Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

[TonyTTT]

Hi Everyone,

So I've been playing guitar around 6 years and I'm in the very lucky position to have a HSS MIA Strat
(Alder Body, Maple Neck)
(Fat50's in Neck and Mid, Fender Diamondback in Bridge).

I love all aspects of this guitar, however, I do find the bridge PU when playing lead stuff overly piercing and a little thin for my taste. For you guys out there that have a great deal more experience in such things could I get a little advice on how to go about changing this? Not sure how drastic I will need to go. I have tried basic things like tinkering with tone and amp settings but I'm not really getting what I'm looking for from that. I have looked around on the forums but not getting much of a clear picture as to what might be worth trying next.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

I don't have much experience with the diamondback but swapping the pup is fairly straightforward and can make a big difference

 

[TonyTTT]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Hi Jeremy thanks for the response. If I had a soldering iron and a few bits how long would it take roughly to swap over PU's?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

depends but i can do a pup swap in less than an hour. what kind of music are you playing?

 

[TonyTTT]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Well, It ranges greatly. From Pop all the way up to heavier stuff. Although I'm not into anything like death or black metal lol.

 

[devastone]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Not familiar with the Diamondback pup, but what are you playing through? As Jeremy said, changing pickups is pretty straightforward if you have some soldering experience and can follow a wiring diagram.

Lots of choices for replacements out there, if you want a Duncan and something with more mids and warmer/darker highs the Custom Custom is a good choice. But again, it's worth doing some research, there are lots of choices.

 

[TonyTTT]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

I usually play through through some amp emulations ( the Mesa Boogie stuff is a favorite of mine) in Amplitude 4. I was intrigued by the SD PATB-3. I quite like the thicker lead tone of a les paul, but obviously realize I won't get that without actually buying one.

Not sure I want more mids I think if anything the mids feel quite present already.

Slightly thicker at the bottom with a more subtly high end is what I feel like i'm looking for. Would you know of any other PU's fitting that description?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

The Custom 5 will give you a bit more bass and body with a little darker highs. I think the Blues Saraceno is lower output.

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

I did swap in a Pearly Gates Plus with a 500k pot. They work great with the Fender Single Coils. The PGP splits well and sound great with Single Coil in the second position.

 

[chadd]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

If the bridge isn't hooked to a tone knob, that would be my first step.

 

[Despair]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

If the bridge isn't hooked to a tone knob, that would be my first step.

No tone control is a huge loss of flexibiity. Definitely a good idea to have one on all pickups, that alone can help even out a bright pickup.

If you are intrigued by the PATB-3, I'd suggest trying it, it's a great pickup. A bit hotter than a '59, without giving up the high end. Parallel Axis pickups are meant to give a bit more of a Les Paul feel to a 25.5" scale guitar with a vibrato. Split, balances well with singles. Series, enough output for rock & metal, but roll back the volume and still cleans up well. Extremely responsive to pick attack, too.

Custom series are great, and if it isn't perfect you can mess with magnet swapping and almost certainly find a variant that works for you. But given what you describe, I'd try a PATB-3 first, if you aren't put off by the looks.

PATB-1b appears to be a Parallel Axis take on the Custom 5. But winds up with a sweeter high end and all the Parallel Axis behaviors. So that might be another interesting option.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Pickups like the JB, PATB-3, and the Custom line will overpower your Fat 50's by quite a bit. If you don't mind that jump in volume that might no be a problem You could wire it up to split the humbucker as an option. Pickups like the Pearly Gates and Seth Bridge would not have as big a difference in volume. You also have to think about which humbuckers will work well with 250k pots. Not everything does. If your Diamondback has the 2 adjustment screws in the upper side, you will also need to order a trembucker version of whatever you get with the 2 screws in that side, or you will have to drill a third hole between the two that already exist in your pickguard.

 

[chadd]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Pickups like the JB, PATB-3, and the Custom line will overpower your Fat 50's by quite a bit. If you don't mind that jump in volume that might no be a problem You could wire it up to split the humbucker as an option. Pickups like the Pearly Gates and Seth Bridge would not have as big a difference in volume. You also have to think about which humbuckers will work well with 250k pots. Not everything does. If your Diamondback has the 2 adjustment screws in the upper side, you will also need to order a trembucker version of whatever you get with the 2 screws in that side, or you will have to drill a third hole between the two that already exist in your pickguard.

The volume disparity is why I almost always suggest a Screamin Demon in an HSS setup. It does passably well for the vintage tones, plenty of high sparkle for poppy stuff and tight enough on the low end to play reasonably heavy stuff with it. It also works pretty well with a 250k pot, worst case, you add a resistor to simulate a 500k pot.

 

[gregory]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

+1 on the Screamin' Demon with singles and 250k volume, though it may still sound thin.

I also used a Distortion Neck pickup with modifications (polished A5, short hexes, slug coil closest to the bridge). Running it in parallel worked really well with singles. It was just fine with a 250k volume. It might sound thin in parallel in Alder, I don't know; it didn't sound thin in basswood with a Floyd. It did have a slight bit of shrillness in the high treble which I eliminated by shunting it with a 1n cap in series with some resistance.

JB is a great pickup to split with singles and works great with 250k volume. Definitely not a thin pickup, neither in split mode (slug coil) nor in series.

I know you can add a resistor to a 500k pot to make it 250k. If you know how to go the other way around and the volume control can still go from nothing to full output, please share, chadd.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

How about a double thick A8 in his existing vintage output pup?

 

[AZ Picker]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

It's been said around here that the diamondback is sort of a reverse engineered pearly gates plus (8.4k I think some of fenders sources had it as Alnico II, some as Alnico 5), it's really not horrible as far as fender humbuckers go...I had a 2012 Am Standard with that same setup, it was pretty usable, the bridge pickup can get a little clicky and bright on the high strings, I made do for a long time by turning the tone knob on the bridge pickup to 8 or 9 (just engaging the tone control on that no load pot will help without making it muddy). That being said, without tinkering too much I think the 59/custom hybrid or the Saturday night Special would cover a lot of ground for you, if they are too dark with the stock 250k pots, you could always make the volume pot 500k, the Fat 50s are not the brightest strat pickups ever (especially the neck) so 500k pots would probably be fine, you can always back the tone controls off a bit to tame that.

 

[TonyTTT]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Thanks for all the ideas everyone. To be honest I find all of this just to much choice which I know sounds crazy. Responding to AZ picker I definitely find once I get onto the E string it can get a little to piercing and thin. I'm quite happy with the fat 50's but I'm beggining to realize I would probably prefer a Les Paul in ways to do my lead work which just isn't an option right now. I wonder if I would just be better off darkening and thickening up the bridge a little in the "STRATYIST" way possible and then getting a les paul down the road.

 

[metalchurch79]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

Have you tried a compressor to tighten it up? Maybe a pickup booster or preamp of some sort would help out. Alot easier than ripping the guts out of it, but ultimately youll prob end up swapping it rather than simulating something that isnt there and trying to fool yourself. Im curious to see what you decide, so keep us posted.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

If you want to be conservative, you can change the voicing and increase the output a tad by changing the magnet. Otherwise, you gotta go to a medium or high output humbucker. A higher output humbucker can be balanced with its own volume or variable split.

 

[TonyTTT]

Re: Thin Strat Lead Tone. Should I change my Bridge PU?

I'm now thinking just to make it a pretty traditional strat setup I then can have one guitar to call upon for purely strat tones and then get a Les paul later on down the road. I've always been a big fan of David Gilmour's Lead tone. But I see he has a single coil in his bridge. Can anyone offer some advice as to how I could get that tone without having to sell my guitar and get an SSS?