Strat tone

[fensonpaulcaster]

Hey everyone
I just bought a MIM Standard strat from a guy off of craigslist.

My first impression of the guitar was somewhere in the middle.
some of the hardware is rusted (the saddle, pickguard screws, selector switch, tuners, and input plate and jack) Its not bad really. Spots, and alot of it is just dust. The pickups were rusted around the edges slightly as well. I decided what the heck, I can totally fix it up.
When I got home, I plugged it in and was totally amazed at the tone. I immediatley fell in love with it. I've played strats before, but I guess the fact that i owned it made it stand out more, but I was astonished at the tone. It was sweet and sharp and crisp.

But the bridge pickup is dead.

I don't wanna lose tone, but I want to buy a set of good pickups for it.
The bridge pickup is really big for me, I use it predominantly. I couldn't find any standards bridges, but Ironically they sell neck and middle pickups for the MIM's.
I was considering getting Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups
I don't really know how they sound. I want it to be all strat tone, with really good clean, but its gotta be able to handle some distortion.

Help Please!? :

[Dauntless]

Guitar Fetish has single pickups, if that's where your headed,

http://store.guitarfetish.com/sistpi.html

They also have some very nice sounding sets,

http://store.guitarfetish.com/singlecoil.html

Send Jay an e-mail and tell him what kind of sound you're lookin' for.

[fensonpaulcaster]

Guitar Fetish has single pickups, if that's where your headed,

http://store.guitarfetish.com/sistpi.html

They also have some very nice sounding sets,

http://store.guitarfetish.com/singlecoil.html

Send Jay an e-mail and tell him what kind of sound you're lookin' for.

Well

How do i do that I looked on the website I couldn't find anything about sending an email. haha

Thanks anyways

[tunghaichuan***]

It's at the bottom of the "Info" page:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/info.html

info@guitarfetish.com

tung

Well

How do i do that I looked on the website I couldn't find anything about sending an email. haha

Thanks anyways

[ShortBuSX]

I know Im partial, and I havent even installed them yet...but you can get a set of Keystone pickups for $85, the dude invented noiseless pickups. These arent "noiseless", but they are supposed to be damn close and they get stellar reviews online as well, better reviews than the GFS(which I havent tried either).

Having said that though, I really like the stock MIM standard ceramic pups, turn em up to 20 for an almost overdriven tone or roll off the volume to 8-9 for nice clean Strat tones. I like them so much I cant decide which MIM to gut for the Keystones!:
But whats exactly the matter with the pup? You could probably find a used set of MIM pups for less than $40 on ebay...but if its just a simple wire to solder then do that.
But if it makes you feel any better, the bridge pup is my least favorite and it only becomes good if you move the tone pot to the bridge pickup and just take it off the middle pup entirely. Enjoy it til youve got the cash for another set...possitions 1-3 are pretty damn good all by themselves.

Are you able to post any pics? I havent seen a MIM I didnt like yet...even talked myself out of a 3rd one(Craigslist) just this afternoon. Mmmmm, midnight wine....mmmmm!:

[edit]Keystones are also handmade here in USA

[fensonpaulcaster]

I know Im partial, and I havent even installed them yet...but you can get a set of Keystone pickups for $85, the dude invented noiseless pickups. These arent "noiseless", but they are supposed to be damn close and they get stellar reviews online as well, better reviews than the GFS(which I havent tried either).

Having said that though, I really like the stock MIM standard ceramic pups, turn em up to 20 for an almost overdriven tone or roll off the volume to 8-9 for nice clean Strat tones. I like them so much I cant decide which MIM to gut for the Keystones!:
But whats exactly the matter with the pup? You could probably find a used set of MIM pups for less than $40 on ebay...but if its just a simple wire to solder then do that.
But if it makes you feel any better, the bridge pup is my least favorite and it only becomes good if you move the tone pot to the bridge pickup and just take it off the middle pup entirely. Enjoy it til youve got the cash for another set...possitions 1-3 are pretty damn good all by themselves.

Are you able to post any pics? I havent seen a MIM I didnt like yet...even talked myself out of a 3rd one(Craigslist) just this afternoon. Mmmmm, midnight wine....mmmmm!:

[edit]Keystones are also handmade here in USA

Great stuff man thanks.
Ill put up some pics of my axes.

But what i want for tone is like what john fruciante has in Under the Bridge (and yes john is my idol at the moment lol )

But i really like the tone of my strat now, I don't know, it sounds very good. Just like john frusciante. The pots on the pups are begginning to rust, and my friends dad told me that makes it sound different. I wouldn't know. But anyways, where can i get some of these keystones?

