I've been getting into 1950's styled Strats lately. I don't have any real '50's Strats, but modern guitars built with '50's specs. I love the feel of a V-shape maple neck. I'm looking to change the pickups on one of the Strats and I'm looking for some opinions and/or recommendations. The guitar currently has Tex-mex pickups. I'm expirienced with Texas Specials, and Fender's American Vintage '57/62 pickups, but I'd like the swap out the Tex-mex's for something better. I'm leaning towards Fender Custom Shop '54's, but other than what Fender offers, I'm not very familiar with what other manufacturers offer in the quest to capture that '50's Strat tone.

If anybody has any expirience with any "50's" Strat pickups, whether made by Fender or Seymore Duncan or Fralin or Lollar or Dimarzio or whoever, I'd appreciate whatever input you could give me. Thanks.

You may want to try some boutique pickups such as Bareknuckle pickups. I have a set of Slowhands in my Strat and they are good. For a cheaper alternative try Iron Gear pickups.

Good luck as choosing pickups is minefield and there is a lot of BS talked about pickups and tone. My recommendation is have a chat with Mathjis who is the resident expert 'round these parts.

NickB

You can't always get what you want.....

www.myspace.com/thesonkings

I have lollar's in my 50s strat and am very pleased. However if I had it to do over again I would look at the fralins. I have there paf's and played other 50s strats with them and they are very very sweet. I think if you call fralin directly you can talk to Lindy Fralin himself. That blows me away that he sometimes still picks up the phone and can offer advice. But be sure to put cts pots and upgrade the wiring as that will make whatever pick ups you use come alive!

Go Dawgs!

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NickB
You may want to try some boutique pickups such as Bareknuckle pickups. I have a set of Slowhands in my Strat and they are good. For a cheaper alternative try Iron Gear pickups.

Good luck as choosing pickups is minefield and there is a lot of BS talked about pickups and tone. My recommendation is have a chat with Mathjis who is the resident expert 'round these parts.

Thanks for the input. I'm aquainted with Mathijs. Hoping he and ChrisM will chime in soon.

Ask Don ....you can check some samples on You Tube too : [www.buckcannon.com]

I am of the opinion that tinkering with the pickups of a Strat yields lesser differences in tonal quality than with a Tele and especially a LP. There’s some variation though. About all pickup manufacturers provide vintage spec PU’s. These in my opinion sound the best, with Seymour Duncan’s Antiquity the best of the best, and Fralin’s and Fender CS second. There are the overwound Tex-Mex pickups, of which I find none very good. They all sound too muffled and muddy in my opinion and only good if you play with high treble Fender amps turned way up. Then there’s PU’s with piano like qualities, where you have a very clean sound with great string separation and pick attack –Suhr V60’s and most of Jason Lolar’s. These are great for clean sounds, Jazz etc., but too clean for my taste for rock music. Then there’s a whole range of ‘early 60’s’, ‘late 60’s’, ‘Woodstock’ and whatever wounds with or without base plate. All can sound great, but are more marketing expressions than anything else. These are made to appeal fans of Hendrix, or fans of SRV etc.

So, I would go for SD Antiquities myself, or a set of Fender CS ’54 or ‘69. Or, I would contact Bare Knuckle, and ask them to make a custom set. They can build anything you want, with whatever magnet, plates, wiring etc. If you ask them to make a bridge pickup to sound like Keith Richards, a middle pickup to sound like Hendrix and a neck pickup to sound like SRV they will and can.

In any case I would stay away from Noiseless, SCN, Hot, stacked, rails and buckers etcetera unless you know it is what you want.

