nick wrote
Did you put them in your Deluxe Plus Strat? What did they replace?
I bought the Tonerider Classic Blues Stratocaster set because I like the power of alnico 5 magnets and installed it (with John's help!!) onto a spare scratchplate that I had. This went onto my Frankenstein (normally HSS) Strat body and Mighty Mite neck combo.
When I compare with my Strat Plus Deluxe there is a big difference. The Deluxe has Lace Sensors in - bridge (red), middle (silver), neck (blue). I like the silver in the middle only. The red bridge is loud but harsh sounding and the blue neck pickup is way too dark and muddy. The one good thing about the Lace pickups is that they're quiet(er) when I use high gain and overdrive.
By comparison the Toneriders are excellent for the price. The actually sound much more like vintage pickups than I expected, not that I would know what vintage pickups actually sound like! I like their overall sound and the Lace middle sounds a lot like the classic blues middle, so I'm pleased. Lots of clarity, balls and singing high notes. I have to play a bit with setting the height of the bridge pup but in time I'll get it to sound great. I do have to create a few new high gain patches to go with the bridge pickup since its a lot cleaner and toney than the Lace red, probably bigger low end too, come to think of it. I can say that the three classic blues is very nicely balanced, even better than the Lace set.
The Toneriders also sound great just by playing directly into the amp and I get a real nice fat tone when I use channel 2 with a bit of drive and some reverb. Then it kinda sounds like Hendrix or Stevie Ray.
How about that. My first pickup review! ?
