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Post by johnnyl on Jan 9, 2006 13:49:37 GMT -7
well said tele.. you're quite the wordsmith!
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Post by foxx on Jan 9, 2006 17:54:41 GMT -7
Thank you tele1962. This helps alot. I like my guitar, but I will gladly upgrade the pickups. Wait till I tell my Mazerati the great news! We're getting more tone! Does this mean I have G.A.S.?
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Post by tele1962 on Jan 9, 2006 19:36:55 GMT -7
Well thanks for the kind words guys , and Foxx...in my opinion you don't have Gear Aquisition Syndrom...that's a different type of thing. What you have today is a desire to get that Strat back to producing the tones that made it famous, and went so well with the great amps of it's day. The Mazerati is a winner , but so are you!
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reaper
Junior Member
Posts: 61
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Post by reaper on Jan 11, 2006 15:08:12 GMT -7
Seumour Duncan Alnico Pro Staggered (APS-1) with alnico 2 magnets. Very sweet and very responsive to pick attack. I love 'em. I agree completely. At the end of July I pulled my bridge pup and put in a SD Custom Shop 9.0K A2 mag pup (pretty much an Un-Aged Texas Hot Bridge) and absolutely adore it through my Z, Marshall, and Fenders. Luke
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Post by LeftyLang on Jan 12, 2006 21:01:25 GMT -7
I hate hum...so the best noiseless pups I have tried are the new Fender/Bill Lawrence SCN's....I have them in both my strats.
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Post by paddywhacker on Jan 13, 2006 7:09:49 GMT -7
...another kinman fan here....i use a traditional set....my Strat sounds like a Strat should but has a very natural sounding slightly compressed quality.....they drive pedals really well and i have to admit i'm getting hooked on that hum free signal....where they fall short of classic Strat tone is that they dont have the big "thunk&chunk"....they're sweet and crunchy, never harsh and sound good through any amp...fabulous recording pickups....i can see why some players would prefer true single coil sound but i use my Tele with Harmonic Design pups for that...
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Post by jb on Jan 14, 2006 11:36:39 GMT -7
The John Suhr V60LP is my favorite for that vintage strat tone.
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Post by Lefty on Jan 14, 2006 12:57:53 GMT -7
Fralin Woodstocks with baseplate for the bridge. A #1! A nice mesh of power and chime.
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Post by groovergeorge on Jan 15, 2006 8:39:34 GMT -7
For what it is worth Fralin real 54's are some of the best rocking strat pickups around. My friend actually owned a late 54 beat up old workhorse that sounded killer and these pickups were very close to his original 54's tone. The pickups are now loaded in my alder bodied, allparts 63 replica(slabboard), opposed to 54's one piece maple baseball bat type neck and they are still exceptionall clear , full and round as well. The same friend has 5 strats in various neck and body configurations with either custom shop woodstocks to texas specials, Rio Grandes and finally Fender 57/62 re-issues. The only ones that came close to the chunky but with paino clarity type tone were the original pickups in his 1954 strat and to a lesser extent but still very sweet with that "bell tone" the 57/62' re-issues.
I don't want to use the same old cop-out by saying the usual, "tone is such is a subjective thing" however I will say this,
Do yourself a favour and road test a set of Fralin 54's. "It don't mean a thang, if it aint got that twang" and these beauties have it by the bucketload!!!
"KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"
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Post by groovergeorge on Jan 15, 2006 8:45:08 GMT -7
By the way LEFTY, I was wondering how to add little image like the one you have of Hendrix or my rig for example, to my profile?
"KEEP ON ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD"
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2006 20:41:57 GMT -7
This is my very first post on this forum, although I've been lurking for quite some time... Anybody out there ever try Fralin Blues Specials? I first read about Mr. Paisley using them in some of his Teles. I'm about ready to pull the trigger on a Griblin Engineering wiring harness with Fralins to replace the stock wiring and Fender Texas Specials in my Strat. I've never tried Fralins, so I'm going with my gut and an educated guess based on reviews, sound files, etc.. I've narrowed it down to Vintage Hots or Blues Specials with a baseplate on the bridge pup. Feel free to chime in..
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Post by quinto on Jan 17, 2006 21:41:40 GMT -7
I installed Blues specials w/baseplate in my Clapton Strat about 3 yrs. ago and like them a lot. Mine came from Acme Guitar Works wired with a blender pot. The Vintage Hots are great too. Both are worlds better than Texas Specials.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2006 22:37:05 GMT -7
I've looked at the Acme setup, and for a while it was a tossup between it and the the Griblin wiring harness. Either looks like an nice improvement over stock.
Tough decision on which pups to go with... I'll definitely get the base plate on the bridge pup though.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2006 22:59:21 GMT -7
This is my first post on the forum and soon to be RxES owner.
