cain
Im planning on putting new pickups in my japanese strat sometime.
I currently have two single coils and a Mighty rail in the bridge. What would you guys suggest.
I was looking at getting 3 humbuckers, maby a seymoar duncan 59 in the neck and a jb junior in the bridge and a single coil in the middle or someting. What do you think of dimarzio pickups ?
AlanRatcliffe
Before we talk specific models, it's best if I have some more info first. First thing we have to get clear is what you want it to sound like.
The second is what it sounds like now.
What kind of music are you using it for: do you need something better suited to high gain or clean tones?
cain
This one would be more for high gain tones, but the neck pickup must be a bit lower gain, so it sounds good on clean too. The bridge must be really fat.
Currently it has 2 japanese single coil pickups and the mighty rail is very high output ( 14.6k ) or something but it has a really cold sound to it.
AlanRatcliffe
Hmm, the little 59 is very warm for neck position - it's like having a normal. Singles or stacked 'buckers are still the best for clean neck position sounds (IMO).
For stacks, I'd go for the Kinman Woodstock Plus (I use the Woodstock Regulars in my main guitar). Warm, fairly powerful and punchy, but still sound like single-coils. The bridge pickup is beefed up in the Plus set, sounding more like a P90 than a normal single. DiMarzio Area pickups are also good for stacks.
If you want to go more "humbuckery" for the bridge position, the Seymours are the better ones. If you like the sound of the JB (not everyone does), the JB Jr is a shoo-in, but it's quite a hot pickup, so you might have to go for rail type middle and neck too. I'd probably rather go for something a little less powerful like a Little '59 at the bridge, so I could still use stacks in the middle and neck.
cain
So two decent singles for neck and middle. And a humbucker for bridge ... Thats like my deluxe strat and sound fine. So kinman singles or texmex ?
AlanRatcliffe
Kinmans, or maybe the DiMarzio Area pickups - which are both noiseless too. The TexMex are a bit harsh for my taste. Fender's Hot Noiseless are quite good too (but the Vintage "Toneless" are not), but not in the same league as the Kinmans or DiMarzio's.
Something I've been wanting to try are the Bill Lawrence pickups. Noiseless, and by all accounts very good. Added bonus is they are only about $40 each.
cain
Are kinmans those pickups those pickups that hank marvin uses. That sounds good, also doesnt eric johnson use dimarzio single coils ?
AlanRatcliffe
Yeah, Hank Marvin uses Kinmans these days. Gilmour has a set of Traditional MKII's in one of his Strats. Johnson used to use the DiMarzio HS2 stacked pickup - but only the upper coil. AFAIK, these days he uses the Fender pickups they custom wind for his signature Strat.
cain
Ill have a look around. Maby some guitars comes out with kinmans then i can go have a listen to one. Else ill prolly get some nice fender pickups, i dunno. Sigh so many options to considder hehe
JoeyBones
Only got around to reading this thread today. I put a set of Bill Lawrence Pickups in my strat a couple of months before I sold it. As noiseless as you can get and extremely powerfull. My buddy has the strat now. I'll ask him if he can record some sound clips for you.
