V Mod replacement

[4hisglory]

Hi everyone. I tried posting this in another forum but didn’t get much direction. I’ve searched online trying to decide on pickup replacements for my ash 2017 American Professional Strat in Sienna burst and still can’t decide. I thought this would be the place to ask.
I love this guitar but the pickups are not to my liking. Too bright for me (especially the bridge). I’ve put a fralin base plate on the bridge and also replaced the tone cap with a .047 and even switched to Dunlop gator picks.....all in the hopes of warming things up. It helped a bit but not enough. I play through a boss katana which is bright in and of itself but have also played through various tube amps.
I play mostly worship music that goes from clean to mid gain overdrive. The cleans are pretty fabulous (still a too bright on bridge and middle) but the overdrives get too harsh and “busy” where they lose definition. I don’t use the bridge overdriven. I hate it. I have to roll the tone down to 4-5 to take the harshness away but it still lacks “thickness”. So, I use the middle pickup mostly for overdrive as the neck gets too mushy.
I use an EP booster and a Klon type pedal and OCD (sometimes stacked) and I’m looking for a pickup set that can handle these overdrive types without sounding harsh and still maintain string to string definition. I want the bass to stay tight and not turn to mush. I’m not too concerned about lots of quack in positions 2 and 4. In a nutshell what I want is warm but clear (no “blanket over amp”) both while clean and overdriven.
I think I’ve narrowed it down to these combos. I had considered some D Allen’s but haven’t heard back on an email I sent them asking for recommendations.
So, I’m looking at:
SSL-52 complete set
SSL-6, SSL-52, SSL-52
Antiquity Texas Hot set

I’m no expert. I have been reading a bunch though. I was thinking that keeping alnico 5 on the bass side of all pickups would keep things tighter when overdriven. To get rid of the harshness on the treble strings alnico 2 would be warmer than 5.
The ssl-6 is alnico 5. Will this be harsh or “thin” on the treble strings compared to the ssl-52 bridge? The Texas Hot is alnico 2...will this be mushy compared to the others in the bridge?
Thank you for any recommendations.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: V Mod replacement

You can almost always tone down a bright pup to give more warmth in many ways...amp type, adjusting amp tone controls, adjusting guitar tone controls, changing cap value, changing vol pot value, or changing pup magnets. But if you have a very warm pup to begin with you can almost never get sparkle out of it. My personal choice has change a lot over the years, but now I find that I always prefer to start with a bright sparkly pup and tone it down as needed. A brighter pup also gives a tighter bass with more definition (esp. when overdriven).

Yes, those are generalities and you can always find exceptions, but nevertheless, a pretty good rule of thumb.

Now to answer your question:
The 52 would probably be a pretty good choice for you. But have you considered a good equalizer?

 

[a0adio0]

Re: V Mod replacement

Hi everyone. I tried posting this in another forum but didn’t get much direction. I’ve searched online trying to decide on pickup replacements for my ash 2017 American Professional Strat in Sienna burst and still can’t decide. I thought this would be the place to ask.
I love this guitar but the pickups are not to my liking. Too bright for me (especially the bridge). I’ve put a fralin base plate on the bridge and also replaced the tone cap with a .047 and even switched to Dunlop gator picks.....all in the hopes of warming things up. It helped a bit but not enough. I play through a boss katana which is bright in and of itself but have also played through various tube amps.
I play mostly worship music that goes from clean to mid gain overdrive. The cleans are pretty fabulous (still a too bright on bridge and middle) but the overdrives get too harsh and “busy” where they lose definition. I don’t use the bridge overdriven. I hate it. I have to roll the tone down to 4-5 to take the harshness away but it still lacks “thickness”. So, I use the middle pickup mostly for overdrive as the neck gets too mushy.
I use an EP booster and a Klon type pedal and OCD (sometimes stacked) and I’m looking for a pickup set that can handle these overdrive types without sounding harsh and still maintain string to string definition. I want the bass to stay tight and not turn to mush. I’m not too concerned about lots of quack in positions 2 and 4. In a nutshell what I want is warm but clear (no “blanket over amp”) both while clean and overdriven.
I think I’ve narrowed it down to these combos. I had considered some D Allen’s but haven’t heard back on an email I sent them asking for recommendations.
So, I’m looking at:
SSL-52 complete set
SSL-6, SSL-52, SSL-52
Antiquity Texas Hot set

I’m no expert. I have been reading a bunch though. I was thinking that keeping alnico 5 on the bass side of all pickups would keep things tighter when overdriven. To get rid of the harshness on the treble strings alnico 2 would be warmer than 5.
The ssl-6 is alnico 5. Will this be harsh or “thin” on the treble strings compared to the ssl-52 bridge? The Texas Hot is alnico 2...will this be mushy compared to the others in the bridge?
Thank you for any recommendations.

Have you considered the Fishman Strat pickups? They're the best in terms of giving you the smoothness of an active sound along with the sparkle and brightness of a single coil. I'd start there and then maybe consider replacing your amp if you still can't get the brightness down. That's how the VOXAC amps were in my rig. They were just too bright, almost no matter what I did. A good sparkle or treble-friendly tone shouldn't be harsh, even if you're just using the bridge pickup.

They're expensive, but I'd definitely give the Fishman sets a try for the tone you're describing.