Update - Played an American Prof Strat..G.A.S. alert......

[romanianreaper]

*UPDATE*
Well, like many on this forum I'm a guitarist that falls victim to G.A.S. from time to time. Just when I'm thinking I'm on the brink of never getting another Strat....I go to a local Mom and Pop store...

I walk in, and simply ask the guy "hey that one Strat there. What is that?". And he replies "oh, that's a used Eric Clapton 90s "Blackie" Stratocaster". Well you can probably see how this is going to go....

I plug into a Blackstar amp and was hearing phenomenal cleans, glorious gain-drenched riffs, etc., etc. The guy showed me the tone knob built-in that is typical Strat sounds when turned down and a boost when cranked. Amazing! The Lace Sensor pickups kickass too!

I'm embarrassed to say I was probably in the store 10 minutes total and that includes, asking the question, playing, purchase and walking out. I feel like I got mugged and left on the street...LOL! Amazing guitar! I feel like I fell into this or the Fender Strat people willed me to that store.

I went to a local Guitar Center today and saw an American Professional Stratocaster with the Shawbucker and new single coils, so decided to give it a whirl...again. I had tried one awhile back and couldn't remember how it sounded.

Playability wise, great guitars. I have no complaints at all about the neck and fretboard. I think they took a page from the Charvel book because the neck is just so smooth, feels right, etc. My issue is with the high gain tones. Clean tones are good and mid gain stuff is not too bad either.

Since the Shawbucker is not potted, noise creeps in and it is basically like playing a single coil. The other thing is there is this "ting" sound with every note. Hard to describe but I can't not hear it.

Anyway, not a bad guitar but just can't jive with it. I really wanted to but I'm becoming more and more convinced that I need to stick to Charvels and Gibsons. I think that is just my thing. I already have an older American Strat and it is ok but I think I need to get a nice set of upgrade pickups.

 

[paulyc]

Could be the metal in the bridge, try a non fine tuning Floyd with locking tuners and see if that makes it more Charvel for ya. And/or a set of Duncan SSL-5s or DiMarzio FS-1s are awesome choices for fatter sounding pickups. DiMarzio SDS-1s are like P-90s, might want a 300k ohm volume pot with those.

 

[romanianreaper]

Could be the metal in the bridge, try a non fine tuning Floyd with locking tuners and see if that makes it more Charvel for ya. And/or a set of Duncan SSL-5s or DiMarzio FS-1s are awesome choices for fatter sounding pickups. DiMarzio SDS-1s are like P-90s, might want a 300k ohm volume pot with those.

Thanks! I remember years ago (we are talking probably 30 now which is crazy), I played a Big Apple Stratocaster in Texas and was blown away at how great it sounded. Of course that is two humbuckers. I used to gig with a Clapton Strat with a JB Jr. in the bridge back in the day.

 

[halebox]

I have one. I really like it playability wise. I even like the shawbucker but its not quite there live? I want to try another humbucker but they use 3 mounting screws so I would have to drill hole in pickguard.

 

[hammered]

I have one. I really like it playability wise. I even like the shawbucker but its not quite there live? I want to try another humbucker but they use 3 mounting screws so I would have to drill hole in pickguard.

Seymour Duncan trembukcers have three holes on each mounting leg , good chance one of those would work with your pickguard

Edit - after a little research I don’t think my idea will work . Sorry about that

 

[JimmyBlind]

Can you dial that 'ting' out with the tone pot? For me, I find there's a sweet spot on the tone control where the highs just begin to creep in. Its position seems to change depending on the pickups & electronics. I typically have to dial the highs back more, the higher output the pickup is, to get rid of the ice pick highs.
I didn't really get along with the blower switch on my Suhr modern because it bypassed both the volume & tone pots & it just sounded too gnarly with the Aldrich pickups.

 

[JimAnsell]

strats just "ting". thats part of what makes a strat sound like a strat IMO.
I know exactly what sound he is talking about. i could never dial that out of any fender strat i ever owned. The closest i probably came was putting a tone zone s into the bridge position, chunked it up enough.
I think that "Ting" thing has alot to do with the resonance the tremolo springs and the bridge hardware.

