Strat pickups - on the hunt

  • Thread starter Thread starter ZEN Amps
  • Start date Start date
ZEN Amps

ZEN Amps

Well-known member
To set the record straight - I don't own tan pants or listen to Mayer, and I think "grab n' go" and "pedal platform" are phrases for the weak.

But.... I do like classic Strat tones. I have a nice rosewood slab thing with Van Zandt pickups and the low output, vintage thing isn't as much fun as it used to be. Looking for something that mostly retains the vintage voice, but is say 25% hotter, A5 I guess. A little more mids and less high end is a non-issue, and expected.

Fralin blues specials have been recommended by a friend, what does RT have to say? No I'm not going to strap in a JB and shred.
 
The Fralins are really good. I've also had luck with the SD Antiquity Texas Hot or the BKP Slowhand. The BKP Trilogy is even hotter but still sounds like a Strat. I like the EMG SA, too, more like Gilmour than vintage.
 
The Seymour Duncan YJM’s are pretty good. BKP Cobra and Trilogy as well. The best sounding single coil neck pickup I’ve tried is the Badlands M81 single coil mainly because it’s actually hot.
 
Dimarzio Area 58 and Area 67 are great. Very stringy and stratty but bold and punchy. Lots of high treble emphasis. They’re also noiseless but don’t sound muted or dulled like a lot of noiseless singles.

The YJM pickups are really nice too. They’re a little smoother, a little more emphasis in the mids instead of the highs and lows, they sound great.

If you want something unorthodox, you could always try the Dimarzio Cruisers like Andy Timmons uses.
 
Last edited:
ZEN Amps said:
To set the record straight - I don't own tan pants or listen to Mayer, and I think "grab n' go" and "pedal platform" are phrases for the weak.

But.... I do like classic Strat tones. I have a nice rosewood slab thing with Van Zandt pickups and the low output, vintage thing isn't as much fun as it used to be. Looking for something that mostly retains the vintage voice, but is say 25% hotter, A5 I guess. A little more mids and less high end is a non-issue, and expected.

Fralin blues specials have been recommended by a friend, what does RT have to say? No I'm not going to strap in a JB and shred.
Click to expand...

Fender Pure Vintage 61s are great for blues and rock. The 73 set is also really nice, and a bit hotter.

This is my favorite set of strat pickups currently -- Brickhouse Toneworks 63s
https://www.brickhousetone.com/products/brickhouse-63-stratocaster-pickup?variant=42021548392529

Two other suggestions -- Rocketfire True 60s and K-Line 64s.
 
ZEN Amps said:
To set the record straight - I don't own tan pants or listen to Mayer, and I think "grab n' go" and "pedal platform" are phrases for the weak.

But.... I do like classic Strat tones. I have a nice rosewood slab thing with Van Zandt pickups and the low output, vintage thing isn't as much fun as it used to be. Looking for something that mostly retains the vintage voice, but is say 25% hotter, A5 I guess. A little more mids and less high end is a non-issue, and expected.

Fralin blues specials have been recommended by a friend, what does RT have to say? No I'm not going to strap in a JB and shred.
Click to expand...
Gold Lace Sensors do exactly what you ask in terms of more mids and smoother highs, and they play very well with high gain. They aren't noiseless, but are very low noise.
 
ChurchHill said:
The Fralins are really good. I've also had luck with the SD Antiquity Texas Hot or the BKP Slowhand. The BKP Trilogy is even hotter but still sounds like a Strat. I like the EMG SA, too, more like Gilmour than vintage.
Click to expand...
Fender CS Texas Specials were much more lively than Anderson SC1s, when I had both in house.
That's all I got
 
I really enjoy them! I've always had a problem with Strat bridges, just too thin, too brittle, too weak. The Slowhand fixed that for me without taking it too far away from what a Strat sounds like. It's still a Strat bridge, just full and rich, not brittle just still bright and glassy, and strong enough to drive my amp where I want it to be. The mids are strong but not overpowering, probably most similar to the Fender Texas Special or SD Antiquity Texas Hot, but the Slowhand is more vintage sounding to my ears than either of those, at least by a little. The rest of the set balances nicely, the middle is actually useful, and the 2nd and 4th pos still has a good amount of quack.
 
The best I've experienced for "off the shelf hot-rodded vintage" that still blend well with & sound "right" next to original vintage pickups are the old original (70's / early 80's) Fat Strat (FS-1) Dimarzio.
That's what I put in the bridge of my '69 strat years ago.
My understanding is that Duncan put out the SSL1C & SSL5 as a direct answer to it back then.
 
EMG SA’s are really good pickups, but they’re very different. They’re very hi-fi, almost like a single coil blended with a piezo. They’re awesome for squeaky pristine cleans and their extended highs make them great for cutting through distortion, but yeah they’re definitely not traditional sounding at all.

Lukather used EMG singles for a while, but not the SA, maybe the SAV or something like that? They were A5 magnets though, and sounded great.
 
The Bareknuckle true grit single coils are both cheap and really good. The play well with humbuckers and 500k pots. Just be sure to use a 500k/.047uf tone circuit on the single coils.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

ghosty999
Pickup Recommendations for Strat (Moving away from single coils)
Replies
12
Views
824
csguy0
C
SFW
NGD: Fender Mike McCready Strat
Replies
1
Views
375
John4021
John4021
sandman
Deciding on strat pickups
2
Replies
28
Views
3K
sandman
sandman
Shreddy Mercury
Doing some open heart surgery on an old Strat tonight
Replies
4
Views
175
Shreddy Mercury
Shreddy Mercury
buller
Which of these bridge pickups for alder superstrat in C standard?
2
Replies
23
Views
3K
Nigel
N
Back
Top