Strat Bridge Single Coil Rock Tones

barhrecords said:
It really is a work in progress for me. I came from humbuckers. I find Strats to be more work but more rewarding too.

I find them harder to play and they expose more of my performance flaws but at the same time offer a level of expression and nuance I can't attain with humbuckers.

I use the Kinman noiseless strat pickups. They are a good compromise of vintage tone and low noise floor for me.
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I completely agree. I'm in the same situation having come from playing humbucker guitars. I find my ears don't get bored as easily with the strat. More variety in tones straight from the guitar. I'm biased because its newer and I freakin love playing it too lol.

I'm sure I'll swap pickups eventually, just not trying to make an hasty changes and learn the guitar first.
 
When I had my '92 Fender American Standard Strat, the second tone control was wired to the middle and rear pickup with what I recall was called a dx control in the manual. The tone control had a mid sweep center detent. Below that detent, the control acted like a cut; above that detent, it acted like a mid boost. None of the tones were ice-picky at all sweeping the control on various positions. Perhaps you can replicate the circuit as it sounded quite good.

I loved the sound of the guitar but I could just never bond with that curved radius of that fret board, even after 21 years of battling it.
 
pull75 said:
The EJ mod lets you control your bridge pickup with one of the tone knobs.
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I just got a very nice Strat with the bridge tone wired like this. I didn't even know that it was wired this way, but I am very glad it is; works very well if you have vintage style single coils.
 
Here are the diagrams for the Eric Johnson Tone mod. For anyone confused this mod just wires the tone knob currently wired to the middle pickup and wires it to the brifge pickup instead, giving you more control over the highend bite on the bridge. Eric Johnson rolls his tone knob down a bit to get that Cliffs of Dover tone. This mod is the best mod you can do to a stratocaster besides a treble bleed mod which allows you to roll off the volume wothout losing high end bite and clarity.

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I'm a fan of the Deaf Eddie mods that replace one of the Strat tone controls. I put the Chroma-caster switch on my strat and it gives a multitude of wiring variables a spin of the knob.

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All these mods and tips are superfluous when you use a fully spec'd Kinman "K9" Strat rig.
 
I bought a Suhr Classic Pro, replaced the stock V70 with a V60LP. Real single coils. Noiseless. Done.

Now saying that, a strat singlecoil at the bridge isn't going to sound like a humbucker at the bridge. But it can sound great for pretty much any rock tone and you get the benefit of still having uncompromised bridge and bridge/middle positions.
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Austin
 
v60 lp is not noiseless But that classic pro has the ssc ii in it which makes them all noiseless (love that thing)
 
brokenvail said:
v60 lp is not noiseless But that classic pro has the ssc ii in it which makes them all noiseless (love that thing)
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I didn't explicitly state it, but that was part of my point :D And that doesn't even get to the other awesome factors in the Classic Pro.
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Austin
 
Admin M@ said:
All these mods and tips are superfluous when you use a fully spec'd Kinman "K9" Strat rig.
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Which pickups specifically do you use and what characteristic do they have? Quacky, low noise, powerful, etc. The K9 seems to be a wiring harness.
 
So per Matt's advice, I bought Kinman Traditional MK-III this weekend. I had no idea they were made in Australia. I have no idea, how long it takes to ship, but I am very excited to have zero-hum pickups.
 
Sorry, I pinged him on Facebook. He loves his Kinmans...;-)

The pickups from Kinman are definitely no hum. He has a few patents on it.

Here is our very own Brett Kingman, showing them off.

 
I got my Kinman's Traditional MKIII yesterday, and Oh boy!!! I have to get used to quiet. Kind of strange playing with noisy pickups for so many years, you just accept the fact that this is how it will be for this guitar, until now of course. Easy to install and they sound beautiful. I'll tell you, you kind of sacrifice your tone when you go with a strat, But I just love the size of the thing, it sits right on your knee, and the single coil sound to me is the tone I dream of. I have other guitars with Humbuckers, but my favorite has always been this Eric johnson strat. It's been getting real banged up the last few years which I like, the necks starting to show bare wood, in all the favorite chord places, Favorite chord by the way is D/f# in the bass. Anyway, I have fallen in love with this guitar all over again.

Hey Matt, thanks for helping me choose these pickups, I truly am thankful.

The pickups have the aged white pickup covers.
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Congrats. I'm gassing hard for a Kinman Woodstock set with K9 for my Strat, but I'm tight on cash for a bit. One day though...
 
Sounds really great, but 264 bucks + VAT + shipping + customs fee will bring these close to 500 Euros delivered at home in France...a bit too much for me. Will have to keep on with my Lollar's dirty blondes for a while I guess. Not too bad anyway howbeit.
 
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