MikeM
What's your current setup? I.e Amp, guitar, fretboard, pups, pot values?
guidothepimmp
for single coils, Im playing an old washburn MG70 through a Laney LC30II Valve amp. Pups are stock washburn and dont sound half bad.
The pickups im looking to buy are for a RS405 Ibanez from 1983. Its the same configuration as a strat. Rosewood board. It currently has stock super 6's and through my laney it just doesnt cut it. Muddy as all hell and a very weak bridge pup. I bought it knowing it needed a pup swap.
The body is alder. My SS amp makes it sound better but my laney uncovers all its weaknesses tonally.
All my other guits have buckers so they are irrelevant
oh, all the pots on my single coil guits are 250K. Not sure about the caps, id need to open them and check
MikeM
Ok I see... Try a 500k tone pot so long if you can? How're your pickup heights? It sounds strange for it to be muddy as I am running 250k tone pots and my strat is not thin, but on my Twin, it's trebly you know - perhaps it's cause I have a 500k vol but I doubt that as it makes little difference.
Can you get into the insides to measure the resistance of each pup and double check your tone pot's value?
guidothepimmp
yeah i'll be able to do it, not right now though, probably tomorrow or sunday... Strung her up again yesterday :-[
But i'll check that out and get back to you.
Thanks for the help
MikeM
I opened up my strat twice today heheh ? Just slackened the strings ? Cool beans. I think you should not rush into it. Not this week but the next week we'll jam or something.
Gearhead
Hey you two, get a room ?
MikeM
Only if you join us you dutch manly man ? ksss ksss Ahahahahah
telefan100
Just cut all the bull and get yourself a set of Tonerider Pure Vintage single coils. They are fantastic and you won't believe the price, don't know how long its going to stay like that but I believe it is for this season only.
I've replaced a set of Seymour Duncan Vintage Stacks in my Strat and the Tonerider pups are a whole lot more vintage sounding with really nice rich and clear high end and big low end. And the nice thing is it's calibrated so you're getting noiseless in positions 2 and 4 and the volume across the three pickups is nice and even.
? Why pay through your nose if you can pick up this full set for like 1000 bucks? ? AND you can have them delivered to your house within days. ?
Just go check them out here
http://tonerider.co.za/purevintage.html
AlanRatcliffe
The Clapton Strat tone is pretty dependent on pickups with less character of their own (or "sterile" to some - like Lace Sensors or Vintage Noiseless) and a mid boost circuit. The Mid boost comes in because Clapton was originally a Gibson player and wanted more of that tonality from his Strats than usual. The mid boost also makes the output power of the pickup less of an issue as they boost a vintage pickup to very high levels. You will not get that tone from pickups alone - it's not what Strats usually do.
Also, when talking vintage Strat pickups, you have to remember it covers a wide range of very different pickups (after all, an '85 Strat is now officially "vintage", with it's crappy overwound bridge pickup - 11,000 winds). I like dividing Strat pickups into a few different eras and most pickup manufacturers do the same and have models that fall into at least three of the vintage categories. This is my take on them:
early '50s pickups - The earliest Strats were pretty bright guitars and the pickups were bright too. Low powered, really bright, but very articulate with the most quack in the 'tweens. Think Mark Knopfler, Buddy Holly.
Late '50s, Early '60s - slightly hotter, darker and smoother sounding. Often called "Blues" pickups by manufacturers, these are great to soften the edges of a bright guitar (ash/maple) or for smoother bluesier sound on an alder/rosewood guitar. Also very low output and still decent quack and articulation.
Late '60s pickups - Think Hendrix. Hotter, bigger and punchier. Still very bright and very percussive with a tendency to "icepick" in the bridge position.
Modern sets often have a hotter bridge pickup which balances the volume from the different positions better, but throws out some of the quack on position two.
guidothepimmp
So today I spent my day in every music store I could hit to do some homework and see what was available. the last place I wondered into was jean village (paul bothners). Anywho, saw any seymour duncans etc, but at jean village i spotted the kinmans woodstock. Alan, I read you reviews on these pups. Are you still of the same opinion re the kinmans? I particulalry like the woody mellow sound. Anywho.
Havent commited to anything yet. Im going to take Mike up on his offer to see how his strat sounds through my kit and how my guit sounds through his, tho get a bearing of where I am now... still havent found any lace sensors. but at this point the Kinmans are the cheapest for the set of 3 pups.
Im going to check out the toneriders too... Im just concerned about a lot of hum. I suspect it may drive me nuts...
Alan, let me know how your kinmans woodstock are holding up...
MikeM
Kinmans are probably your best bet man ? great pups
guidothepimmp
yeah Alan wrote quite an in depth review on these Kinmans and he seemed impressed. The reviews seem decent too.
Just wish I could actually hear them live before taking the plunge...
AlanRatcliffe
I don't have a set of the Woodstocks at the moment - I sold that guitar to Riaan and use a set of Kinman Blues in my Strat. The Woodstocks are great, warm sounding pickups and probably my favourites "single-coils" ever for heavy overdrive or distortion. Great in a bright guitar or for really fat tones that still have punch.
Just be aware there are two different sets of Woodstocks: Regular and Plus (it'll say on the box). The regulars are the ones I like best, while the Plus set has an even hotter bridge that really kicks ass.
guidothepimmp
yeah thanks Alan.
The Kinmans I saw were the regulars. I remember reading that on the box
MikeM
Hmmm that makes me a little wary as you seem to have a warm guitar. Could be your pups but hey
guidothepimmp
we'll get to the bottom of this soon. A direct comparison I think may go a long way in seeing where my guit is at this point. Warm guitar prob means id need to play with the pots or go for brighter voiced pups yeah?
and vice versa if the guitar is bright currently, although through my amp it is a bit muddy and weak for lack of a better word...
guidothepimmp
right folks, update time,
a mate of mine that had antiquities lying about let me install them into my guit. i loved the neck pup but the mid and the bridge didnt really do it for me.. almost came across a bit weedy and just did not have the sound i was hoping for on the bridge and with some mild overdrive.
thought i would maybe get the pup for the neck though. Anywho. then met another mate who has kinmans in his strat and i loved the sound of his guitar...
sooo, i got myself a set of kinmans, thinking, if i don tlike em, I'll sell them off...
? ? ?
Boy oh boy, have these pups transformed my guitar, got a real nice punchy warm tone across all the pups, with just enough bite in the bridge giving that nice rounded drive sound ive been craving, rolling off the gain and engaging the neck pup... couldnt stop jamming some dire straits tunes, and these pups are super quiet.
Im very happy with the results and chuffed that i finally have a cool strat sounding guit.
Paid R1400 for a set of 3?! thats right guys, 40% OFF WOohhoooooo!
Cheapest set of pups ive ever bought.
I'll see what i can do about some clips at some or other stage...
Thanks for the comments folks and the advice.
This chapter is closed ?
MikeM
Which ones man? Nice buy! Enjoy man
AlanRatcliffe
Great price! And of course, great pickups too...
Riaan
Alan, what do you think of Joe Barden pups? Other than that they're damn expensive...
