Stratocaster Pickup help

itsevolutionbaby

Ok, I know this topic has probably been beaten to death several times, but I need advice on new Strat pickups. I have a 60s classic (MIM) strat that needs a little help. The neck and bridge pickups sound fair enough clean, but the bridge pick up is dreadful. I want more sustain, and a little fuller / nastier sound, while still keeping some resemblance of a strat sound. I have a lp, so I don't really want to lose the diversity of having 2 different sounding guitars. How are the fender vintage noiseless/ hot pickups? Also, I am guessing that I should replace the pots too? Thanks all...

mccreadyisgod

I'd say Texas Special.

In older guitars, all the pickups on a guitar had the same output. Unfortunately, string vibration is more pronounced closer to the neck, so the neck pickup would sound stronger. You could compensate by lifting the bridge pickup closer to the strings and lowering the neck pickup, but that was only a partial fix. Eventually, manufacturers started using stronger pickups in the bridge position to match the output of the neck (and middle, if any) pickups.

I venture to guess that's what's happening with your 60's classic. There are a million different options out there for aftermarket bridge pickups from many different manufacturers. But in this case, if you want something a little hotter and with a more rude character, I'd go with a Texas Special or something like it.

Yossarian

If you have money to spend, take a look at these:

http://www.kinman.com/

They sell pre soldered kits that are pretty sweet and use the bottom tone knob to mix in the neck pick-up when you are playing on the bridge and middle (thus making ALL three pickups active at once) and when you are just on the bridge pick-up (making only bridge and neck active - supposed to sound like a tele in the middle position).

I have not tried these, but I am intrigued... I have a Made in USA 40th anniversary strat (1994)... Although the frets are on their final file (I will have to refret next year, no doubt) I have always wanted to juice up the pickups and have heard GREAT things about kinman.

Cheers

JofZ

Give Rolf a call and he will wind what ever you want.
As you can see everyone has an opinion, there are just dozens of quality pup options out there and a price point for every budget.
What ever you do, don't trust online clips!

Pacomc79

kinmans are phenominal if you need noiseless.

Voodoo's are solid. Lollar.....

I myself adore lindy fralin and harmonic design.

I'm having fralin blues put in at the neck and middle and an S-90 (HD) at the bridge.



http://www.projectguitar.com has all the pickup sites referenced. I think you'll enjoy it.

enharmonic

I am not a Strat guy, but IMHO, few pup's sound as good as Fralin's.

There are SO many good pup's out there though...and a lot of good suggestions here. It's hard to play a lot of these before you buy...so ask around....maybe some of your friends have installed some that you can try before you buy?

Good luck

who's_pearljam?

I like Fralins for pretty much everything,,, but if you don't have the $225 for a vintage blues set of 3 pickups, try Kent Armstrong pickups. He makes damn good pickups for a decent price.
If you like the neck and middle pickups, you may just want to try out a hotter bridge pickup and experiment from there.

This is a Kent Armstrong Texas Special bridge pickup that's simple to put in and you don't have to rewire anything, for 50 bucks:

http://wdmusicproducts.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WMPI&Product_Code=TVS4B&Category_Code=STRT