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fensonpaulcaster
October 21st, 2008, 08:08 PM
Hi everyone

I need to know what the standard pickups are on a standard MIM strat

I need to know so i can buy a bridge pickup (if you haven't already read my other questions haha)

And if no one knows I need to know what will give me that tone back?


It sounded like John Fruciante's (of RHCP) strat.

What could I get to make it sound like Johnny Fruciante?

ShortBuSX
October 21st, 2008, 10:06 PM
I need to know what the standard pickups are on a standard MIM strat


MIM ceramic Alnico V's


What could I get to make it sound like Johnny Fruciante?

Fix your guitar and learn some Chilli Pepper tunes...the tone IS there even without a bridge pickup.

If youre lucky the wire is just off the switch...buy a new set of strings, take it apart to see whats up and then restring it.:rockon:

fensonpaulcaster
October 21st, 2008, 10:33 PM
Thank you man
Do you know where you can buy replacement pickups? If i need to resort to that

markb
October 22nd, 2008, 12:02 AM
MIM ceramic Alnico V's



I'm not trying to be too picky, but "ceramic alnico V" sounds like a contradiction. Strat pickups either use magnetic alnico slugs (aka pole pieces) or plain steel slugs with a ceramic bar magnet glued under them (usually, there are exceptions). The MIM strat I had some years ago had ceramics magnets. I replaced them with Duncan Alnico II's which I got a good deal on.

wingsdad
October 22nd, 2008, 08:09 AM
Generally, Alnico pickups for strats operate at a higher impedance (between 6K - 8K), so the higher resistance tends to make them play cleaner, brighter, glassier. With the bridge pickup, this will generally produce 'thinner' sound. Alnico II vs Alnico V has to do with the difference in the composition of the aluminum, nickel and cobalt alloy that is alnico, V generally yielding the brighter, cleaner vintage sound, II yielding warmer shades. The original Leo Fender pickup choice for his classic design, Alnico V pups produce the higher degree of that 'vintage' strat rubbery 'quack' in the 'in between' 2 & 4 pup combo positions. Dont' forget your 250K pots and .022 mfd caps.

Ceramic mag pickups operate at a lower impedance than Alnico II or V pups(between 4K-6K), so the lower resistance allows for higher potential output with fewer turns of wire than an Alnico, and thus, allows for overdriving an amp (especially a tube amp) much more easily than an Alnico, a 'thicker' single coil sound.

Either way, any of the above characteristics are in turn tempered or accentuated by the resonance and density of the body wood -- ash or alder most common and true to Leo's original designs -- and to some degree, whether the fretboard is glossed maple as in the original mid-50's design, or rosewood, coming along a few years later.

The original design's 12" radius neck, a fairly flat radius, was not only a playability factor, but to help yield more balanced string vibration pickup. The other factor in that balancing act's equation was staggering the heights of the fixed polepieces.

Leo was an electronics genius first & foremost, not a guitar player; for that aspect of his designs, he turned first to Doc Kaufman when he started out building amps and lap steels, and later to Jimmy Bryant and George Fullerton. His likely 'hero' in terms of KISS manufacturing & marketing priciples was Henry Ford.

ShortBuSX
October 22nd, 2008, 12:45 PM
I'm not trying to be too picky, but "ceramic alnico V" sounds like a contradiction. Strat pickups either use magnetic alnico slugs (aka pole pieces) or plain steel slugs with a ceramic bar magnet glued under them (usually, there are exceptions). The MIM strat I had some years ago had ceramics magnets. I replaced them with Duncan Alnico II's which I got a good deal on.

You may have a point, I really dont know, even with the wonderful explaination from Wingsdad...but given your description of thier differences, to that I have to reply with a question: what about humbucker pickups? They have bar magnets...are all of those ceramics too? And not alnicos?

