best loaded pickguard for MIM Strat?

[crankyrayhanky]

I'm kind of all over the place here. I started looking at the Fluence, then EMG Gilmore, then a a whole bunch of other options. Any experience and feedback appreciated.

Not sure what I want as far as style- could be traditional strat tones or maybe something for modern stuff. Less noise would be attractive, even if I have to sacrifice traditional tones.

I like Los Lonely Boys, SRV, Gilmore, Kirk Hammet (lol but true) for this upgrade

 

[Manxmusicman]

I know they’re expensive but I’ve just put 2 bkp Irish tours and a crawler in my elite strat. The crawler has a nice overall tone but was too compressed for my tastes. The real story here is those Irish Tours, hot but overly hot, toneful, balanced and just plain dirty when they need to be. Clean they can do the classic tones mentioned above, a beast of a single coil!

 

[crankyrayhanky]

oh man, I didn't even look at BKP. I have a few guitars with their humbuckers- I need to look into their singles

 

[skullfxr]

We really need to know what you are going for but I have lace sensors in two guitars and love them. Definitely quiet.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

We really need to know what you are going for but I have lace sensors in two guitars and love them. Definitely quiet.

Well, I have a diverse interest (listed in OP) so not sure about what exactly I'm going for. I have this MIM strat that I don't play often, but I think a new set of p/u would give me inspiration.

 

[skullfxr]

We really need to know what you are going for but I have lace sensors in two guitars and love them. Definitely quiet.

Well, I have a diverse interest (listed in OP) so not sure about what exactly I'm going for. I have this MIM strat that I don't play often, but I think a new set of p/u would give me inspiration.

I missed the intrsest in the OP somehow, my apologies.

Gilmour is lace, SRV is Texas special. It's easier to get SRV out of lace than Gilmour out of Texas specials. I am not up on the boutique builder SC a whole lot to truthful so I cannot say much there. I like the '57' RI pickups in one strat. Not a huge Texas special guy they don't tame how I like them to. I have a friend who swears by The Creamery SC's and I like how they sound, but refuse to pay that much.

 

[crankyrayhanky]

^ cool that helps
Lace sensors may be a good choice for me....

 

[crankyrayhanky]

loaded pickguard purchased!

I went with the EMG KH 1 hum 2 singles
I guess I tend towards heavy with occasional blues/mellow & I never jived with a single in the bridge. Plus this set has a volume knob that is moved off a bit which I totally need- I'm always hitting the traditional strat volume

I hope I dig it. Last time I had EMGs they were 808s and they fizzed out the high end of my ears.

 

[jkdsteve]

I got Lace with three single coils....kind of regret not getting the H/S/S