Mathijs

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Mathijs
I am of the opinion that tinkering with the pickups of a Strat yields lesser differences in tonal quality than with a Tele and especially a LP. There’s some variation though. About all pickup manufacturers provide vintage spec PU’s. These in my opinion sound the best, with Seymour Duncan’s Antiquity the best of the best, and Fralin’s and Fender CS second. There are the overwound Tex-Mex pickups, of which I find none very good. They all sound too muffled and muddy in my opinion and only good if you play with high treble Fender amps turned way up. Then there’s PU’s with piano like qualities, where you have a very clean sound with great string separation and pick attack –Suhr V60’s and most of Jason Lolar’s. These are great for clean sounds, Jazz etc., but too clean for my taste for rock music. Then there’s a whole range of ‘early 60’s’, ‘late 60’s’, ‘Woodstock’ and whatever wounds with or without base plate. All can sound great, but are more marketing expressions than anything else. These are made to appeal fans of Hendrix, or fans of SRV etc.

So, I would go for SD Antiquities myself, or a set of Fender CS ’54 or ‘69. Or, I would contact Bare Knuckle, and ask them to make a custom set. They can build anything you want, with whatever magnet, plates, wiring etc. If you ask them to make a bridge pickup to sound like Keith Richards, a middle pickup to sound like Hendrix and a neck pickup to sound like SRV they will and can.

In any case I would stay away from Noiseless, SCN, Hot, stacked, rails and buckers etcetera unless you know it is what you want.

Mathijs

Thanks man. I was leaning towards the Fender CS '54's until I started hearing all these great things about Fralin's and Lollar's and so forth...I may still go with the '54's because they're less expensive than the Lindy Real 54's.

About the Antiquities.....I already have a set of Antiquity Firebird mini-humbuckers in my Epi Firebird. Just got them recently. I was looking at Antiquity Strat pickups last night but wanted to gather as much info as I could.

Basically what I'm after is Clapton's strat tone with Blackie and Brownie. Not what he gets nowadays with those Clapton Signature strats. Brownie was a '56 Strat and Blackie a composite Strat pieced together from three different strats all believed to be from the late 50's from what I understand. So I figure my best bet is to shoot for "50's" pickups. Is there a specific Clapton pickup from Bare Knuckle? I was thinking I saw a Bare Knuckle Slowhand pickup mentioned somewhere.

Edit: Actually it was NickB that mentioned the Bare Knuckle Slowhand pickups.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-11 05:34 by Tumblin_Dice_07.

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NickB
You may want to try some boutique pickups such as Bareknuckle pickups. I have a set of Slowhands in my Strat and they are good. For a cheaper alternative try Iron Gear pickups.

Slowhand pickups huh? Obviously supposed to sound like Clapton, but what phase of Clapton's career? He used mainly two Strats from the late 50's from '69 through the early 80's, then Fender started making the Clapton Signature Strats with Lace Sensor Gold pickups and then switched them to Vintage Noiseless a few years back. I'm going for the type of tone Eric acheived with those '50's Strats instead of the Fender Signature models.

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Tumblin_Dice_07

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NickB
You may want to try some boutique pickups such as Bareknuckle pickups. I have a set of Slowhands in my Strat and they are good. For a cheaper alternative try Iron Gear pickups.

Slowhand pickups huh? Obviously supposed to sound like Clapton, but what phase of Clapton's career? He used mainly two Strats from the late 50's from '69 through the early 80's, then Fender started making the Clapton Signature Strats with Lace Sensor Gold pickups and then switched them to Vintage Noiseless a few years back. I'm going for the type of tone Eric acheived with those '50's Strats instead of the Fender Signature models.

Sorry Dice I'm not sure. I put them in my Fender USA '89 Strat which has a TBX tone control circuit which accentuates the high and low frequencies on the bridge and middle pickups.....Actually makes it too bitey thru my deluxe reverb. It doesn't sound like Brownie off the Layla album nor Blackie off any of the 70's albums.......but that's probably a) my playing, b) my guitar and c) the amp I use.

I have to say that I still like them.

