? about pick ups

Betterman77

I got a Fender Strat, its a Mexican, plays and sounds good, but I was thinking about getting the factory pick ups taken out and possibly putting in some good ones like Seymours, can anyone tell me if it is worth it, and will it sound much more better by replacing the factory pick ups?

Pacomc79

absolutely it's worth it if you like the guitars feel and plan on keeping it otherwise you just want to tweak the sound a bit.

What is it you don't generally like about the guitars sound or do you like it you just want a better fuller richer brighter fatter rounder less buzzy what have you tone?


It's actually a great idea. It's partly the reason callaham and so many other parts manufacturers make upgrades for mexican strats. Lots of pros take upgraded mexicans around with them because it's much less of a risk if they get broken or stolen.


You need to decide what you want the new pickups to do for you so you can find the right ones.

who's_pearljam?

Paco's right again!! :cool:

I'm one of those guys he was talking about! I used to travel a lot and the lower priced strats are amazing for that.
You can do a lot with those guitars.

If

You like it. If the guitar plays nice and generally has the feel you want, go for it.
First, play with the pickups you have. Sometimes by adjusting the heights of them, you can change the character of the sound. If they're too close to the strings, they growl; the magnets in the pole pieces pull on the strings, distort the sound and pull them out of tune.
Too far away and they sound thin. There definitely is a sweet spot for you pickups.

After you decide that that didn't help, , then there are a myriad of pickups you can change them with. Think about the sound you want and you can really change the sound and mojo of your geetar

enharmonic

The electrnics are what's lacking in the Mexican Fender's. I would replace all of the electronics if I were you. SD's are cool, but they can't touch Fralin single coils IMHO.

Pacomc79

enharmonic wrote:

The electrnics are what's lacking in the Mexican Fender's. I would replace all of the electronics if I were you. SD's are cool, but they can't touch Fralin single coils IMHO.

I agree completely. I'm a 5% overwind Fralin Blues guy. In the Neck and Middle, Harmonic Design Super 90 in the bridge.

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com actually sells fully wired guards with Fralins Blender if you don't want to do it yourself.

Callaham does as well for a little bit more and they cryo dip it to supposedly make them sound even better but I can't vouch as I haven't heard those yet, the reviews are very good too.


for reference. http://www.fralinpickups.com/stratstyle.asp http://www.harmonicdesign.net/allpages/strats.html

http://www.projectguitar.com

then references and pickups for a list of a bunch of other manufacturer websites to help the search.

who's_pearljam?

Pacomc79 wrote:

I agree completely. I'm a 5% overwind Fralin Blues guy. In the Neck and Middle, Harmonic Design Super 90 in the bridge.

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com actually sells fully wired guards with Fralins Blender if you don't want to do it yourself.

That's a great company! I've been doing some guitar rebuilding lately. I ordered some stuff, and then called them. Nice guys!
Then we were chatting and they said they were in Delaware.
HAha! They're located a couple of miles down the road from me, and it turns out that I know them! Good guy hippie musician electrical geeks! Good people to know!

You know what set up I really like is the drop in pickguard assembly that is pretty similar to what Paco is talking about:

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Fralin-Vintage-Hot-w-SP43-Bridge-Blender-Wiring-P933C138.aspx

The bridge pickup is almost like a p-90 which is more powerful than a regular pickup. The pole pieces are adjustable on it, too, so you can fine tune it.
It's about $260 . You can barely buy the parts for that much, let alone already soldered and wired together professionally.


The other thing you really want to do to your strat body is to shield the cavity. There's no use putting great new single coil pickups into your guitar without shielding it.
Acme has the copper tape or paint for that, too.


For about $187 you can get this all prewired. That would sound pretty good for the price, too

http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Fender-5762-Blender-Wiring-P924C138.aspx



But don't forget to shield!!

Good luck!

Pacomc79

nice set ups Bob.

the volume kit would help out if one chooses to use fuzz as well.

Don Grosh uses the same in his custom guitars quite a bit.

do you remember exactly how the blender works?

exhausted

i need to get the blender back in my strat. right now i just have master vol, master tone.

the blender gets you 2 extra sounds; all 3 on and neck/bridge with variation of the mix. it's very nice.

Pacomc79

exhausted wrote:

i need to get the blender back in my strat. right now i just have master vol, master tone.

the blender gets you 2 extra sounds; all 3 on and neck/bridge with variation of the mix. it's very nice.

That's what I want, I LOVED it in the S1 configured strats which is essentially a similar concept.

who's_pearljam?

I think the most usable part of that blender set up is that you can use the tail end pot to dial either all bridge pickup or all neck and blend between. It's great for finding that sweet spot with an amp and an overdrive pedal. I think it sounds best when you put just a little of the neck pup into the bridge to give it a little low end.
It's on the Deluxe S1 switching that I have.

I still like that Deluxe! I haven't even fooled with it!

I already pulled apart that new Epiphone Elite. I got a Bigsby for it too, but haven't put it on yet.