From the info Ive gathered about my 2 MIM's was that these were Ceramic alnico V's...if thats not the case Id surely like to know what level of alnico(aluminum, nickel and cobalt)these ceramic bar magnets are?

markb
October 22nd, 2008, 02:06 PM
You may have a point, I really dont know, even with the wonderful explaination from Wingsdad...but given your description of thier differences, to that I have to reply with a question: what about humbucker pickups? They have bar magnets...are all of those ceramics too? And not alnico

Some are alnico magnets, some are ceramic. It's just a matter of materials. For strat pickups no-one bothers making cylindrical ceramic magnets for the poles, hence the obvious difference.

sunvalleylaw
October 22nd, 2008, 02:25 PM
Generally, Alnico pickups for strats operate at a higher impedance (between 6K - 8K), so the higher resistance tends to make them play cleaner, brighter, glassier. With the bridge pickup, this will generally produce 'thinner' sound. Alnico II vs Alnico V has to do with the difference in the composition of the aluminum, nickel and cobalt alloy that is alnico, V generally yielding the brighter, cleaner vintage sound, II yielding warmer shades. The original Leo Fender pickup choice for his classic design, Alnico V pups produce the higher degree of that 'vintage' strat rubbery 'quack' in the 'in between' 2 & 4 pup combo positions. Dont' forget your 250K pots and .022 mfd caps.

Ceramic mag pickups operate at a lower impedance than Alnico II or V pups(between 4K-6K), so the lower resistance allows for higher potential output with fewer turns of wire than an Alnico, and thus, allows for overdriving an amp (especially a tube amp) much more easily than an Alnico, a 'thicker' single coil sound.

Either way, any of the above characteristics are in turn tempered or accentuated by the resonance and density of the body wood -- ash or alder most common and true to Leo's original designs -- and to some degree, whether the fretboard is glossed maple as in the original mid-50's design, or rosewood, coming along a few years later.

The original design's 12" radius neck, a fairly flat radius, was not only a playability factor, but to help yield more balanced string vibration pickup. The other factor in that balancing act's equation was staggering the heights of the fixed polepieces.

Leo was an electronics genius first & foremost, not a guitar player; for that aspect of his designs, he turned first to Doc Kaufman when he started out building amps and lap steels, and later to Jimmy Bryant and George Fullerton. His likely 'hero' in terms of KISS manufacturing & marketing priciples was Henry Ford.

My Tex Mex pups that came in my strat are 7.4K in the bridge, and 6.4K in the middle and neck, and are Alnico V, with polysol magnet wire and reverse wound/reverse polarity middle pickup for hum canceling in positions 2 & 4. It is a MIM, but the pups are different. I personally love these pups.

ShortBuSX
October 22nd, 2008, 03:44 PM
Some are alnico magnets, some are ceramic. It's just a matter of materials. For strat pickups no-one bothers making cylindrical ceramic magnets for the poles, hence the obvious difference.

So my ceramic pickups cant be alnico V's?
Look at speaker magnets for example.
Im not suggesting that Im right, but you gotta see where Im coming from and why my confusion.

ShortBuSX
October 22nd, 2008, 04:03 PM
I just did a little reading...yeah, Im wrong...but I still dont know/understand why?

markb
October 22nd, 2008, 04:07 PM
No, your ceramic pickups can't be alnico V. Any manufacturer claiming to use "ceramic alnico" is lying. They may claim that their ceramic magnet pickups sound just like those with alnico magnets, but that's another thing entirely.

Powerful ceramic magnets are cheap, hence the reason they're used in budget pickups. Alnico rod is relatively expensive.

fensonpaulcaster
October 22nd, 2008, 08:04 PM
lol this has become a headache for meee

:thwap:

I don't know whats what anymore

I'm on a budget, so the cheaper the better.

Ther highest I'm willing to go is 150. I actually was wanting to go get a set of Fender vintage Noiseless pickups. How are those?

Whats the difference between the hot noiseless ones and the vintage? Higher output?

I was also told to look at keystones. I've been told they're good.

What I'm really looking for is something the tone Of john fruciante in the Song Under the bridge. but something I just realized was that he was playing a jazz master.... Hmmmm

very depressing but anyways..

I love that tone. I really want something like Jf, because i Love how it sounds as a Rhythm.

PLEASE HELP MEE hahah ;)

markb
October 22nd, 2008, 08:17 PM
At the low end a GFS 60s set should get you there. These (http://store.guitarfetish.com/60grbostsemo.html) look good well below your budget. If you get a good deal try Fender Custom Shop 69s. Sorry for the extra (read: unnecessary) detail.

fensonpaulcaster
October 22nd, 2008, 08:48 PM
At the low end a GFS 60s set should get you there. These (http://store.guitarfetish.com/60grbostsemo.html) look good well below your budget. If you get a good deal try Fender Custom Shop 69s. Sorry for the extra (read: unnecessary) detail.

How good are Gfs's? Everyone here seems to know and talk about them in a positive light.