[markb]

Low output strat pickups will get you that open woody tone. Avoid "Texas" pickup sets like the plague.

http://keystonepickups.com/ for keystones. Bill Lawrence has been around as long as I can remember (i.e. a very long time). And shortBusX is dead right, Lawrence's pickups were the first noiseless single coils. I can recall Nils Lofgren promoting them in the mid 70s.

[ShortBuSX]

But what i want for tone is like what john fruciante has in Under the Bridge (and yes john is my idol at the moment lol )

Are you sure that was recorded with a Strat?
Im not the biggest JF fan(I do like him though), but didnt he play mostly Telecasters until just recently...like after Dave Navarro left?

If you wanna hear JF tones on your Strat learn this:

[Andy]

actually If your a JF fan ,check out Jimi Hendrix.
he copped the Under the bridge tone from, castles made of sand.

It's no secret he worships hendrix.

[fensonpaulcaster]

Are you sure that was recorded with a Strat?
Im not the biggest JF fan(I do like him though), but didnt he play mostly Telecasters until just recently...like after Dave Navarro left?

If you wanna hear JF tones on your Strat learn this:

well Idk If it is, but I love the tone of that and songs like snow and scar tissue. Idk much technical things about guitars and pickups seeing as how i haven't been playing as long as you guys (i've been playing since i was 11 [im an unlucky number haha] )

But i pretty much idolize the was jf plays and at the moment my strat sounds pretty much just like his tone but i need that bridge to finish it.

SO how do keystones sound?
How do Noiseless sound?

Thankyall for the help :

[fensonpaulcaster]

Oh and I'm not sure so much about when he started using strats.

He plays a strat in the Under the bridge video It seems to me that it sounds like a strat but that could be an illusion... haha

[SolShred]

how are those keystone pickups so darn cheap!?!?!?

i checked out the site and they seem like high high quality stuff but its like 75$

whats going on there?

oh and how do they sound

[SuperSwede]

He plays a Fender Jaguar in the video, and I believe that is what he used for the recording as well.

[ZMAN]

I had Vintage noiseless on a MIM Deluxe player Strat, and they sounded excellent. I also have a set of SCN Sumarium Cobalt Noiseless on my Fender deluxe USA. They sound very good as well. You never mentioned your budget. Remember the MIMs have ceramic magnet pickups. If you buy a bridge from another set it might sound different. I am sure you can get a replacement MIM bridge pickup. Did you check the wiring? It might just be a brocken wire on the switch or pickup.

[Duff49]

Most likely it is a broken wire going from the bridge pickup to the five way switch or the ground. Easy fix, even if you have to pay a tech - plus you could have him solder it back onto the switch so that the bass tone control will control the bridge pickup, a great mod.

This would be very inexpensive and the existing pickup that sounds so great is most likely easily fixable with little or no money invested.

I would try to fix the existing pickup first. You can clean them up, no problem, plus vintage pickups sound great. Most strats are not noiseless and they have a characteristic tone, where noisless pickups sacrifice tone to obtain noislessness.

I have great fende vintage noisless pickups on my J bass and I like the tone; but that is a bass. With a strat you may want that treble twang that often is missing with noisless pickups.

If you like the sound of what you have why don't you look inside and see if it's an easy fix, like a loose or broken solder joint. Most lkely it is broke or loose at the five way switch.

Take the time and remove the pickguard and flip it over and examine all the wires. You just have to loosen up the strings to get to flip the pickguard over. You will learn a lot.

Try it, you might be glad you did instead of putting in a set of pickups that don't have that vintage sound.

Duffy
Winfield, Pa.

[Monkus]

Avoid "Texas" pickup sets like the plague.

Why ..??

[duhvoodooman***]

Avoid "Texas" pickup sets like the plague.

Why ..??

I would infer from the context of the remark that he means avoid them if you're going for that airy, sparkly vintage Strat tone. The "Texas" style pickups are hotter versions that push for that fuller, in-your-face SRV blues tone. It's not that they're bad pickups, just not what you should be going with if you're looking for that characteristic vintage Strat sound.

This is a big part of the reason that I have two Strats--one set up with Fender CS "Texas Specials" for when I want to scratch (however pitifully!) that SRV itch, and another with vintage-voiced pickups for the quintessential vintage Strat tone.

[sumitomo]

Now I'm coin-fused I always thought SRV had stock pickups in his guitar?Sumi

[duhvoodooman***]

Now I'm coin-fused I always thought SRV had stock pickups in his guitar?Sumi

Hey, I'm just referring to what those "Texas" style pickups are supposed to be voiced to sound like. Personally, I think that SRV's tones were about 80% in his fingers, 10% in those 13-gauge string sets he used, and about 10% "all other"....