Strat pickup reccomendations?

[spilla]

Ive been quite lucky with MG/MM's pickup recommendations in the past. Again im looking for something i know nothing about: strat pickups. Looking for SRV - Little Wing types tones. The Fralin blues neck in my tele gets close but i need that 4th position (or is it 2nd? neck + middle). Not really concerned with the bridge, i may even put a humbucker in there but if there's something worth mentioning for a singlecoil bridge let me know.

Vid, because why not?!

Cheers

[Budda]

For clarification: have tele, want srv type tone?

[Cameron]

For SRV, avoid anything labeled "Texas" The ticket to SRV is The Fender Custom Shop Fat 60's pickups. They are ALNICO 2 and formvar. They are the best sounding strat pickups I have ever heard.

The other half of the SRV sound is heavy strings, I use 10-52 in E or Eb and pick like you are trying to make your guitar look like this:

[Drew]

For SRV, avoid anything labeled "Texas" The ticket to SRV is The Fender Custom Shop Fat 60's pickups. They are ALNICO 2 and formvar. They are the best sounding strat pickups I have ever heard.

I can't speak to the specific pickup recommendation, but Cam's right. Anything "Texas" inspired is going to tend to be on the hotter end of the singlecoil specturm from some reason, and SRV's pickups were if anything a little underwound, I think, by modern standards.

This is an oddball recommendation, but I thought the Cruisers I used briefly in my Strat did an awfully good job of getting into SRV style territory, for blade humbuckers, which itself is a slight misnomer since they weren't hot at all even by singlecoil standards. I don't know if I'd put much weight behind that one, but it did catch me a little off guard, and if hum cancellation is a priority it's worth a shot. Their attack gets kind of weird if they get too close to the strings though.

[Drew]

....though, Cam, bow you have me curious about the Fat 60s, which I didn't know were actually a thing until now, I think.

[spilla]

For clarification: have tele, want srv type tone?

Sorry no, i.m saying my tele gets close but i want recommendations for strat pickups. Cheers

[spilla]

For SRV, avoid anything labeled "Texas" The ticket to SRV is The Fender Custom Shop Fat 60's pickups. They are ALNICO 2 and formvar. They are the best sounding strat pickups I have ever heard.

Great, thanks i'll go listen to some clips.

While i am after SRV tones, i am open to other recommendations. Just looking for some suggestions so i can do some research. Cheers!

[Cameron]

....though, Cam, bow you have me curious about the Fat 60s, which I didn't know were actually a thing until now, I think.

Uhh oh I have a set I can sell you I think you will like them a lot.

[Cameron]

Great, thanks i'll go listen to some clips.

While i am after SRV tones, i am open to other recommendations. Just looking for some suggestions so i can do some research. Cheers!

I get all of that. "Texas" inspired are a little brighter normally. The Fender "American Pro" pickups from the previous round of American Pro guitars were designed by time shaw and have a mix of magnets in each pickup. Those are usually replaced so finding a set, maybe even loaded into a guard, is usually pretty cheep. They are second to the fat 60's IMO.

[Leon]

Cameron, what were the singles you sold me a few years ago? I dug on them, and they are still loaded in my pickguard... but I'm a humbucker guy and put on a new pickguard with Fishman Open Core HB's

But yeah, I think those got me in the SRV ballpark, especially on pushed-clean amp settings. Though... I'm not really studied on singles, nor experienced... so just disregard my post

[Drew]

Uhh oh I have a set I can sell you I think you will like them a lot.

Naturally.

I'm pretty happy with the V60LPs in my second strat, but I'll kick that around at the back of my mind for a while.

[Leon]

Naturally.

I'm pretty happy with the V60LPs in my second strat, but I'll kick that around at the back of my mind for a while.

The path is clear... you need another strat

[Drew]

The path is clear... you need another strat

I have too many guitars.

[Leon]

...too many guitars.

[Drew]

My wall hangers are full and there's no space for more, I currently have one guitar that lives on a piano bench, a mandolin that lives in an arm chair, and two basses tucked into the same stand. I'm full up.

[spilla]

Those fat 60's sound pretty fucking good. I watched a comparison video of the fat 50's and fat 60's and liked the 60's best.

[Cameron]

Those fat 60's sound pretty fucking good. I watched a comparison video of the fat 50's and fat 60's and liked the 60's best.

Yeah Fat 50's are my least favorite. I have a set of Handwound fat 60's and a couple sets of production ones. there is not a difference I can tell in my playing but I am very heavy handed and dont have pristine clean tones because I prefer the "smash the shit our of the strings" approach to get the drive vs a million pedals.

At Fender there were many times we would be passing guitars around and when I played, the tone just got more hair because of how I play.

[Drew]

Yeah Fat 50's are my least favorite. I have a set of Handwound fat 60's and a couple sets of production ones. there is not a difference I can tell in my playing but I am very heavy handed and dont have pristine clean tones because I prefer the "smash the shit our of the strings" approach to get the drive vs a million pedals.

At Fender there were many times we would be passing guitars around and when I played, the tone just got more hair because of how I play.

This is the way.

[Drew]

Ypou know, honestly... The nore I think about this, the more I wonder if maybe the V60LPs wouldn't be a bad option here. This is quick and dirty and while there was a time I tried to get this intro down note for note, that was a LONG time ago and I doubt this is faithful anymore simply because I don't remember. But this is my ash.rosewood strat wiht V60LPs into my Mark V in Ch 1 Fat with the gain pretty high for some compression and a hint of breakup:

https://drewpeterson7.files.wordpres...wing-intro.mp3

No post processing at all. The V60s (non LP) are a little more hi-fi sounding and give you a little more of the bite of the string and whatnot, whereas the LP version has a lower resonant peak which makes them a little fatter. Both are Suhr's take on a 60s style singlecoil, unclear if it's earlier or later 60s, but they do seem to do SRV style cleans well enough.

I tried the regular V60s before the LPs and for me liked the slightly rounder, fatter vibe rather than the crisper, more hi-fi V60, but they're both great Strat pickups.

EDIT - and fuck it, here they are with some SRV-like gain on top. This is Ch 2 Brit, gain just shy of 1pm, and I was going to play as much of Texas Flood as I can misremember, but then after the end of that I just kinda kept going and figured I'd go through a few other pickup positions since I was having fun (I clearly need more blues in my life) the bridge position playing was kinda shit which is too bad because I actually really like that position, though IMO it's better with a darker lead sound than this, but they make for a pretty great sounding texas blues sound.

https://drewpeterson7.files.wordpres...4/srv-gain.mp3

[Budda]

Was that The Strat?

[Drew]

Was that The Strat?

Nah, that's my backup/"blues" strat - an American Deluxe neck with a rosewood fretboard, and (I think) an American Standard ash body in sienna burst, with a tortoiseshell pickguard and creme pickups/knobs, to kind of cop a bit of that SRV vibe, without actually looking much like his guitar.

The Strat has a set of ML Standards in it, and absolutely DESTROYED strings that I really need to change, but I don't want to stop playing that guitar or take the time to do it.

EDIT - may as well give some more color. Tonally, they're... both very classically "strat," but in very different ways. This one, well, you can hear i here - it's got that slightly scooped midrange, sort of bright-yet-spongy clarity to it that really does work well for this sort of bluesy playing. The silver one, between the maple, the alder, and the hotter/more midrangey pickups, it's a bit punchier and more forward. It still sounds like a strat, still has a ton of chime to it clean, but through some real gain it's definitely more Yngwie than SRV. We're talking subtle differences of course, but it makes them great for different applications; the silver one is my "rock" strat, the sunburst my "blues" one.

[Budda]

Your 2nd clip reminds me that I need to learn some basic walking blues licks

[spilla]

https://drewpeterson7.files.wordpres...wing-intro.mp3


https://drewpeterson7.files.wordpres...4/srv-gain.mp3

Those clips sound great! i get what you mean by hifi. I'll add them to the list

[Drew]

Yeah, the LPs are a little rounder and fatter, while the regulars have a slightly more hi-fi tpp end. For me, the LPs won hands down, but in a different amp, different guitar, or different set of hands/ears, the V60s might be a bit better.

I still have a set of the V60s if they become a strong contender for you.

Listening to this again, I probably should have left the delay off the clean bits.

[Drew]

Your 2nd clip reminds me that I need to learn some basic walking blues licks

That's basically just SRV's pride and joy riff, more or less. Good one to start on, the trick is getting those treble rakes nice and percussive and tight.