NickB

You can't always get what you want.....

www.myspace.com/thesonkings

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Tumblin_Dice_07

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Mathijs
I am of the opinion that tinkering with the pickups of a Strat yields lesser differences in tonal quality than with a Tele and especially a LP. There’s some variation though. About all pickup manufacturers provide vintage spec PU’s. These in my opinion sound the best, with Seymour Duncan’s Antiquity the best of the best, and Fralin’s and Fender CS second. There are the overwound Tex-Mex pickups, of which I find none very good. They all sound too muffled and muddy in my opinion and only good if you play with high treble Fender amps turned way up. Then there’s PU’s with piano like qualities, where you have a very clean sound with great string separation and pick attack –Suhr V60’s and most of Jason Lolar’s. These are great for clean sounds, Jazz etc., but too clean for my taste for rock music. Then there’s a whole range of ‘early 60’s’, ‘late 60’s’, ‘Woodstock’ and whatever wounds with or without base plate. All can sound great, but are more marketing expressions than anything else. These are made to appeal fans of Hendrix, or fans of SRV etc.

So, I would go for SD Antiquities myself, or a set of Fender CS ’54 or ‘69. Or, I would contact Bare Knuckle, and ask them to make a custom set. They can build anything you want, with whatever magnet, plates, wiring etc. If you ask them to make a bridge pickup to sound like Keith Richards, a middle pickup to sound like Hendrix and a neck pickup to sound like SRV they will and can.

In any case I would stay away from Noiseless, SCN, Hot, stacked, rails and buckers etcetera unless you know it is what you want.

Mathijs

Thanks man. I was leaning towards the Fender CS '54's until I started hearing all these great things about Fralin's and Lollar's and so forth...I may still go with the '54's because they're less expensive than the Lindy Real 54's.

About the Antiquities.....I already have a set of Antiquity Firebird mini-humbuckers in my Epi Firebird. Just got them recently. I was looking at Antiquity Strat pickups last night but wanted to gather as much info as I could.

Basically what I'm after is Clapton's strat tone with Blackie and Brownie. Not what he gets nowadays with those Clapton Signature strats. Brownie was a '56 Strat and Blackie a composite Strat pieced together from three different strats all believed to be from the late 50's from what I understand. So I figure my best bet is to shoot for "50's" pickups. Is there a specific Clapton pickup from Bare Knuckle? I was thinking I saw a Bare Knuckle Slowhand pickup mentioned somewhere.

Edit: Actually it was NickB that mentioned the Bare Knuckle Slowhand pickups.

I think the Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups are the best vintage '50's sounding pickups available, and will probably be closest to Clapton's Brownie and Blackie Strat sound. Brownie is an all original '56, Blackie a composite '57. The Slow Hands of Bare Knuckle are hotter than vintage correct PU's, the purpose is to sound closer to the modern Clapton without going to the noiseless concept.

This is a nice page. No Antiquities though:

[www.acmeguitarworks.com]

Mathijs

Don't forget pots and caps. Crap electronics can really sink the best pick ups in the world (and good electronics can improve greatly the sound of the existing pick ups!). So before investing money in a new xpensive set of pick ups, check what you have behind the pickguard. Upgrading the electronics is a relatively cheap operation.


C

Amen Liddas!

Go Dawgs!

...speaking of Fenders. What are your opinions between the 51 NoCaster, 52 Reissue Tele and Hot Rod 52 Teles? I am in the market for one of these and any and all feedback would be appreciated.

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Shawn20
...speaking of Fenders. What are your opinions between the 51 NoCaster, 52 Reissue Tele and Hot Rod 52 Teles? I am in the market for one of these and any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Shawn save yourself a whole load of money and go and buy yourself a Squier and mod it. I bought an Affinity Squier Tele upgraded it with Bareknuckle piledrivers, a bone nut and graphtech saddles and it is the best sounding guitar in my collection.

NickB

You can't always get what you want.....

www.myspace.com/thesonkings

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NickB

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Shawn20
...speaking of Fenders. What are your opinions between the 51 NoCaster, 52 Reissue Tele and Hot Rod 52 Teles? I am in the market for one of these and any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Shawn save yourself a whole load of money and go and buy yourself a Squier and mod it. I bought an Affinity Squier Tele upgraded it with Bareknuckle piledrivers, a bone nut and graphtech saddles and it is the best sounding guitar in my collection.

