how to make a Fender Stratocaster sound less wimpy?

MLC2006

I've got a USA Strat that has single coils at the neck and middle, and a Seymour Duncan humbucker at the bridge.

now the neck pickup sounds GREAT, but the middle pickup and humbucker are weak as shit. sounds hollow. I've raised the pickups as high as they'll go and lowered them as far down, and nothing works. I've messed with different tone settings and it does not work. they are just weak.

should I just change out those 2 pickups or would that even make a difference? I read somewhere (maybe here) that Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins recorded on Gibsons but played Strats live, but modified them to sound like Gibsons. not that I'm necessarily going for a smashing pumpkins type sound, but how did he beef up the Strats?

exhausted

two pickups that i think have more balls than the stock singles in the american series are duncan classic stacks and fender SCNs.

i thought both of those were a marked improvement in tone but still sounded like a strat.

MLC2006

how do you think an EMG humbucker would be in the bridge position? would a get some metal sound out of it?

the neck position, I like, good blues sound. but none of the pickups on my strat sound good on rhythm, weak when distorted (except for the neck one), and can't get clean sounding at all.

exhausted

unfortunately, EMGs and high gain stuff i don't have any experience with. can't really help i guess. sorry.

harrisonmerwin

strats are made for the strat sound. if your looking for a beefy strat style guitar look into some jacksons.

who's_pearljam?

Weak sounds are one thing, but are you sure it's the pickups?
If the neck is strong and a humbucker is weak, maybe it's a wiring issue.

Is it a stock humbucker? A Seymour Duncan humbucker should have more beef to it than the neck single coil. If it's a Duncan Designed pickup it might not be a strong one but even then that should be stronger.

Did you try lowering the neck pickup farther from the strings, and getting the middle and bridge pup closer? There is an art to balancing them out that way, too. Usually the neck pickup will be farthest away because the strings move more there, thus giving more volts to the amp. If you back off the neck and raise the bridge, you can drive your amp harder with the bridge pup signal.

If not, maybe there is a wiring issue in there.
'
Normally the single coil bridge pups are wimpier, but that humbucker pickup shouldn't be weaker than the bridge.

It could very well be miswired or a wrong capacitor, or any one of several things.


To get a Strat to sound like a Gibson,,, the Pumpkins probably threw in a humbucker or, two,,, sometimes an onboard preamp to juice up the signal for onstage use. There are all kinds of ways to beef it up, but let's see what you have in there first.

It very well might be a weak connection or adjustment issue.
Hopefully!

JofZ

There are dozen or so pedals that strat players rely on to beef up the tone without tossing out the jangle.
Some to look into:
KLON (this is the most famous strat picker upper)
DRD
RC/AC boost
Any decent fuzz
etc, etc, etc

Swapping out the pick ups is one option. But, if you are like me or my sick friends you will just swap out the pickups for something a little more vintage and less sterile then the stock. Fralin is a very good place to start and end!

At the end of the day, if you do not like the tone of the strat then it is time to look into other guitars

Pacomc79

It sounds like something in the wiring might be weird if you raised the heights and there's no change.

There are plenty of pickups out there to get more volume and more gain out.

That sounds like it might be a lone star strat. In that case it's a pearly gates plus duncan pickup in the bridge.


Can you tell us a little about the rest of your rig too? Setting it up with 11's and a rock formula string will make a big difference (DR Hi Beams, GHS Boomers, SOS Rock Formula etc.)

as for pickups and humbuckers, look for some hi output single coils and or humbuckers.

You might like the Seymour Duncan JB Jr. or Hot Rails in the neck and Middle or the Quarter Pound Strat single coils. I believe Hot Rails are the ones that are in the Iron Maiden strats.

The George Lynch Screamin Demon is a nice open option for more gain and it's 4 conductor so it's coil tap able. The Invader is pretty crazy if you're looking for output. There are a ton of other options too just check around http://www.seymourduncan.com and go through the pickups section at http://www.projectguitar.com There are a ton of options for you.

You can also go with a booster or Booster circuit.

EMG's are an entirely different animal as an active pickup system.

Ultimately before you do all that, consider turning up the amp volume and turning down the pre gain some.

How loud do you play?

LifeWasted21

id definately just bring it in and make sure its wired properly.

I used to have problems with my strat sounding weak, but of course its a strat.

However, the shannon overdrive pedals and a tube screamer..amp cranked and volume guitar down helped a great deal. SOunds much heavier and mch more full sound.

who's_pearljam?

I definitely do the ground up approach when analyzing a guitar.
Always start with the easy stuff and work your way outwards to the amp.

Like I said above,,, look at backing off the neck pup and raising the bridge and middle so you can crank your amp higher and see if the simples cheapest thing is it.

