New PIckups for a Strat??

Muzick

Muzick

Experienced
Hey everyone,

I've got a 2008 American Strat Deluxe - HSS W/ S1 Switching. I'm not sure what the pickups are, though it's not the noiseless as most models had.

I'm in the market to upgrade the pickups in this thing. I mainly play rock / blues / and pop. The cleans in this thing sound fantastic, but I'm interested in getting a better crunch / distortion tone. Does the S1 switch present an issue when upgrading the pickups?

Thanks for your recommendations!


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Zexcoil. Try a mixed set of S5, S5+ & Juicybucker. You can return/exchange. Scott Lawing (owner and creator of the technology) is a great guy too. You will Loe them.

Oh, and they look cool too.
 
I think there should be a law that requires all stratocaster guitars to have a Dimarzio set of Area pickups

Idk what you'd do in your case with the humbucker in the bridge

But the Dimarzio 58/67/61 are the best
 
Subscribed to this thread. I recently got a 2008 strat deluxe SSS with the stock SCN pickups, but I'm also just not bonding with the pickups. I actually prefer the sound I'm getting from a cheaper Mexican strat with Texas specials in it. I'd be interested in keeping the extra tonal possibilities of the S1 switching if possible.
 
I just got my Strat and went through reading the whole Internet through... all of it. :)

For that vintage Strat sound the general consensus was: Fender Custom Shop pickups (CS69 f.ex.), Bare Knuckle low output pickups and Suhr pickups which is what I went for. Pete Thorn uses the same pickups so that sold me over: V60LP and he also has a HSS configuration where the bridge pickup is also made by Suhr. Just check his live gear video and how nice the guitar sounds. :)

Everyone tries noiseless pickups and replace them in a few months. You have a noise gate in the Axe-Fx.

Is the S1 splitting the humbucker or turning the phase of the middle pickup?
 
A while back I replaced my HSS deluxe with two lollar blackface pickups and a Duncan JB. The lollars sounded amazing but the JB was just as dark and lifeless as the stock pickups. In a recent thread I started people had suggested I double check the pot values and if they were in fact 250 k that I should switch to 500k for the humbucker. I did and it made an amazing difference. My strat is now my number one guitar. In the past it always kinda got left aside. It was because i really wasnt happy with the humbucker and I always thought it was the JB I didn't like. I also completely rewired the guitar and got rid of the S-1 switching. Mainly because I never use it and also because I wanted to remove any extra circuitry that could have been causing any tone loss. So id recommend considering rewiring the strat. I went with a simple 5 way with autosplit in position two. I still used the super switch. Just bought new cts pots.

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Yes, my Zexcoils are wired with 500K. Makes all the difference.

As to noise vs. noise gates vs. noiseless pickups (and this idea that you'll end up hating them) etc. 1) Zexcoils use a different technology from ALL other noiseless pups. Thy don't use dummy coils, backing plates etc. 2) I don't feel I'm 'losing' anything using them - except noise 3) for the delicate stuff I play through my rig - guitar, voice, viola, even wind chimes, a noise gate is a soul-sucking nightmare - even turned way down. 4) Check out the Stevie Snacks site. He just switched to Zexcoils and is enthusiastically endorsing them - listen to the 'Texas' SRV sound he's getting out of 'em:





steviesnacks.com: why i play zexcoil pickups

boltrecords said:
A while back I replaced my HSS deluxe with two lollar blackface pickups and a Duncan JB. The lollars sounded amazing but the JB was just as dark and lifeless as the stock pickups. In a recent thread I started people had suggested I double check the pot values and if they were in fact 250 k that I should switch to 500k for the humbucker. I did and it made an amazing difference. My strat is now my number one guitar. In the past it always kinda got left aside. It was because i really wasnt happy with the humbucker and I always thought it was the JB I didn't like. I also completely rewired the guitar and got rid of the S-1 switching. Mainly because I never use it and also because I wanted to remove any extra circuitry that could have been causing any tone loss. So id recommend considering rewiring the strat. I went with a simple 5 way with autosplit in position two. I still used the super switch. Just bought new cts pots.

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And... I do not have any financial interest in Zexcoil, and no way would they ever take someone who makes the weird-ass music I make as an endorser. I paid in full for mine. I love 'em. And if I ever get a 2nd strat, I'll put 'em in there too.
 
Those Zexcoils sound really REALLY good.

The amount of hum they reduce without sacrificing tone is impressive.

I think I've made my decision here... :)
 


I dunno about what you guys thought but the middle position sounded better than bridge and neck to me and usually people don't even use the middle pickuo for more than the phased 2 and 4 positions.

It might just be my philosophy but if hum is a problem for you then maybe don't play a strat. I see many HSS strat guys using their humbucker 90% of the time and all I'm thinking is why they got a strat in the first place. IMO a strat is all about the vintage thing... the neck pickup for Jimi and Frusciante stuff, 2 and 4 for those snappy lines that cut through and bridge for that *kerrang* classic Fender tone. Position 3 is cool for funk. That's the way you use a strat IMO. :) If you get hum then you have too much gain for a strat. :)
 
Clark Kent said:


I dunno about what you guys thought but the middle position sounded better than bridge and neck to me and usually people don't even use the middle pickuo for more than the phased 2 and 4 positions.

It might just be my philosophy but if hum is a problem for you then maybe don't play a strat. I see many HSS strat guys using their humbucker 90% of the time and all I'm thinking is why they got a strat in the first place. IMO a strat is all about the vintage thing... the neck pickup for Jimi and Frusciante stuff, 2 and 4 for those snappy lines that cut through and bridge for that *kerrang* classic Fender tone. Position 3 is cool for funk. That's the way you use a strat IMO. :) If you get hum then you have too much gain for a strat. :)
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Thanks for the nice comments in this thread.

I just wanted to point out that this is an older vid. The designs for getting the more open Strat tones have changed fundamentally since I did that video and are much improved. The new version of the SV5 uses a different approach to get those open tones. I think this is a pretty good example right here, going head to head with some conventional Strat pickups in a monster player's personal guitar:



This was just captured last weekend at the NY Amp Show as was the one Samuel quoted above.

Hum really doesn't have to be part of the Strat sound. One thing I notice is that a lot of guys end up playing with more gain with our stuff...just because they can. But it's the cleans that really tell the tale.
 
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I'm in love with my WCR Strat pickups. I've got a set in my 57 AVRI Strat and they do everything I could possibly want of them.....rock, blues, jazz....even metal. The bridge pup is absolutely killer. WCR sells only humbuckers on the website, but if you ask Jim he does wind a few sets of single coils every year. They're pricey....I think I paid around $400 US for mine, though I did have him do the prewired harness with 300k pots. Totally worth it.
 
Zexcoil said:
Thanks for the nice comments in this thread.

I just wanted to point out that this is an older vid. The designs for getting the more open Strat tones have changed fundamentally since I did that video and are much improved. The new version of the SV5 uses a different approach to get those open tones. I think this is a pretty good example right here, going head to head with some conventional Strat pickups in a monster player's personal guitar:



This was just captured last weekend at the NY Amp Show as was the one Samuel quoted above.

Hum really doesn't have to be part of the Strat sound. One thing I notice is that a lot of guys end up playing with more gain with our stuff...just because they can. But it's the cleans that really tell the tale.
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Goes without saying that your pickups seem like the best noiseless option for strats! Don't get me wrong.. I'm very impressed. :)
 
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