Pickup Suggestions??

Dirty Mosquito

Hello, I currently have two guitars. I have a Royal Blue Squier Strat with rosewood fretboard and a Mexican Artic White Strat, with a maple fret board. Both of my guitars sound pretty nice for stock and the price I paid for them, but was wondering if anyone could recommend some decent pickups to upgrade the sound? I play all different types of music, but love the Mccready and Hendrix solo sound as well as the Vedder and Stone rhythm sound.

I have looked at some of these products:

Fender custom shop Texas Specials
Fender custom shop 69' Strat
Fender Fat 50's Strat pickups
Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups

Any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks guys!!

harrisonmerwin

i HIGHLY, HIGHLY suggest getting a set (3) of Fender Vintage 57/62's. It nails the old tone perfectly. I have a set of them, and they will remain in there untill i die. They are BEAUTIFUL pickups, and really boost your mid's nicely while keeping the lows clean and the highs sparkly. They are about 200 i think for a set, and well worth it.

exhausted

$140US for a set of 57/62s.

harrisonmerwin

exhausted wrote:

$140US for a set of 57/62s.

100% worth it for me.

exhausted

i'm still adjusting to mine. mostly to the lower output.

Dirty Mosquito

Awesome!!!! I think I found my next music purchase. Thanks for the tip guys. I am hooking my strat up rather nice. I was so mad when I bought it because I didn't know that it was a Fender (Made in Mexico), but as I said, it really has a nice sound and is a pretty decent guitar since I am new at all of this. When I get better my next purchase will be a Gibson SG Special.

enharmonic

Fralins

seanw1010

the texas specials are the best pickups you can buy for the neck position

enharmonic

seanw1010 wrote:

the texas specials are the best pickups you can buy for the neck position

Have you ever heard Lindy Fralin strat pickups?

Pacomc79

you know how long I've been searching.....

yeah so there are a lot of good ones out there.

I settled on Fralin Blues Specials 5% overwind neck and middle.

Steel Pole 43 in the bridge.

Wired in a Blender config.

The output discourages the bright shrill high end that can plague that treble pup.

Set up with 11's I think this setup is pretty nice.

It's maybe a touch hot though. I may go with a SP42 instead.

enharmonic

Something to consider about the Hendrix sound...you can't get it with high output pickups. Jimi didn't use 'em. The lower the output, the more wood you'll hear...which is a big part of the core of his sound.

Pacomc79

The 57-62's are great for stock output vintage tone.

Fralin's Real 54's are the ticket too if you're looking for that.

Lollar is also worth a listen.


The latter two are considerably more expensive.

Oh, and also look into Suhr V60 or V60 low peaks, those are some of the best pickups I've ever heard too.

check out these guys, I think they are friends with Bob http://www.acmeguitarworks.com

Dirty Mosquito

Thanks everyone for your input. I definitely can't wait to get some new ones.

who's_pearljam?

I'm a Fralin fan, too!

The 54's would be great, I think, but you can go either side on the hotness scale.

Acme is a great place and nice guys, and you can get a whole prewired pickguard if you want to just drop a new one in. They are friends, but not enough to give me a discount, though! Business is business!

If you can solder a bit, then you can get them straight from Fralin, too.
They ARE more expensive than Fender's, but you can call and maybe even talk to Lindy Fralin, more likely one of his techs. Ask about the sound you want and you can tell them what amo you're using and they can wind just what you want, and if it doesn't sound right, just send them back and they can give you a different pickup.
If you tell them that you want the Jimi Hendrix or Stevie Ray sound, they may put a recording of the answer on,,, they may have gotten that question before!

What you pay for is better quality, and a more tailored sound, and less noise.
Generally, a hotter single coil pickup = more potential hum and ambient noise, so better winding, and better installation is important. You would want to shield your guitar cavity as much as possible if it isn't already. That can help noise issues.


Edit - Here's the Fralin Strat page:
http://www.fralinpickups.com/stratstyle.asp

seanw1010

enharmonic wrote:

Have you ever heard Lindy Fralin strat pickups?

yes, they are my second choice(my uncle has a fralin in the neck on his strat, ive got the texas specials in my neck). i love them, but i like the texas specials a little bit better(altho very close) only because it has a more "poppy" strat tone

harrisonmerwin

lets remember jimi hendrix also had balls to the wall Marshall Full stacks, don't matter what guitar you have, its gonna be intense

who's_pearljam?

harrisonmerwin wrote:

lets remember jimi hendrix also had balls to the wall Marshall Full stacks, don't matter what guitar you have, its gonna be intense

Thanks! I DID forget to add that.

Lets see, the Hendrix sound. Marshalls, Strats, but I don't even really think that mattered.
Just play with confidence and reckless abandon and take control of the feedback in 3-6 100 watt stacks and create more excitement and tension and energy than anyone else ever has done!


Have you ever heard the Jimi Hendrix apartment tapes?
Him with an electric guitar probably just plugged direct into a tape machine writing some songs. You can hear him turn the pages on his music stand.

haha,,, Even with a couple of blues licks it sounds like Jimi Hendrix even like that! It was some of the starting phrases from Electric Ladyland.