EQ TIPS TO MAKE MY STRAT SOUND MORE VINTAGE.

bobmeredith

bobmeredith

Member
I have a ’88 Fender Strat plus, lovely instrument, and had enough refinements to convince me to buy a strat after 30 odd years with Ibanez and Gibson.

I currently have Dimarzio Area 58s and a 61 installed, and whilst they are great pickups and I do like the sound, they don’t sound particularly “stratty”; especially when I jam with other strat players. The same can be said for the original Lace Sensors as well.

Before I embark on an orgy of pickup buying, do any of you have some eq tips that I could dial in to my Ultra to get a little closer to a vintage strat tone.

Never having owned a strat with standard pups I don’t really have a “hands on” aural sense of what a standard strat would sound like through my setup.

I do realize that the Lace and Areas are not really the right pups for what I’m trying to achieve but I’m hoping that the Axe, plus some tips from Strat’sperts might get me closer or retrain my ear. I’d like to stay with the noiseless pups if possible.


I briefly played the other guys strat (Texas specials) through my setup/patches and it sounded unbelievably thin and “ice picky”; but nice thru his amp. From this I might conclude the most strat players are far more tolerant to lack of a big bottom end and a top end that I would regard as piercing.

I’m using an Ultra----Matrix-----EV12L rig or a Mesa Mark III combo and would use the strat mainly for clean chord fusion stuff, Blues, and Pop/Funk styles. No Metal/hard rock/grunge.

Any eq tips that apply for the AXE II would still apply to the Ultra as well. I'm really looking for the essence of the old chimey bell like strat, rather than any one players tweaks or signature sound..

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Well the areas are very very vintage sounding, so don't blame the pickups. I can be the guitar itself or a ton of other stuff, like the amp model, or the speakers.
 
Texas specials suck, IMO.... So, do the Areas..... I find the Areas to be very sterile and lifeless compared to a good vintage style pickup. Get some good vintage style Strat pickups in there and that will go a long way towards getting you there. Lots of great options out there... Lollar, Fralin, etc...

I had a late 80's Strat Plus at one time. Mine had the original Gold Lace Sensors. Those were the best sounding, and the most vintage like, of the Lace Sensors to my ears. I really liked those pickups at the time but haven't heard or played those pickups for 20 years... I distinctly remember that I didn't care for the other Lace Sensors (Red, Blue, and Silver IIRC).

I don't have any recommendations for settings in the Axe. It starts with the guitar and the pickups, IMO. You'll definitely have to dial in your amps different for single coils than the Ibanez and Gibson's you have been use to playing.
 
You're in Australia and you seem to like noiseless or noisefree PUPs, try some Kinmans. Not "totally" vintage (but what is that anyway?), but IMO great. I especially like his special tuning so that the wound strings get more treble without the plain strings getting too shrill.
I had a Strat Plus from 1993. IMO the biggest improvement would be to change the bridge. Get a Callaham...
 
The Areas do not suck, they are really good for noiseless pickups. BUT they can never match a true single coil. That will never happen... Stacked single coils will cancel some frequencies, it's just a rule of physics, you can't avoid that. Either go with true single coils, get the best tone, and learn to live with noise, or go noiseless, pay the (small) price and get somewhat decent tone.

Kinmans are better than Areas but the margin is very small IMO. Dimarzio really nailed it this time with areas with a reasonable price tag.
 
I love my Kinman Woodstock plus PUs in my 50s classic player; they nail Hendrix, Vaughan and Trower tones all day long. Do you have a rosewood fretboard? Maple is probably the tone you're looking for. Tuning down half a step and using lighter strings like Jimi did could help.
 
I picked up a strat after years of being a double humbucker guy, and went through the same ice pick stage. I learned how important the tone knob is on strats, unlike my LP or PRS Singlecut. Those guitars usually have them full on, but my strat's tone knobs are much more sensitive. The same patches I use with my humbucker guitars work well once I sat down and found the sweet spot for the tone knobs, and then maybe dial out some bass.

I fitted an S1 switching setup that gave me a lot more options in tone!
 
Without knowing what you find missing in your tone (hint hint), my guess from left field is that you've got too much treble dialed in. That's because your frend's Tele sounded ice-picky in your rig, but not in his.

Put a graphic EQ in your chain and start playing. Play with one slider at a time, and run it up and down until you find the position that's closest to the sound you're after. By the time you finish the last slider, you'll be closer than you were.
 
I went through a similar journey with a Am Dluxe Strat withh HSS pickup setup.
Have always been a humbucker guitar guy.
Had DiMarzio Area 67's and a Suhr humbucker.
Ended up going to a Tex Mex HSS setup.
Liked that better-more Stratty.

Sold the Strat though. I am just not a Strat guy. I have a friend's Tele I am using and like that much better than the Strat.
You may just not be a Strat person in the end. Dunno.
 
Lollar Blonds are a great vintage inspired but updated Strat pickup, great combination of Strat soul, airy, woody and fidelity. Suhr and Jim Kelley are reworking the noise canceling backplate - it's supposed to be smaller and cheaper and sound better. The only caution is you can't use RWRP middle pickups with the Suhr noise canceling plate.
 