I agree with this, although I don't know if I'd sink as low as an Affinity. When you go with that much of a budget guitar, don't they have other issues, such as the necks/finishes, and how they can effect playability? I hear that the lowest Squires/Epiphones/etc. just aren't made that well, and the way they are put together can cause issues beyond those which can be resolved with upgrading the pick-ups and hardware. Is there any truth to that?

And also, you changed the pick-ups, but what about the rest of the electronics? I keep hearing if your going to change the pick-ups, you gotta change the pots, caps, switch, etc., like liddas said. Is that true, or can you get by with just changing the pick-ups?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-11 23:48 by bustedtrousers.

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Mathijs


I think the Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups are the best vintage '50's sounding pickups available, and will probably be closest to Clapton's Brownie and Blackie Strat sound. Brownie is an all original '56, Blackie a composite '57. The Slow Hands of Bare Knuckle are hotter than vintage correct PU's, the purpose is to sound closer to the modern Clapton without going to the noiseless concept.

This is a nice page. No Antiquities though:

[www.acmeguitarworks.com]

Mathijs

I knew Blackie was a composite featuring at least parts of a '57, didn't know if all three Strats used were '57's. Thanks for your input of the subject. As far as the Antiquity's go, I've looked at the Strat pickups and they have a Texas Hot set, a Texas Hot with Custom Bridge set, and a Surfer set. Which set or sets are you familiar with and which would you recommend for vintage '50's tone?

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Shawn20
...speaking of Fenders. What are your opinions between the 51 NoCaster, 52 Reissue Tele and Hot Rod 52 Teles? I am in the market for one of these and any and all feedback would be appreciated.

The only one of those three that I've played is the '52 Reissue. I liked it very much but it didn't have the original pickups. It has a Fralin in the bridge, which I thought was too hot, and a Seymour Duncan in the neck which I liked alot better. The guitar played great though. I really liked it. I can tell you though that the Hod Rodded '52 Tele has more modern characteristics such a flatter fretboard radius.

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bustedtrousers

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NickB

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Shawn20
...speaking of Fenders. What are your opinions between the 51 NoCaster, 52 Reissue Tele and Hot Rod 52 Teles? I am in the market for one of these and any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Shawn save yourself a whole load of money and go and buy yourself a Squier and mod it. I bought an Affinity Squier Tele upgraded it with Bareknuckle piledrivers, a bone nut and graphtech saddles and it is the best sounding guitar in my collection.

I agree with this, although I don't know if I'd sink as low as an Affinity. When you go with that much of a budget guitar, don't they have other issues, such as the necks/finishes, and how they can effect playability? I hear that the lowest Squires/Epiphones/etc. just aren't made that well, and the way they are put together can cause issues beyond those which can be resolved with upgrading the pick-ups and hardware. Is there any truth to that?

And also, you changed the pick-ups, but what about the rest of the electronics? I keep hearing if your going to change the pick-ups, you gotta change the pots, caps, switch, etc., like liddas said. Is that true, or can you get by with just changing the pick-ups?

I haven't changed the electronics. Sounds great though.

Yesterday I bought a Squier Classic Vibe Custom. Awesome guitar but I am going to change the pickups not sure for what though yet.

NickB

You can't always get what you want.....

www.myspace.com/thesonkings

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Tumblin_Dice_07

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Mathijs


I think the Seymour Duncan Antiquity pickups are the best vintage '50's sounding pickups available, and will probably be closest to Clapton's Brownie and Blackie Strat sound. Brownie is an all original '56, Blackie a composite '57. The Slow Hands of Bare Knuckle are hotter than vintage correct PU's, the purpose is to sound closer to the modern Clapton without going to the noiseless concept.

This is a nice page. No Antiquities though:

[www.acmeguitarworks.com]

Mathijs

I knew Blackie was a composite featuring at least parts of a '57, didn't know if all three Strats used were '57's. Thanks for your input of the subject. As far as the Antiquity's go, I've looked at the Strat pickups and they have a Texas Hot set, a Texas Hot with Custom Bridge set, and a Surfer set. Which set or sets are you familiar with and which would you recommend for vintage '50's tone?