Then look at the wiring.
Haha,, Ironically enough, I've been laid up with some surgery lately and my friends brought some guitars over for me to fix. One is in front of me right now.
It's a G&L legacy, same thing as a Strat. He gets no power out of his pickups and it's been a loser for years in his closet.
I just opened it up and the wiring is wrong and crossed from when someone touched a bare wire to the wire on the capacitor leg.
It took longer to unscrew the pickguard than it did to fix it!

HAHA,,,It rocks now!! I should charge him $240 bucks!! He brought me food though! I guess this is a freebie!

So here is Who's_pearljam?'s foggy painkiller sort of roughed up head's guitar wimpiness flow chart for when you don't like your guitar sound:

In order of importance, and always start with the cheap stuff:

1. If the guitar wood is good and you like the way it plays. Keep it.
-Adjust the pickup heights
-The screws on the poles of the humbuckers are adjustable and can make a big difference to equalize and tweak it. (not yet on your Strat)
-Check the wiring! It's very easy to miswire and it's very common and most people never know
-THEN if you don't like the pickups,,, change them. The wood and the pickups are your most important things and biggest bang for your buck.
Make sure your wiring is good in the cavities and you have the right capacitors and switching. You can get this done with basic stuff.


If it's a solid guitar, and the pickups are bad,,, no amp or pedal or strings will satisfy you until those things are right.

If in fact you HAVE a Pearly Gates pickup in there, like Paco says, then you have a wiring problem somewhere that's easy to fix. That's a great pickup and it should have some power. Putting $240 worth of Fralins (My favorites) won't make much difference if they are wired the same as what you have.

Now that I think of it, it's really easy to mess up the wiring and switching when you have two single coils and a humbucker in a Strat.


Ok,,, well,, that was a short flow chart thanks to Vicodin and a weary Who's_pearljam?

If someone else wants to make it chartlike,,, they can.
I'm out again!

MLC2006

ok, it IS a Pearly Gates humbucker. I will have to check about the wiring.

I raised the humbucker and middle pickup last night and lowered the neck pickup like somebody else recommended and it made no difference. it sounds hollow on clean and just loud mud with any distortion much at all.

doesn't help that I also have a piece of shit amp, a Fender M-80 Chorus, that is going to be replaced in about 2 weeks.

I usually play with.....

on the amp....
volume, around 7
gain, 2
presence and contour around 4-6
reverb, 6 or 7

guitar....
volume, 10
tone, 6-7

these settings work quite good for Hendrix and SRV type blues songs that are more picked than strummed, but like I've said, everything sounds shitty and weak if it's not picked note by note.

I got 3 Boss pedals and only one of them is really worth a damn. I might have to check on some of the others recommendations.

after I get the new amp (it is likely to be a vox valvetronix, which I guess is technically a solidstate, but can't be worse than this m-80), I am going to start saving for a Les Paul.

I'll check the wiring. thanks for the recommendations and hints.

who's_pearljam?

Hmmmm,,,,

Ok, your chords sound muddy. Is there a major volume drop when you go from the neck pickup to the middle or bucker?

Play around with the eq on your amp and guitar, too. Darkening the tone playing rhythm muddies things up, too, as will reverb and the contour. Just depends on the amp and guitar.
Playing style makes a difference, too. If you barre 6 note chords then it will muddy up the sound, too! Try voicing just a few strings when you're strumming.

I would also try somebody elses amp if you can. Maybe take it to a music store and plug it into a few amps and see what happens. Put the all the knobs on ten on your guitar and on the amp like fender deluxe or Bassman treble 7, bass 4 or 5 and see what the difference is, or a Mesa Boogie, Marshall. One of the standard type amps. That could give you a reference to start with.

haha,,,I'm just free associating here!

MLC2006

this is un-freaking-believable and shows how stupid I am.

I happened to pull out the owner's manuel that came with the guitar (never really looked at it before). the manuel has recommendations for pickup height. I adjusted all 3 pickups to their recommendations and it worked like magic.

from messing with the pickups, I thought I'd tried all reasonable heights. but their recommendation for the humbucker was 1/16th of an inch from the string when all strings are fretted at the last fret. in other words, the humbucker is damn near touching the strings. the 2 single coils are recommended to be slightly further away, about 1/8th inch away. those measurements are on the bass side, slightly closer on the treble side.

I did that and it's like a whole different guitar. there is barely a slight hint of wimpiness, and I'm sure that is due only to the crap amp I have. getting new amp next week.

thanks for all the help.

who's_pearljam?

Nice!!!


No you're not stupid! MOST people tend to look way beyond the obvious and simple solutions. Reading the instructions is always the last resort for me,too!
I'm glad it was that simple. Cool, eh? Like a new guitar for no money!