Strat pickups

[Muppet]

So, I am spending more time with my 2012 American Strat which came stock with the Custom Shop Fat 50's pickups in it. I love everything about this guitar, except that the bridge pickup is just incredibly bright. I brought up the bass side and lowered the treble side of the pickup, and that helped, but it's still so bright that it actually overwhelms some amps and the sound of the higher strings and higher frets lose a lot of articulation. Sometimes they just turn into shrill mush. I've brought down the presence and treble on the amp and that's helped, but then it affects the way I hear other guitars through it. Suggestions?

 

[Tiltsta]

Wire up the guitar with a blend pot. You can add in a small percentage of neck pickup (like 10%) and it kills hum and takes down a lot of the brightness of the bridge pickup. I've done it on a few of my strats. The other option is to put a humbucker in there and forget about the strat bridge sound.

A final choice would be to do a capacitor swap. This can take a lot of brightness out of a guitar.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/

I'd start with the capacitor thing, as it is cheap and easy to reverse.

 

[GilmourD]

Duncan SSL-5. Works for David Gilmour.

 

[Scott_Abene]

I have to say that these really sound amazing and they are on the cheap!

http://www.guitarpartsonline.com/Strat-Pure-Noiseless-Pickup-Set-40122.htm


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The Dragonfire Pure Noiseless Pickups Set includes three matched Dragonfire Pure Noiseless Strat pickups.

Alnico slugs wound to 10K - completely NOISE FREE! Get the quack and sought after tone of a vintage Strat without all the 60 cycle hum of a standard single coil pickup.

We love the Fender Noiseless Sets, but who can afford them? (Don't they remember that guitarists are poor?!?!) Well, don't pay it! Modeled right from the Fender set, we have these great pickups for less than half the cost. Is the little "Noiseless" emblem on the pickup cover work the extra dough?

Compared side by side with the big F's pups, no one yet can tell the difference without looking at the covers. Mounting screws and springs are included.

Comes with your choice of pickup covers.

Note: Due to the design, these are a little taller than our standard pickups. This isn't an issue for a Mexican or U.S. Strat body, but if you are trying to put these in an import (thinner body), you may need to remove some wood. Your choice of pickup colors.

• Item #: 40122

Strat Pure Noiseless Pickup Set
1 reviews
Price: $69.95
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Perfect Fender Vintage Noiseless replacement pups!
03/27/2014
I bought these back in 2010 - and like the description says they didn't fit into my Strat copy so they been sitting around for a few years until now! I have a guitar with genuine Fender Vintage Noiseless that I really enjoy (no hum) and some good crystal strat tones.. only recently I got tired of the bridge pickup - way too weak compared to the neck and middle so I popped in the bridge pickup from this Dragonfire Vintage Noiseless set and it sounds incredible ! just perfect, lots of quack in the 4-5 position and more power than my failing Fender bridge pickup. These are perfect - I measured them ..they're exact to Fender specs measuring around 9.74-9.80 ohms ..and super quiet.. perhaps better sounding than Fenders : ) For more than Half the price of a Fender Vintage set - you can't go wrong with these. Just make sure you have enough room.. these are about 1.4cm more than the Fender set.. not much.. but some guitars you might have to remove some wood. Enjoy!

 

[vintage clubber]

Fralin Blender Mod or wire the bridge pickup for tone control. I usually wire my strat bridge pickup to the neck tone control and leave the middle tone independent. I have a couple of strats with the Fralin Blender Pot and that works great. Either way, it will take some of the brightness from the bridge pickup and it won't be so ice picky. :rawk:

http://www.fralinpickups.com/images/blendschem2.jpg

 

[Modern Saint]

Wire up the guitar with a blend pot. You can add in a small percentage of neck pickup (like 10%) and it kills hum and takes down a lot of the brightness of the bridge pickup. I've done it on a few of my strats. The other option is to put a humbucker in there and forget about the strat bridge sound.

A final choice would be to do a capacitor swap. This can take a lot of brightness out of a guitar.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/tonefiend/guitar/customize-your-caps/

I'd start with the capacitor thing, as it is cheap and easy to reverse.

Be careful because if this guitar is wired like a standard strat there is no tone control for the bridge pickup so a capacitor swap will be useless. I do like Tilsta's suggestion of a blend pot though.

Another thing one can do is to rewire the guitar such that your neck and mid pickup share a tone control and you can use the other for the bridge.

 

[Prages]

I don't have any SSS Strats, but my quilty Warmoth has Kinman AVN pickups in the middle and bridge positions, and they sound excellent.

Of course, my orange one has Duncan APS2s in the middle and neck, and I think they sound excellent, too.