work on such a hard-worked, modular instrument like an old Strat.

 

[mrfjones]

Re: the pickups in SRV's #1

i personally liked reading about the body itself, about the reversed trem and the cracks. i don't have massive hands or anything like that so the pickups have to be different for me to ge a tone somewhat like stevies anyway