A vote for Jason Lollar's Blackface Pickups. After A/Bing them against a set of Fralin Vintage hots w/baseplate and a set of Fender's 69 custom shop pickups that came with my strat, the lollar's were a serious improvement in clarity and feel. Just great, fat, smokey, singing blackface strat tones. Also with the flat pole pieces my guitar sounds more in tune and feels slinkier. I do not know how to explain it but thats how it feels to me. The Fralins were great too, but I just felt that the Lollars had more 'vibe' for lack of a better word.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2006 23:01:40 GMT -7
Sorry for the bad grammar. That was my first post and I am a soon to be RxES owner.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 17, 2006 23:11:41 GMT -7
One more thing on the Fralin vs Lollar thang. If anyone is going to do a comparison, remember that you will have to set up the pickup heights differently with the lollars (due to the flat pole pieces) to get the optimum sound. I found you can bring them closer and flatter to your strings.
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Post by tele1962 on Jan 21, 2006 11:55:24 GMT -7
I think that with Strats and Tele's especially, there are so many really great replacement PU's out there, that it's tough to come upon terrible ones. As a retired guitar tech. ( offically!!), I replaced lots of them for players and still do some. I'll put in whatever you bring me.
Here's the problem, guys. I love Kinmans, Fralins, Lollars are pretty new so havn't played with them much, and everything else that's out ther now is pretty decent. BUT...be careful of one little thing, and here it is:
Keep that Strat sounding like one! That Tele you think should have these fancy new anti hum, noiseless, do everything, world class - make you sound like so an so - PU's maybe take away from your Tele's pure tele tone. Now, I know some guys are going to say "yeah, but these sound Tele and still have better features..." and that's the ones you should look for.
IMHO, you want to know who makes wonderful Strat PU's?? Fender! Best results, some of most true tones, easy to adjust, hugely complimentary to the guitar itself PU's that I've installed in Strats especially, have come from Abigail Ybarra at Fender's Custom Shop in California. I've yet to be disappointed by build quality, tone, and getting a Strat to sound like a Strat. Hell, if you want it to sound like a Paul Reed Smith, then buy a PRS!
We are in a PU replacement craze right now. Everyone's a hotrodder. Let's just keep Leo in mind when we go hotrodding. He built pretty irreplaceable tones into those simple PU's, and Fender CS is doing a wonderful job of keeping the faith.
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Post by JASON (aka jgleaton) on Jan 21, 2006 19:57:47 GMT -7
" Keep that Strat sounding like one!" " IMHO, you want to know who makes wonderful Strat PU's?? Fender" Right On..tele1962!! My #1 guitar ia a beat to death 1983 fender fullerton 57 reissue strat w/ the original fender pick-ups.....I've have looked for years to find pick-ups that equal these and I like the fender custom shops (had a custom 54 set), fralins (have a set in my tele) and peter florance (voodoo) but I stumbled across a guy making VERY VERY vintage correct fender style pick-ups.... MOORETONE!!! www.mooretone.com/ He is a luthier and builds complete vintage correct strats....very nice and not to expensive... Mike Moore has made me 2 sets of pickups one for my 1982 fender 57 reissue fullerton and one in my 98 gold 57 reissue....they are the closest ones that I found to my vintage fullerton pick-ups AND the 1963 fender strat w/ original p-ups that the other guy I play with uses.... they have to blend and work with the vintage ones...and they do!!! I told Mike about Michael Burks and sent him some of Michaels music and said he should get him one of his guitars....and I heard last week from Mike that he has just made Michael a guitar and Mikes wife Sue called yesterday and said Michael loved it.... Mike Moore's a real cool guy and will treat you right very much like DR Z and other smaller boutique style craftsman building instuments/ amps the way there supposed to be built (which is also the way LEO did it)!!! Jason
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Post by guitarman1 on Jan 30, 2006 13:03:49 GMT -7
Fralin Blues in neck & middle with a Steel Pole 43 in the bridge.
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Post by jwr on Feb 1, 2006 22:44:00 GMT -7
So I've posted here in this thread a couple of times and I think it's pretty obvious that I'm a fan of Kinmans. I just recently brought my new Z-28 to a friends house to check it out, and his completely stock Fender Strat sounded amazing through it. Probably as good if not better than my Strat. That being said, I doubt highly that it would sound as stellar through my Trem-O-Verb. It would probably be noisy as Hell. I think there are lots of pickups that will cut the mustard for certain duties. For me, if it's high gain, I need something like Kinmans. But if it's a low gain or clean sound then there a lot of other options. I guess what I'm saying is I look at it with the old saying "Use the right tools for the job" Just like owning a bunch of different amps to achieve an array of sounds, the same holds true for geetars. I hope that made sense. LOL
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Post by tele1962 on Feb 3, 2006 10:01:35 GMT -7
Makes tons of sense. The point I've always tried to educate especially younger players on, is that the Stratocaster guitar was not a high gain monster. The tone and feeling that a Strat gives when all the stars line up right is very pure, a bit thin, and breezy; with this very hard to duplicate chime. I think it's very cool to mod some guitars and turn them into different things! A Warmoth body, or a Schecter is nice to play with that way, as are some Ibanez guitars. But in my very humble opinion, a Fender Stratocaster is a Fender Stratocaster. That's the sound you buy it for. I don't put single coil pick-ups into Les Paul Standards, I don't want a Vox AC-30 to have the voicing of a Dual Showman, I don't want a Maz 38 to sound like a Matchless. Does that make sense as well?
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Post by jwr on Feb 18, 2006 14:20:28 GMT -7
Makes sense to me and I completely respect those who have the same point of view.
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