Are they quality? I just want to make sure there worth the money, cause i guess human common sense (which in my case is usually dead wrong) says that the cheaper they are the less quality. At the moment i'm thinking this is one of those times I'm dead wrong.. haha o well :D

Thanks evryone for the help!

fensonpaulcaster
October 22nd, 2008, 08:50 PM
Well
I cheecked a review and by what they say, its exactly what I'm looking for.

I have to thank you all for the help.
It was very inciteful, a little confusing, but I'm gettin there.

You'll have to excuse my constant references to John Fruciante haha.

Its just pretty much exactly what I'm looking for; that tone i mean.

:AOK:

fensonpaulcaster
October 22nd, 2008, 09:11 PM
Generally, Alnico pickups for strats operate at a higher impedance (between 6K - 8K), so the higher resistance tends to make them play cleaner, brighter, glassier. With the bridge pickup, this will generally produce 'thinner' sound. Alnico II vs Alnico V has to do with the difference in the composition of the aluminum, nickel and cobalt alloy that is alnico, V generally yielding the brighter, cleaner vintage sound, II yielding warmer shades. The original Leo Fender pickup choice for his classic design, Alnico V pups produce the higher degree of that 'vintage' strat rubbery 'quack' in the 'in between' 2 & 4 pup combo positions. Dont' forget your 250K pots and .022 mfd caps.

Ceramic mag pickups operate at a lower impedance than Alnico II or V pups(between 4K-6K), so the lower resistance allows for higher potential output with fewer turns of wire than an Alnico, and thus, allows for overdriving an amp (especially a tube amp) much more easily than an Alnico, a 'thicker' single coil sound.

Either way, any of the above characteristics are in turn tempered or accentuated by the resonance and density of the body wood -- ash or alder most common and true to Leo's original designs -- and to some degree, whether the fretboard is glossed maple as in the original mid-50's design, or rosewood, coming along a few years later.

The original design's 12" radius neck, a fairly flat radius, was not only a playability factor, but to help yield more balanced string vibration pickup. The other factor in that balancing act's equation was staggering the heights of the fixed polepieces.

Leo was an electronics genius first & foremost, not a guitar player; for that aspect of his designs, he turned first to Doc Kaufman when he started out building amps and lap steels, and later to Jimmy Bryant and George Fullerton. His likely 'hero' in terms of KISS manufacturing & marketing priciples was Henry Ford.


one day I hope to understand evrything you said.

Well lets see...

I get about the Alnicos...except the part about the quacking.. hmm well

I am not very smart about the technicals on pickups. The output i vaguely understand. The more output the better distortion it plays..to an extent..

Uhmm. I don't think I understand the impendance. It seems to me the somewhere between 6k and 8k is normal.. 10k is high out put.. Now what does the K stand for? Kilowatts right?

Dont' forget your 250K pots and .022 mfd caps. this about where i was starting to lose hope. What exactly does this mean??

wingsdad
October 22nd, 2008, 09:25 PM
one day I hope to understand evrything you said.

Well lets see...

I get about the Alnicos...except the part about the quacking.. hmm well

......

Play your strat a little more, or go out to a store that sells some and play some, or ask someone else who plays one, and maybe you'll get what the 'quack' is about.

HINT: it's about a strat's tone.

Until then, all the other technical stuff is just a bunch of useless information beyond what you need to know at this time.

What could I get to make it sound like Johnny Fruciante?
A Fender Mustang.

Tibernius
October 23rd, 2008, 03:25 PM
A Fender Mustang.

The one he played on video for "Under the Bridge" was a Jaguar. It should be possible to get a similar sound using the bridge pickup of a Strat with the tone set to full.

fensonpaulcaster
October 23rd, 2008, 09:09 PM
The one he played on video for "Under the Bridge" was a Jaguar. It should be possible to get a similar sound using the bridge pickup of a Strat with the tone set to full.

Now honsetly,
I dont think that it would be a Jaguar, because I've played them and the tone is way different then what is in under the bridge. Its really thick and it rolls.

but I played the one with humbuckers....the one with the single coils could definitely achieve that tone..

Well thanks

markb
October 23rd, 2008, 09:30 PM
Now honsetly,
I dont think that it would be a Jaguar, because I've played them and the tone is way different then what is in under the bridge. Its really thick and it rolls.

but I played the one with humbuckers....the one with the single coils could definitely achieve that tone..