I see SD changed its range of Antiquity Strat PU's. He used to have 50's Antiquity and '60's Antiquity, now he added types and names. From the description it seems the Surfer set is the old 50's one. But you can ask questions though the website, they normally answer within 24 hours.

Mathijs

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Shawn20
...speaking of Fenders. What are your opinions between the 51 NoCaster, 52 Reissue Tele and Hot Rod 52 Teles? I am in the market for one of these and any and all feedback would be appreciated.

I don't like any of them...the Nocaster has an unplayable neck, it's just way too huge. The '52 has a pencil neck and 90% poly finish (only the outer 10% of the finish is nitro), and the wood used isn't the best. These guitar's tend to exist of a heavy body with a thin neck. Same for the Hot Rod series.

The best Tele's are from the custom shop. They made a serie of very light Nocasters with '52 necks, modern radius and frets, and the lighter '52/'53 colour. These where the absolute best Tele's I have ever played.

Mathijs

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liddas
Don't forget pots and caps. Crap electronics can really sink the best pick ups in the world (and good electronics can improve greatly the sound of the existing pick ups!). So before investing money in a new xpensive set of pick ups, check what you have behind the pickguard. Upgrading the electronics is a relatively cheap operation.


C

Try the vintage kit from RS-Guitarworks. I've swapped the electronics in all of my electric guitars, and it surely makes a difference!

[www.reverbnation.com]

I put 3 single coil emg pickups on my '71 Stat way back in '87.
Noiseless,equal sound quality even at 2,..great clean sound,and they rock.
Nothing for genuine strat sound lovers...
I removed EMG pickups from my les Paul again those days though, they kinda ruined the original sound too much imo, way too heavy,in combination with a MK3 in particular.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-03-14 14:03 by Amsterdamned.

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audun-eg

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liddas
Don't forget pots and caps. Crap electronics can really sink the best pick ups in the world (and good electronics can improve greatly the sound of the existing pick ups!). So before investing money in a new xpensive set of pick ups, check what you have behind the pickguard. Upgrading the electronics is a relatively cheap operation.


C

Try the vintage kit from RS-Guitarworks. I've swapped the electronics in all of my electric guitars, and it surely makes a difference!

I've used one of their kits my self and they are really good, higly recommended!

That said RS, like others in the same business, mainly select and match components with the correct values for the PU - therefore it is not much the quality of the single components that make the difference (and in any case, the best electronics do not cost that much more than the worst) - the value of the capacitors is what influences most the sound. General rule wants 250K for single coil PU. Problem is that the value printed on the cap never reflects the true value, rather the "range". If the value is lower, the sound is duller, if higher, brighter.

If one already has the instruments to measure those values and knows the abc of soldering - the mod can be done at truly no cost.

For those (like me) who see electricity and soldering as some kind of magic, RS is the way to go!

C

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Mathijs


I see SD changed its range of Antiquity Strat PU's. He used to have 50's Antiquity and '60's Antiquity, now he added types and names. From the description it seems the Surfer set is the old 50's one. But you can ask questions though the website, they normally answer within 24 hours.

Mathijs

I'll try the website but I already ordered the Antiquity I Texas Hot pickups. I don't care for the name. Reminds me too much of the Texas Specials, but the reason I chose those is because from what I understand, the Antiquity I series are the 50's pickups, and the Antiquity II series are the 60's pickups. The Surfer set was Antiquity II. I'm sure both are very good though.

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Tumblin_Dice_07

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Mathijs


I see SD changed its range of Antiquity Strat PU's. He used to have 50's Antiquity and '60's Antiquity, now he added types and names. From the description it seems the Surfer set is the old 50's one. But you can ask questions though the website, they normally answer within 24 hours.