 

[romanianreaper]

strats just "ting". thats part of what makes a strat sound like a strat IMO.
I know exactly what sound he is talking about. i could never dial that out of any fender strat i ever owned. The closest i probably came was putting a tone zone s into the bridge position, chunked it up enough.
I think that "Ting" thing has alot to do with the resonance the tremolo springs and the bridge hardware.

Yeah man, I think you may be right about that. But I've played some strats I liked so not sure if maybe it is alot of things.

Like I mentioned before, cleans I always really like and never have an issue. It is when the gain increases. LOL! But I'm sure that people getting a Shawbucker Strat are not thinking "metal" out of the gate.

 

[Pat6969]

Buy an S/S/S and fire a JB Jr in the bridge. Sounds killer with the 250K pots.

 

[PWE Amplification]

I went to a local Guitar Center today and saw an American Professional Stratocaster with the Shawbucker and new single coils, so decided to give it a whirl...again. I had tried one awhile back and couldn't remember how it sounded.

Playability wise, great guitars. I have no complaints at all about the neck and fretboard. I think they took a page from the Charvel book because the neck is just so smooth, feels right, etc. My issue is with the high gain tones. Clean tones are good and mid gain stuff is not too bad either.

Since the Shawbucker is not potted, noise creeps in and it is basically like playing a single coil. The other thing is there is this "ting" sound with every note. Hard to describe but I can't not hear it.

Anyway, not a bad guitar but just can't jive with it. I really wanted to but I'm becoming more and more convinced that I need to stick to Charvels and Gibsons. I think that is just my thing. I already have an older American Strat and it is ok but I think I need to get a nice set of upgrade pickups.

Potting does not affect noise in any way. The only thing it does is prevent squealing and excessive feedback. If it's noisy like a single and kind of sounds like one maybe one of the coils is not working correctly.

 

[paulyc]

strats just "ting". thats part of what makes a strat sound like a strat IMO.
I know exactly what sound he is talking about. i could never dial that out of any fender strat i ever owned. The closest i probably came was putting a tone zone s into the bridge position, chunked it up enough.
I think that "Ting" thing has alot to do with the resonance the tremolo springs and the bridge hardware.

I put foam rubber on the trem sprints on ANY trem guitar I have, Floyd’s included. I also get rid of the tone knobs (a la EVH and YJM) as they’re just high cut controls anyway. This is all moving closer to Charvel as well.

 

[romanianreaper]

Potting does not affect noise in any way. The only thing it does is prevent squealing and excessive feedback. If it's noisy like a single and kind of sounds like one maybe one of the coils is not working correctly.

Good point man, something may have been wrong with that particular guitar. It was squealing pretty significantly on some higher gain stuff if I was sitting too close to the amp. It is funny because I picked that guitar out of two of them that were there. The other one actually was a more expensive version. I should have tried that one. LOL

I know one of these days I'll give a different Stratocaster a whirl. I have been playing Strats since the mid 80s and have always had a love/hate with them. But I will say this, there is a Strat for everyone so maybe it just comes down to finding one that fits that player. I love my Charvels but you know how it is. A Strat is a Strat. Anyone who has played one knows it just has that thing.

 

[halebox]

I have one. I really like it playability wise. I even like the shawbucker but its not quite there live? I want to try another humbucker but they use 3 mounting screws so I would have to drill hole in pickguard.

Seymour Duncan trembukcers have three holes on each mounting leg , good chance one of those would work with your pickguard

Edit - after a little research I don’t think my idea will work . Sorry about that

I think you are right. Some of the trembuckers have 3 holes and some dont. Just like my girlfriends ha

 

[hammered]

I have one. I really like it playability wise. I even like the shawbucker but its not quite there live? I want to try another humbucker but they use 3 mounting screws so I would have to drill hole in pickguard.

Seymour Duncan trembukcers have three holes on each mounting leg , good chance one of those would work with your pickguard

Edit - after a little research I don’t think my idea will work . Sorry about that

I think you are right. Some of the trembuckers have 3 holes and some dont. Just like my girlfriends ha

Seymour Duncan Trembuckers have 3 holes on each side but only the center holes are threaded . And now I'm thinking about some of my old girlfriends

 

[halebox]

Ah ok, might be easy to thread it with right size screw though

 

[romanianreaper]

Did some research and the Clapton Strat is a 1991 with an Gold Lace Sensor pickups and an MDX mid boost (25db). Pretty cool feature!