Well thanks

The Jag with humbuckers is not a real Jaguar. It's more of a nod to the Kurt Cobain butchered Fenders. The original Jag had two very bright single coils with a strange metal cage around the covers, a short (24") scale, an incredibly complicated control system and tended to lose strings off the bridge saddles unless you strung it up with at least 11s. An acquired taste in my opinion but some folks swear by them. I suspect Frusciante would have used an old Jaguar.

SuperSwede
October 24th, 2008, 03:04 AM
The Jag with humbuckers is not a real Jaguar. It's more of a nod to the Kurt Cobain butchered Fenders. The original Jag had two very bright single coils with a strange metal cage around the covers, a short (24") scale, an incredibly complicated control system and tended to lose strings off the bridge saddles unless you strung it up with at least 11s. An acquired taste in my opinion but some folks swear by them. I suspect Frusciante would have used an old Jaguar.

But what a sound you can get with the original Jag! And it looks so damn cool too :)

fensonpaulcaster
October 24th, 2008, 05:43 PM
The Jag with humbuckers is not a real Jaguar. It's more of a nod to the Kurt Cobain butchered Fenders. The original Jag had two very bright single coils with a strange metal cage around the covers, a short (24") scale, an incredibly complicated control system and tended to lose strings off the bridge saddles unless you strung it up with at least 11s. An acquired taste in my opinion but some folks swear by them. I suspect Frusciante would have used an old Jaguar.

It wouldn't surprise me, all Jf plays with is Fender's

Duff
October 25th, 2008, 12:36 AM
I put my own personally picked set of pickups in a project strat I put together. I put Seymour Duncans in and wanted a hot guitar for blues, especially.

I put a JB Jr humbucking "hot" pup in the bridge. This pup is outstanding for the bridge and really cuts with lots of fabulous tone. It is passive humbucking and will solder in right where your present one does.

I went further than you are going and put a SD "Hot Rail" pup in the neck and a 'lil '59 in the mid and it sounds fabulous in all positions. All pickups are noise cancelling and give up nothing on tone and do not sound thin, believe me. All three pickups are hot. The rail in the neck is put in the bridge by many, also put in the neck by many according to the SD corporate tech that advised me. He told me my choice was the choice of many pro's that order from him. The neck hot rail really does a smooth blues and rock job and makes power chords sound great and different from the bridge pup and the mid is really usable being a 'lil '59, a great pickup in its own right.

The SD tech has some other suggested pup rigs and I recommend calling SD and talking to the corporate tech and getting his advice on what sound you are going for and what they can do for you. You won't be sorry. These guys are great techs and know what they are talking about. You can easily, easily wind up with a guitar that will absolutely blow your mind. Those JB jr's are awesome and the hbucker JB is also awesome. I got black SD single coil shaped hbuckers and put on a black pearl pickguard on a naturally aged gloss black body that I waxed up and the neck is beautiful and it is an Affinity and is absolutely one of my best sounding guitars and a little lighter than my regular strats.

The Seymour Duncan page will tell you all about these various strat pups and you can call them and ask for the tech guy.

I'm thinking of going with some cheap GFS pups on another project guitar I'm working on. They are supposed to be great sounding pups too. My SD pups costed 160 for the "Black Pearl" job and I installed them myself.

I've got an affinity gloss black '04 bass that I want to hot rod. Want to get maybe an aged white pearl pickguard and some SD quarter pounders, or some GFS Hot P style pups. I don't like the old worn and stained looking cracked white pickguards. I might even go with another black pearl. Probably comes down to what is in stock the day I go to GC. They have the quarter lb'ers. I'd even go with a gold P bass pickguard.

I'm sure, however, that the JB Jr would fit right into your MIM strat configuration when you put it in the bridge. That guitar may well have fairly high output ceramic single coils. It should produce a great neck and middle strat tone with some heavy driving bridge tone with the SD JB Jr. The JB Jr. is powerful, bright, cuts thru the mix with ease and room to spare, turn down the tone and it is smooth and mellow and sounds super great with some distortion off your pedal or amp.

Why get a plain one that might not even be like the one you originally had which might have been a hot ceramic fairly high output pickup. The JB Jr. would be a great pickup to have and keep. You can always put it in another guitar someday if you don't like it, which I think will be an extremely remote possibility, if you like the tones that I like. I like a bridge pup on a strat that has some nice bite but a great tone and inspires me and makes me say, "Wow!".