Mathijs

I'll try the website but I already ordered the Antiquity I Texas Hot pickups. I don't care for the name. Reminds me too much of the Texas Specials, but the reason I chose those is because from what I understand, the Antiquity I series are the 50's pickups, and the Antiquity II series are the 60's pickups. The Surfer set was Antiquity II. I'm sure both are very good though.

I think your right. Strange to call the vintage '50's PU's 'Texas Hot'....

Mathijs

Changed the PUs in my "Micawber" to Anquity after suggestion from Mathijs a year or so back. Couldn´t be happier. (Thanks again, M)
Compared to the (Japanese) stock Tex Special pickups they were fatter, rounder and with a totally different and greater depth. It was like going from hitting a saucepan with a spoon and then a drum with a stick.
Still like to update the PUs on my 72 Custom, but a bit afraid to put Anquity (+ Widerange) in that too, making my two Teles sound more alike. Today the 72 is rawer and darker than my Ash model.

(Sorry to hi-jack thread with Tele comments)

RB

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RobberBride
Changed the PUs in my "Micawber" to Anquity after suggestion from Mathijs a year or so back. Couldn´t be happier. (Thanks again, M)
Compared to the (Japanese) stock Tex Special pickups they were fatter, rounder and with a totally different and greater depth. It was like going from hitting a saucepan with a spoon and then a drum with a stick.
Still like to update the PUs on my 72 Custom, but a bit afraid to put Anquity (+ Widerange) in that too, making my two Teles sound more alike. Today the 72 is rawer and darker than my Ash model.

(Sorry to hi-jack thread with Tele comments)

RB

If you can't find a vintage widerange you might want to try Jason Lollar's version of this PU. I understand it is really good. Together with a Lollar Vintage T I think you will have a great combination!

Mathijs

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Mathijs
If you can't find a vintage widerange you might want to try Jason Lollar's version of this PU. I understand it is really good. Together with a Lollar Vintage T I think you will have a great combination!

Mathijs

Thanks for the tip!
Will def look for it

RB

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Mathijs


I think your right. Strange to call the vintage '50's PU's 'Texas Hot'....

Mathijs

Yes quite strange. I called my local guitar shop and asked about the Antiquity's and the guy compared the Texas Hot's to Fender's Texas Special's and I understand why, with the name and so forth. I made the same assumption at first but I called Seymour Duncan and they confirmed what I thought about the Antiquity I's being 50's and II's being 60's.

Thanks again for lending your knowledge and opinion on the subject.

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Mathijs
I am of the opinion that tinkering with the pickups of a Strat yields lesser differences in tonal quality than with a Tele and especially a LP. There’s some variation though. About all pickup manufacturers provide vintage spec PU’s. These in my opinion sound the best, with Seymour Duncan’s Antiquity the best of the best, and Fralin’s and Fender CS second. There are the overwound Tex-Mex pickups, of which I find none very good. They all sound too muffled and muddy in my opinion and only good if you play with high treble Fender amps turned way up. Then there’s PU’s with piano like qualities, where you have a very clean sound with great string separation and pick attack –Suhr V60’s and most of Jason Lolar’s. These are great for clean sounds, Jazz etc., but too clean for my taste for rock music. Then there’s a whole range of ‘early 60’s’, ‘late 60’s’, ‘Woodstock’ and whatever wounds with or without base plate. All can sound great, but are more marketing expressions than anything else. These are made to appeal fans of Hendrix, or fans of SRV etc.

So, I would go for SD Antiquities myself, or a set of Fender CS ’54 or ‘69. Or, I would contact Bare Knuckle, and ask them to make a custom set. They can build anything you want, with whatever magnet, plates, wiring etc. If you ask them to make a bridge pickup to sound like Keith Richards, a middle pickup to sound like Hendrix and a neck pickup to sound like SRV they will and can.

In any case I would stay away from Noiseless, SCN, Hot, stacked, rails and buckers etcetera unless you know it is what you want.

Mathijs

Question for you Mathjis: I picked up a '57 Les Paul Jr. that someone had put a Lollar pu in. Should I find an original P90 dog ear (very expensive I am sure)? If not, what's a good replacement for the original? Thanks.