marnold
January 8th, 2008, 10:43 PM
Today I stopped at a couple of guitar shoppes to see what single coil sound I would actually like. The selection at both places was rather limited. The first one I tried was a Clapton Strat. I dialed in my normal AD30VT Black 2x12 settings. At first I thought something was wrong. The amp was seriously overdriving. The Clapton Strat has a 25db mid boost that basically turns the Vintage Noiseless pups into P90s. Good if you're looking for that sort of thing, but useless if you aren't. I found out after searching the web that apparently you can kill the boost, but the guys in the store didn't know that.
The next was a run-of-the-mill American Standard Strat. It was a nice enough guitar, but there was nothing in the pup tone to make me do cartwheels. The next was a Highway 1 Strat. Out of all of the Fenders, I liked this one the best. The pickups had nice clarity and high-end but had some cajones too.
At the other place, the only Strat-type of interest was a Tribute by G&L Strat. It was an HSS Strat. Out of all of the ones I tried, I liked this one the best. The neck pickup had more clarity than my Floyd's. The middle pickup was worlds better, including the "quack" positions. I was impressed at the quality quack coming out of the bridge humbucker/middle position--my Floyd really won't do that at all. It did have some fret buzzing problem on the A string--my guess is that it was a saddle issue.
So what did we learn today?
1) My Floyd could benefit from a change of pups, although the difference would not be as earth-shakingly dramatic as one might expect. It would be good to get a different humbucker too that better matches the single coils.
2) Erring on the side of vintage output would be a better idea.
3) None of the guitars I played today I found to be any better than my Floyd. Sure the fit and finish on the American Strats was nicer, but not THAT much nicer. When you figure I could have bought 10 of my Floyds for the price of one EC Strat, it's more than a little silly. And it STILL wouldn't have had a genuine Floyd Rose bridge.
4) I honestly feel that after a pickup upgrade, I'll have a fat Strat that I'd be willing to put up against anything that Fender makes. The grand total out-of-pocket for me would be between $300-$400.
Thus my adventures today were successful. I found that I don't need to GAS for a guitar that isn't better than the one I have. I found that my choices for pickups probably are good ones. Now I just have to save up a bit and then bite the bullet on one set of pups or another. Basically my choices are:
Lace Hot Gold S-S-D with a 6K/6K dually
Two Dimarzio Area 58 or 61s and a Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon (or some other more PAF-output humbucker)
I'll also be replacing the volume pot with a push-pull pot to either cut a coil of the humbucker or put the coils in parallel with each other for a better position #2 quack. A switch to allow for bridge+neck and bridge+middle+neck combos would probably be good too.
The next was a run-of-the-mill American Standard Strat. It was a nice enough guitar, but there was nothing in the pup tone to make me do cartwheels. The next was a Highway 1 Strat. Out of all of the Fenders, I liked this one the best. The pickups had nice clarity and high-end but had some cajones too.
At the other place, the only Strat-type of interest was a Tribute by G&L Strat. It was an HSS Strat. Out of all of the ones I tried, I liked this one the best. The neck pickup had more clarity than my Floyd's. The middle pickup was worlds better, including the "quack" positions. I was impressed at the quality quack coming out of the bridge humbucker/middle position--my Floyd really won't do that at all. It did have some fret buzzing problem on the A string--my guess is that it was a saddle issue.
So what did we learn today?
1) My Floyd could benefit from a change of pups, although the difference would not be as earth-shakingly dramatic as one might expect. It would be good to get a different humbucker too that better matches the single coils.
2) Erring on the side of vintage output would be a better idea.
3) None of the guitars I played today I found to be any better than my Floyd. Sure the fit and finish on the American Strats was nicer, but not THAT much nicer. When you figure I could have bought 10 of my Floyds for the price of one EC Strat, it's more than a little silly. And it STILL wouldn't have had a genuine Floyd Rose bridge.
4) I honestly feel that after a pickup upgrade, I'll have a fat Strat that I'd be willing to put up against anything that Fender makes. The grand total out-of-pocket for me would be between $300-$400.
Thus my adventures today were successful. I found that I don't need to GAS for a guitar that isn't better than the one I have. I found that my choices for pickups probably are good ones. Now I just have to save up a bit and then bite the bullet on one set of pups or another. Basically my choices are:
Lace Hot Gold S-S-D with a 6K/6K dually
Two Dimarzio Area 58 or 61s and a Seymour Duncan Screamin' Demon (or some other more PAF-output humbucker)
I'll also be replacing the volume pot with a push-pull pot to either cut a coil of the humbucker or put the coils in parallel with each other for a better position #2 quack. A switch to allow for bridge+neck and bridge+middle+neck combos would probably be good too.