Check it out dude. You'll be glad you did. You don't need an active pup in that guitar to get some great output and tone. Installing an active circuit would be harder to do and then you would have to mix in the passive pickups. Might not be easy. The JB Jr. would be an easy drop in with just a little filing or exacto knife work to square off, slightly, the corners of the bridge opening in the pickguard; no problem whatsoever and takes only a minute.

Hope this give you an idea.

Duff

markb
October 25th, 2008, 02:26 AM
I put a JB Jr into a MIM strat some years ago. It mixed well with the stock ceramic single coils sounding more like a very hot tele bridge pickup than say a PAF. I put a coil split in as well but wound up never using it as the single coils were quite punchy. The Duncan was reverse phase with the Fender pickups. SD give full instructions on how to fix this.

fensonpaulcaster
October 25th, 2008, 05:54 PM
I put my own personally picked set of pickups in a project strat I put together. I put Seymour Duncans in and wanted a hot guitar for blues, especially.

I put a JB Jr humbucking "hot" pup in the bridge. This pup is outstanding for the bridge and really cuts with lots of fabulous tone. It is passive humbucking and will solder in right where your present one does.

I went further than you are going and put a SD "Hot Rail" pup in the neck and a 'lil '59 in the mid and it sounds fabulous in all positions. All pickups are noise cancelling and give up nothing on tone and do not sound thin, believe me. All three pickups are hot. The rail in the neck is put in the bridge by many, also put in the neck by many according to the SD corporate tech that advised me. He told me my choice was the choice of many pro's that order from him. The neck hot rail really does a smooth blues and rock job and makes power chords sound great and different from the bridge pup and the mid is really usable being a 'lil '59, a great pickup in its own right.

The SD tech has some other suggested pup rigs and I recommend calling SD and talking to the corporate tech and getting his advice on what sound you are going for and what they can do for you. You won't be sorry. These guys are great techs and know what they are talking about. You can easily, easily wind up with a guitar that will absolutely blow your mind. Those JB jr's are awesome and the hbucker JB is also awesome. I got black SD single coil shaped hbuckers and put on a black pearl pickguard on a naturally aged gloss black body that I waxed up and the neck is beautiful and it is an Affinity and is absolutely one of my best sounding guitars and a little lighter than my regular strats.

The Seymour Duncan page will tell you all about these various strat pups and you can call them and ask for the tech guy.

I'm thinking of going with some cheap GFS pups on another project guitar I'm working on. They are supposed to be great sounding pups too. My SD pups costed 160 for the "Black Pearl" job and I installed them myself.

I've got an affinity gloss black '04 bass that I want to hot rod. Want to get maybe an aged white pearl pickguard and some SD quarter pounders, or some GFS Hot P style pups. I don't like the old worn and stained looking cracked white pickguards. I might even go with another black pearl. Probably comes down to what is in stock the day I go to GC. They have the quarter lb'ers. I'd even go with a gold P bass pickguard.

I'm sure, however, that the JB Jr would fit right into your MIM strat configuration when you put it in the bridge. That guitar may well have fairly high output ceramic single coils. It should produce a great neck and middle strat tone with some heavy driving bridge tone with the SD JB Jr. The JB Jr. is powerful, bright, cuts thru the mix with ease and room to spare, turn down the tone and it is smooth and mellow and sounds super great with some distortion off your pedal or amp.

Why get a plain one that might not even be like the one you originally had which might have been a hot ceramic fairly high output pickup. The JB Jr. would be a great pickup to have and keep. You can always put it in another guitar someday if you don't like it, which I think will be an extremely remote possibility, if you like the tones that I like. I like a bridge pup on a strat that has some nice bite but a great tone and inspires me and makes me say, "Wow!".

Check it out dude. You'll be glad you did. You don't need an active pup in that guitar to get some great output and tone. Installing an active circuit would be harder to do and then you would have to mix in the passive pickups. Might not be easy. The JB Jr. would be an easy drop in with just a little filing or exacto knife work to square off, slightly, the corners of the bridge opening in the pickguard; no problem whatsoever and takes only a minute.

Hope this give you an idea.

Duff

Well....

this was very helpful to an extent..but there are some conflicting points in this reply haha.