Some really great thoughts here guys. Thank you

"Put a graphic EQ in your chain and start playing. Play with one slider at a time, and run it up and down until you find the position that's closest to the sound you're after. By the time you finish the last slider, you'll be closer than you were."

I've done this at home. If I can get a tone that's close at home, I think I'll take a laptop and AXE-EDIT and start tweaking on the fly at the next jam.

Alder body and rosewood fingerboard.

Here's some of my results/conclusions so far.

A) I'm definately not a strat guy but I love what I hear from other people.

B) I'm definately trying to avoid what I consider icepick, and in doing so I suspect I'm eq-ing out the things that make that stratty sound that I like from across the other side of the room.

C) don't dislike the areas or the lace pups at all; but I have an Ibanez super strat and it does very similar sounds to my strat, so I'm thinking I could chase a more stratty tone for the Fender and still have all my single coil variations covered between the two guitars.

D) I have been investigating the Kinmans and from what people have said they may get me a little closer to vintage without the noise. From comments I've read the difference may only be slight. I'm willing to do without the noiseless if I have to.

E) THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE OF THE LOT. When I go and stand next to my strat playing collegues I notice that they tolerate a much higher level of top end than I'm comfortable with, but back across the room it sounds great. I suspect this is normal and just part of playing a strat. Or is it that most strat players have burnt the top end out of their hearing and have dial in this much top end to make it sound normal to them. Seriously; I've met players who have commented on their hearing loss. I'm the wrong side of 50 but the audiologists tell me I have the ears of a bat so I find the top end some people regard as great is way out of balance to me.

OR

Do I just have to borrow someone strat for a weekend and do a lot of ABing until I eq my strat to something close enough. I'm not chasing the holy grail of strat tones here; but for personal and professional reasons I'd now like my strat to sound a little more like what others regard as a strat tone.

Here is a recording I made with my area equipped Strat and my Ultra. I really like this sound for a solo ballad, but live, with other instruments it just wouldn't cut it.

SoundClick artist: Bob Meredith - page with MP3 music downloads

This next track starts with my strat and uses the S-Gear recording plugin for VST. Once again I like this recorded sound but it doesn't seem to translate very well in a live situation. The 2nd solo is the Ibanez back humbucker.

SoundClick artist: Bob Meredith - page with MP3 music downloads
 
Another vote for Kinmans. I have one Strat fitted with his Traditional set and another with Woodstocks, very happy with both.
Here's another thing to look at: there are Strats, that sound thin and sterile, these are usually Strats, which are very heavy.
A Strat or a Tele has to be lightweight and has to have healthy resonance played acoustically. It's also a good idea to have the bridge pup wired to the tone control.

- Hans
 
Kinman Woodstocks are great but IMO Plus set bridge is overpowered. Way too beefy for a strat. I got the plus set but I regretted it later on. I'm not saying it's bad, it's terrific, it's just not a vintage strat anymore. If you are looking for noiseless version of Fender Custom Shop 69s, go with Kinman Woodstock regular set.
 
Hi

EQ will not bring you there-->its in the pickups (and maybe also in your guitar*)

Look here-but takes time (2 month delivery)-as close as it gets

BG Pups Hand Wound Custom Guitar Pickups by Bryan Gunsher

BG Pups Vintage 60 and Phatty Demo - YouTube

And sends everywhere-If you can explain exactely what you are looking for-it will be made

Roland

*Are you sure your pickupheight is right?
*Did you ever retighten the neck-more sustain and different tone(tune it sharp-lose the 4 (3 ) screws 1/2 a turn-upon last one it will make click-retighten-retune)
 
oacikgoz said:
The Areas do not suck, they are really good for noiseless pickups. BUT they can never match a true single coil. That will never happen... Stacked single coils will cancel some frequencies, it's just a rule of physics, you can't avoid that. Either go with true single coils, get the best tone, and learn to live with noise, or go noiseless, pay the (small) price and get somewhat decent tone.

Kinmans are better than Areas but the margin is very small IMO. Dimarzio really nailed it this time with areas with a reasonable price tag.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. The areas sound like the real deal, no difference. They are made to sound like real singles in humcancelling mode.
 
Another vote for the Kinmans. I just put 2 59s and a Vintage Astound Humbucker in my Line 6 JTV-69...Wow. What a difference. I also own a 2008 Deluxe Strat w/Callaham Block installed...I'm thinking this Strat would sound better w/Kinmans (even though it already has noiseless SCN pickups).
 
Nothing sounds like a real single-coil. I've tried every type of noiseless "single-coil" and nothing sounds like the real thing. The closest I've found are Duckbuckers but even those don't have the quack.
 
FractalAudio said:
Nothing sounds like a real single-coil. I've tried every type of noiseless "single-coil" and nothing sounds like the real thing. The closest I've found are Duckbuckers but even those don't have the quack.
Click to expand...

I agree with Cliff.

You can get VERY close though with good noiseless pickups like Kinmans or Areas.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom