Pickup recommendations

[iTwang]

Hi,

I've been thinking about adding a troika of Tom's pickups on
my strat. Since I'm not that familiar with the pickups on offer
- and I'm not 100 % sure what's on my guitar - I'd appreciate
any help, perhaps with som comparisons to existing Fender pickups.

I use all three pups (alone and in combination) and good string definition
is a must with a woody tone for the neck pickup - and more midrange from the bridge pickup for a fat lead sound.

[tom]

is humcancelling an issue?

[iTwang]

Hi everyone,

Thanks Tom for adding to my woes! ;-)

Yes, since I'm also using my fave to record at home
(in front of an LCD-monitor) it would nice to get rid
of some hum and buzz.

Regards,
Michael

[iTwang]

Bump......

[Ray K.]

Hi,

I'm not sure what styles of music you're into. But I like a little variety and not too long ago added some Anderson pickups to one of my Strats. I went with an H-S-H configuration with an H1- in the neck, SA1 middle and H2+ bridge. I also wired it like a Drop Top. Kept the 5-way switch, though I had to go to a Superswitch, Master Volume and Master Tone. The Master Tone is a pull pot that will add the Bridge humbucker. I also added a toggle switch for Vintage Voicing. When the switch is in the down position, the 5 way works as normal, but when in the up position splits all the pickups and gives very convincing "vintage Strat" sounds.

To me the controls are very easy to use and access, and I have a much more versatile guitar.

As has been said before, Tom builds probably the best splitting humbuckers out there.

Now, if you have no need for humbuckers, someone else will have to chime in and let you know what are the best single coils.

Good luck and have fun! :)
Ray K.

[tom]

if you're after the ability to humcancel, then SA1, SA1R and SA2 or 2+ would be the ticket. changing pickups is a fair expendeture(sp), so keep in mind that the guitar's tone is a sum of all it's parts not just the pickups. if you already love the feel and playability of the guitar it would be worth spending the bucks.if not, the money might be better spent elsewhere.

[iTwang]

Hi,

Many thanks to both Tom and Ray K. for your suggestions and the interesting new thread: Difference between SA1 and SD1 (and variants).

I much prefer single-coils (and singe-coil sized) pickups and will look inte the clips suggested by the new thread. Unfortunately my economy is a bit slow at the moment but there's better times ahead, I hope!

Always interesting to read the threads here and to spend some time drooling! :)