It sounds to me the sounds you got out of this combo was very hot and punchy, but you mentioned it makes it thicker, or something to the effect that it takes away the thin tone. This is exactly the oppostie of what i want. I'm looking for that thin tone with some bite. The pickups I have on the MIM are great! theyre really raunchy with distortion. They just throw out trebly bite with distortion but play clean absolutely pertfect to what I want.

And also I just discovered that theres an internal problem, not with the pickup but with the wires.
Thanks alot though. I'm sure I can use that knowledge in the near future.
:AOK:

Duff
October 25th, 2008, 07:41 PM
The JB Jr has a tremendous amount of bite. It is awesome. I don't know exactly what you mean by a thin high output pup. The JB Jr sears with heat and is crystal clear on the leads. One of the clearest high output pickups I've ever played.

The wiring should be a small problem and if you can't do it you can bring it to a local tech that does a lot of Fenders and they will charge you next to nothing to fix it if you take the pickguard screws out beforehand and loosen up the strings enough so they can just slide the pickguard under them and flip it over. I did this and they rewired my "Black Pearl", which had no grounds to the pots and the pots didn't work at all except for volume. He put in a brand new high quality tone pot and salvaged the other pots and rewired it with grounding for only 14 dollars. I had to put the pickguard screws back in and had kept them in a plastic baggie. Not a big deal and didn't even need new strings. I'd have some though, just in case.

You could get the whole set of GFS Texas Preium strat pups with vintage mid and neck and hot bridge pup, for the price of a JB Jr. But it wouldn't be a JB Jr. That JB Jr. is awesome sounding.

The other SD pups I put in that strat are awesome too but I wouldn't rather have either of them in the bridge over the JB Jr. The "hot rail" in the neck is often put in the bridge, but the neck also. The JB Jr. sounds way hotter but it could be because of the position on the body.

Hope this clarifies the thin thing. I'm not really sure what a good thin sound would sound like. Maybe my Squire standard "Cherry Sunburst" strat sounds thin, but I love the sound and it sound "full" not thin. Way different from my LP's etc. But not exactly thin sounding. Thin makes me think, struggling to get the sound out at a good enough level to sound nice and full. I guess I just don't understand thin and probably have some thin sounding pups myself and just don't know it because they sound really good. I doubt if my Squire Deluxe pearl white sounds thin with the SD duncan designed single coils. It sounds really full.

I don't think my tele's sound thin either, in any pup position. Maybe they technically do though, and I'm just not tuned in on the vocabulary that well.

What exactly does a "thin" sounding pickup sound like and how could it sound good if it sounds thin?

Duffy

Duff
October 25th, 2008, 09:35 PM
The wiring problem, when correctied will probably get the bridge that you like so well working right.

A lot of people are rewiring their switches to put the tone pot on the bridge pup instead of the middle so they can adjust the tone of the bridge when it is on alone.

You might want to consider that. My Hwy 1 has that set up where you can adjust the tone of the bridge humbucker when it is singly selected. It's cool.

Duffy

fensonpaulcaster
October 26th, 2008, 11:18 AM
The wiring problem, when correctied will probably get the bridge that you like so well working right.

A lot of people are rewiring their switches to put the tone pot on the bridge pup instead of the middle so they can adjust the tone of the bridge when it is on alone.

You might want to consider that. My Hwy 1 has that set up where you can adjust the tone of the bridge humbucker when it is singly selected. It's cool.

Duffy

Well, I'm no repairman. I no idea how I would go about this. But I do know a guy who's really good at these things.

I could ask him about that. I generally use the bridge and the middle pups. The neck I use when I'm playing nothing but chords, or jazz actually, I can get a really good thick tone out the bridge pup when I need it, surprisingly.

Duff
October 26th, 2008, 04:02 PM
How did you find out that there was a wiring problem?

Did you take the pickguard off and look inside? Were there any wires broken off?

Close examination will reveal if the wires to the bridge pup are inact or cracked at the solder joint. Someone who knows about these things can easily troubleshoot it and your bridge pup is probably alright, just needs to have the wire soldered back on.

Good luck.

Let us know how it turns out.

Duffy

fensonpaulcaster
October 27th, 2008, 08:05 PM
How did you find out that there was a wiring problem?

Did you take the pickguard off and look inside? Were there any wires broken off?

Close examination will reveal if the wires to the bridge pup are inact or cracked at the solder joint. Someone who knows about these things can easily troubleshoot it and your bridge pup is probably alright, just needs to have the wire soldered back on.

