Pickup suggestions needed!

[thekiwidisciple]

Well, as some of you may know, I've ordered a body and a neck from Warmoth. It's a telecaster, but with strat pickup routes. Can you guys suggest a good set of pickups to put in it? They need to be single coils! :P

Also, as I won't be using a pickguard, they'll be directly mounted to the wood, but there will be a trem spring cavity in the back. What woudl be the best way to directly mount the pickups to the body?

[marnold***]

I assume that the bridge pickup is routed for a Strat and not a Tele pickup? If I were to get an SSS guitar, I'd really like to try a Dimarzio Area 61 at the bridge and Area 67s at the neck and middle. These would be noiseless, FWIW. I've got Area 61s in the neck and middle of my Floyd. That would be a nice combo with a hotter bridge pickup.

[Robert****]

+1 on Marnold's suggestion.

[sunvalleylaw]

My suggestion is different. Check out these:

http://www.fender.com/products//sear...tno=0992131000 (fender tex mex)

My guitar has 'em, and listen to Jimi75's JV strat vid with his Marshall he has posted in member clips. http://www.thefret.net/showthread.php?t=10069

Guitar Fetish has some that are similar I bet too, and they are well regarded, and it may be cheaper.

[Bloozcat]

http://www.tonerider.com/pickups/stratpickups.html

Listen to the sound files. Great pickups at a reasonable price...and they're easy to find where you are Kiwi....:

[Rocket]

Can you guys suggest a good set of pickups to put in it? They need to be single coils!

You got some suggestions but you never really mentioned what YOU wanted it to sound like. That would help with recommendations.

[markb]

What Rocket said. Vintage strat tones? 50s? 60s? Modern high gain?

Our local Tonerider distributor is a TV shop in Palmy North, Manawatu Sound and Vision.

[Tibernius]

Can you guys suggest a good set of pickups to put in it? They need to be single coils! :P

One thing I'd recommend you do is see if there are any companies that make handwound pickups nearby. In the UK you can get a set of handwound Strat pickups for less than the price of one Seymour Duncan or other "big-name" pickup. And they'd sound closer to the vintage pickups.

If you're going the mass-produced route, check Sky or Kent Armstrong. Sky are the mass produced version of the Handwound Kent Armstrong pickups, I have seen them sold under the Kent Armstrong name though. A fair bit cheaper than a lot of the pro-level brands, and from what I've heard they're just as good, if not better.

[thekiwidisciple]

You got some suggestions but you never really mentioned what YOU wanted it to sound like. That would help with recommendations.

That's quite a hard one really. Let me throw some names out there: SRV, Gilmour, Clapton, Knopfler...I'm definitely leaning towards the Tonerider City Limits set!

Also, just to add, to direct-mount these pickups, are they screwed directly into the wood or is there an assembly that the pickup screws into?

[Rocket]

SRV, Gilmour, Clapton, Knopfler...

If you want to cover that range with a single Strat you'll need a bunch of velcro mounted pups with quick-connects for fast change-outs.

[thekiwidisciple]

If you want to cover that range with a single Strat you'll need a bunch of velcro mounted pups with quick-connects for fast change-outs.

I reckon! Those are just the main guitarists that I listen to...

[markb]

SRV, Gilmour, Clapton, Knopfler...

The hot bridge unit in the City Limits set should help with the Gilmour OD tones, the neck pup will handle the SRV tones. Modern Clapton = Knopfler quack + mid boost and drive. A couple of OD pedals should get you all of that and more. I think you're on the right lines. Try a Fulldrive for OD and boost combined. It'll get you that Tube Screamer tone and the boost adds extra middle and sustain. Or, for less cash, get one of the new BYOC OD kits (Fulldrive clone?? ).

[thekiwidisciple]

The hot bridge unit in the City Limits set should help with the Gilmour OD tones, the neck pup will handle the SRV tones. Modern Clapton = Knopfler quack + mid boost and drive. A couple of OD pedals should get you all of that and more. I think you're on the right lines. Try a Fulldrive for OD and boost combined. It'll get you that Tube Screamer tone and the boost adds extra middle and sustain. Or, for less cash, get one of the new BYOC OD kits (Fulldrive clone?? ).

I've got a Boss BD-2 at the moment, but I really need a new amp first. I'm going to try these City Limits pups for my Squier Affinity Strat, I'll order them tonight. Then I've got to save up and buy the pups and electronics for the tele being made. Then I've got to buy an amp...THEN I can get some more pedals! All on a part-time teenager's wage!

[Duff49]

When I hot rodded my "Black Pearl" Squire strat I checked with the tech at Seymour Duncan and explained exactly the sounds I was trying to get at and he was really helpful and suggested a set up that I was already piecing together, that he said was popular with a lot of serious players.

Here's what I put in: I put a SD hot rail in the neck which sounds really great; a 'lil '59 in the middle; and a JB Jr in the bridge, a truly awesome pickup. All SD pups. I put a new switch in, high quality and had the tone knobs hooked up to the neck and the bridge and this is outstanding having control over that JB Jr in the bridge. The wide open middle pup sounds fantastic and the notch positions are really nice.

This is a super versatile set up and you can get all kinds of tones out of it and all the pups are noisless single coil humbuckers but they have a distinctly strat sound to them, quite unlile their full size humbucker counterparts. They are really great pickups and cost about sixty dollars each but you get what you pay for with these. This Squire guitar is awesome, really awesome. As a visual plus it has a highly flammed maple neck all the way up thru the headstock, every quarter inch is a flame line. It is an '04 model and is naturally relic'd, very minorly. Black with a black pearl pickguard and black pups, plus Fender locking tuners. The guitar plays and sounds and looks probably as well as any of my guitars, including some eight hundred plus ones.

The more I play the more I find out that there is more to tone than price paid; although in general my more expensive guitars sound significantly better than my inexpensive SX'es and so on, but not always, and definitely not after you do some successful modding to some of the less expensive guitars.

Duffy
Winfield, Pa.

[thekiwidisciple]

Thanks, Duffy, but I must have forgotten to say that Humbuckers really aren't my thing and I'd like to stick with Single Coils.

I've ordered Tonerider City Limits' for my Squier Strat, which should be here tomorrow, so depending on how they go, I might look at getting another set for this tele.