guidothepimmp
Hey guys, particularly you strat owners... so I'm looking for a nice set of strat pups, nice vintage voiced specimens..
My thoughts so far are the Lace sensor golds or blues (although at R1195 each) yikes!
the texas specials which i can snag for R3000 (set of 3)
but... I'm wondering if anyone has heard or own the Dimarzio vintage noiseless pups... how are those in the strats?
I havent really heard rave reviews about the Seymours... I love their buckers but from what fellow muso's are telling me, the SSL1-6's are weak?! true, false?
Heard a few reviews over the net on the fender pups, got nothing on the dimarzios... also heard the seymours but in all honesty... over the pc speakers they all sound the same...
Opinions?
Thanks
Danny-B
Vinatge-y type sound?
I don't think you're gonna get that with TS's. Midrangy and bright, they're powerful buggers!
I've got a set of custom shop 57/62 pups in my strat, compared to TS's they are nice and vintage-y. You can pick up a set under 2 grand.
MikeM
If it were me, i'd go for handwounds (i did with my strat, you can come through to hatfield to try it if you want) or SD antiquities. You'll find enough rave reviews on those ?
guidothepimmp
custom shop 57/62, i take they are fender custom shop right?
Mike, I may take you up on that offer... Where did you get your pups from? and I know you got the connection with the SD's... Antiquities over the mroe traditional SSL's?
Danny-B
guidothepimmp wrote:
custom shop 57/62, i take they are fender custom shop right?
Mike, I may take you up on that offer... Where did you get your pups from? and I know you got the connection with the SD's... Antiquities over the mroe traditional SSL's?
Fender indeed. Those antiquities are sweet too ?
Gearhead
The sound samples on the SD site are meant to show you the difference between the pups, rather than serve as a reference for 'how good' they should sound. The other factors (guit, amp, speaker) are at least as important, so even the guy who played the samples is going to sound different with the same pups through your setup.
You asked for opinions, let me give you mine: if you are looking for vintage tone and you are thinking about Texas specials, you are barking up the wrong tree. If you ARE looking for vintage tone, don't even think about using the descriptions weak as derogatory. Weak is vintage and vice versa. The 'gain' and 'volume' controls on your amp work miracles however. Also, vintage is noise and noiseless vintage is a contradiction. Noiseless and sterile however is easy to get. But that's my opinion.
Conclusion: You should trust your own ears and not listen to the hype.
I happen to think that the vintage strat pups are the pups that Tonerider do best; I wouldn't be tempted to buy other pups from them. Just an opinion. Cheaper than SD / Dimarzio and at least as good. But, far from noiseless.
Pups one step up from that price range will do various things and you can find exactly what you are looking for, but for good advice you should first think about what it is you are looking for.
MikeM
Hit the nail on the head Gh. Thanked.
Gearhead
Just spent four days mailing back and forth with a hand winding pup guru about me new neck bucker, got tuned myself, so passing on the favor :-[
guidothepimmp
Thanks Gear, thats the kind of input I need seeing as Im not really a single coil guru.
When I say Im looking for vintage, i think I mean vintage... the type of sound clapton has on wonderful tonight... lol, said like that... they may not be vintage?? :-[
At a music store I asked the same question and they tried shoving Texas specials down my throat... thus the question about them. I have read that the clapton strats have the sensor golds. As for the dimarzio vintage noiseless?! I dont know, thats why I asked.
Either way, yours was the most objective opinion I have received thus far... so Thank you sir, thanked
The music stores irk me because they have all these bloody fenders, none of which have the pups im considering, and yet im being told to play them...
What is the output on a typical vintage voiced single coil? 6k more or less?
MikeM
Neck - 6 - 6.5k
Mid 6.5k to 7k
Bridge 8k +
As a rule of thumb depending on hotness etc...
There are few vintage sounding noiseless options however, but very few. Even Wilde's are not true to vintage. See Lollars, Kinmans and some others - but expect to pay for them.
If you're open to other options, consider a 5/2 or 5/3 combo. I am gassing for that atm ?
guidothepimmp
mind my ignorance Mike, 5/2, 5/3 combo? meaning?
MikeM
Sorry I forget people are not on the same page as me :-[ My thoughts are scattered.
It's got 3 A5 rods on the bass side to tighten things up, and A2 or A3 rods on the treble side to fatten and smoothen that side... Usually referred to as the nashville split ?
guidothepimmp
ahhh. that makes sense... cheers ?
learnt something new.
Thanked
Gearhead
Sorry Mike, they were quite a bit less hot, think 4.5-5K neck, 5-5.5K mid, 5.5-6K bridge.
If you want your Strat to sound like Clapton's, get in line. One of the tricks is to boost the mids, like you can do with a TBX. The original recording of Wonderful Tonight predates this boost thing, so getting a Twin Reverb might also help. Even Slowhand himself, despite endorsement, does not play Lace sensors anymore.
Side note: one good place to learn about pups:
http://www.gitarrenelektronik.de (there is a link to an English summary for those of you who do not speak German 8) but the table is very interesting for the theoretically inclined)
MikeM
What pups are you refering to? As i listed general sweet spots for chimey pups. But those specs are terribly underwound.
Gearhead
MikeM wrote:
those specs are terribly underwound
By modern standards, yes. I think they used different wire/coating so it may have been not so underwound. Maybe we should ask Abigail what she did :?
MikeM
I know early tele pups had minutely larger magnets.. Aha, wire compositions! They now differ for safety reasons. Hmmm curious
guidothepimmp
Mike you mentioned in another thread that you md pups? what do you mod exactly? do you play around with the windings? if yes, is this easy to do?
MikeM
I would not recommend fiddling with the windings. I was planning to just hybrid 2 pups and change magnets really, only works with humbuckers.
I still agree with Gearhead in the manner that you should test some pups out so you have a benchmark, and from there figure out how you'd like to change your sound. So for example
If you have an overly bright guitar, you can either put a lower value tone pot, or get darker pups. This is true for the inverse as well. Atm my LP neck is very bassy so I will have a low wind pup in the neck..
I still stick to my guns, 6k neck, 6.5k mid and 8k bridge. Great combo in my books ?
Like I said, in a week's time, I'll be in Pta again, you can pop around with your amp and test out my strat - see how you like these pups. I won't change them for anything (Well maybe some Abi's heheeh)
guidothepimmp
Cool, thanks,
I'd be interested to see how yours sounds through my amp..
I have played a few strats, one had the lace sensor reds but those things are like humbuckers. Not really interested in the texas specials, i asked about those as the salesman was trying to feed them to me.
My boss has a 63 strat with lace golds which sounds really good. realllllly good.
most of the US strat standards I find are just to trebly for my liking. Then again it may just be my amp... theres a sweet spot tone i expect to hear from a strat, i heard it in places on your clip. Just a real nice mellow tone that just sounds right.