Good luck.

Let us know how it turns out.

Duffy

like I said, IM not tech at these things. But that being siad I'm only thirteen, My guitar teacher said it could be a bad wire. I have the pickguard off, well the screws, and the strings, and the i've checked the inards up and down, and I don't think its a problem that you can see. I know a really good guy to do these repair, I guess I'll call him up.

I don't really get this though. My teacher said that it was a bad wire and if so I'd prolly have to just put in a new pup.

Couldn't you just fix the wire?

markb
October 27th, 2008, 08:19 PM
Yes, you can replace the hook up wire leads from the pickup. If there is damage to the winding wire you may as well write off the pickup if it's a MIM ceramic model. It'll be cheaper to buy a single GFS replacement than repair it. As I've said before you could consider one of the GFS alnico sets for not much more money.

Duff
October 28th, 2008, 02:31 AM
Probably a problem with a cracked solder joint or a wire problem.

Is this a new guitar? How old is it? Are you the only owner?

Could be a contact in the switch too. Some contact cleaner can solve that.

A good guitar tech could probably fix you disassembled guitar in a few minutes with a very small charge.

I doubt if it is the pickup.

If it is you can buy a guitarfetish.com 'lil Killer rail bridge pup for very cheap and wire it right in for some great humbucking bridge sound on you strat.

Duffy

fensonpaulcaster
October 29th, 2008, 06:03 PM
Probably a problem with a cracked solder joint or a wire problem.

Is this a new guitar? How old is it? Are you the only owner?

Could be a contact in the switch too. Some contact cleaner can solve that.

A good guitar tech could probably fix you disassembled guitar in a few minutes with a very small charge.

I doubt if it is the pickup.

If it is you can buy a guitarfetish.com 'lil Killer rail bridge pup for very cheap and wire it right in for some great humbucking bridge sound on you strat.

Duffy

Well thankyou for your help, Duff, And everyone else for that matter.

I will call a tech about fixing it. I will get back with the results

Ch0jin
October 29th, 2008, 06:57 PM
On the topic of Strat PU's I've just ordered some for my Squier Strat.

GFS Alnico Fat Pat Boutique Humbucker Zebra (Bridge position)

and then for the other two I've ordered a pair of "Cream NAL9 Alnico Single Pickup- Thicker, Boler (sic) Tones."

Looking forward to some "Boler" tones haha

Anyway. More info as it comes to hand.

Oh I decided to use a pull switch pot to split the HB (dunno if I'll use, but may as well do it while I'm in there) and came across a sensational idea on the web. I'm going to use the bottom tone control for the switch!! I read that and thought "thats one of the most awesome ideas for a strat ever"

Duff
October 29th, 2008, 08:35 PM
Is it a new or used guitar and which model is it, not sure if you mentioned. MIM strat I think you said. A standard?

Duffy

fensonpaulcaster
November 1st, 2008, 08:49 PM
Is it a new or used guitar and which model is it, not sure if you mentioned. MIM strat I think you said. A standard?

Duffy
Its an '03 MIM Standard

Duff
November 1st, 2008, 09:21 PM
Was it that way when you bought it? Or did the problem surface suddenly. Maybe it was like that all along and you just didn't notice it until you had some hours playing it.

Sounds like a simple and inexpensive fix. I believe those are ceramic pickups. Email GFS if you need one and they will probably recommend one and ship you just one, very cheap.

You could call the Seymour Duncan tech if you need a pickup and he would definitely be able to advise you with a super mega outstanding pickup that would fit just exactly what you want in sound, but for more money of course, probably three times as much money and maybe three times the quality, but people here say the GFS ones are just as good or very close. Buy some Seymour Duncans and you will want to buy more, believe me. I like GFS and have bought a bunch of their stuff but the SD pickups are awesome.

Duffy

fensonpaulcaster
November 30th, 2008, 04:17 PM
Hey all
sorry i haven't been on lately.

The problem ended up being the a bad switch, its being fixed FINALLY now haha

Thanks for the help

ShortBuSX
December 2nd, 2008, 02:55 PM
The problem ended up being the a bad switch, its being fixed FINALLY now haha



If youre lucky the wire is just off the switch...buy a new set of strings, take it apart to see whats up and then restring it.:rockon:

Did you do the job yourself? Or did you take it to somebody.
The reason I ask...how was the switch "bad"?