Strat Pick-up Ideas

[Old Music Guy]

I bought this guy a while ago: 2006 MIM Strat with a Floyd Rose Special II bridge. It came with an upgraded 22 fret rosewood neck with locking nut. I have locking tuners, which sounds like overkill with the locking nut.

As you can see, it has a "tombstone" rout, so any P/U combo will fit comfortably. 

I'm asking for pickup suggestions to fill a spot.

I have a Fender Strat Highway 1 that's loaded with 3 SD SSL1s. Perfect quack. Very Niles Rogers. 

My recent build with SD SSL 1, 3 and 5. Nice mellow chimey sound, but a little dark. 

I have a Tele that's perfectly fills that spot.

I have a Firefly SG-style which I dropped in a set of SD Pearly Gates. I love the tone, but I'm just not a "chunky neck" guy. As it's a Gibson 2V, 2T setup, I can most ever tone I dsire. I just don't like the neck. 

What I would really like is something that straddles the Trower/Gillmore tone. Big, fat and round, with great harmonics and chime. 

Big ask, I know. But I would welcome suggestions. I am partial to SD, but, I'm not married to them. I prefer single coils, but the PGs are pretty awesome for HBs. 

 

 

 

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

What’s your budget?

 

I’ll note that EMG makes a set of “David Gilmour” pickups.

[Winston Psmith]

5 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

What’s your budget?

 

I’ll note that EMG makes a set of “David Gilmour” pickups.

 

Seconded.

 

In fact, it you want to save a good bit of time and effort, EMG offers a complete pre-wired "Gilmour" pickguard, $329 pretty much wherever you find it.

[desertbluesman]

My favorite strat sized pups are Seymour Duncan Lil 59'ers they give the strat a sound between a standard strat sound, and a Gibson SG or Les Paul style sound. More ;power and deeper with less of that fender chime that so many players like.

 

In my present strat clone I use vintage fender noiseless but one day soon it will be the Seymour Duncan Lil 59'ers

[CEB]

I like EMGs.  I play this old beater a lot. 
 

They are very articulate… which can be a two edged sword. Great when you are on your A game. They can also   Not be your friend if you are struggling.  Kind of like a Tele on steroids.   They are great though. If you go an EMG route you can power them with this fishman power pack. Fishman doesn’t like to promote their use with other companies pickups but it works great.  
 

https://www.fishman.com/portfolio/rechargeable-battery-pack-for-strat/

 

 

[Larryz]

I have the EMG David Gilmore drop-in in one of my Strats.  It comes with a 3 single coils stock looking set-up on the surface but has something special under the hood. The two tone knobs are not tones but an EXG and an SPC pot.  It is not cheap as WP points out above (i.e. around $300 bucks).  But it is one of the fastest and best ways to make any Strat (MIM, MIA, Squire, etc.) sound like a more expensive Strat...I like EMG drop-ins and have 3 setups.  I had them routed under the Spring plate so I can change batteries without having to remove the pickguard like the stock setup.  I saved my stock loaded pickguards and can put all 3 back to stock in no time flat (less than 20minutes each) if I decide to sell the guitars someday.  😎

[KuruPrionz]

12 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

What’s your budget?

 

I’ll note that EMG makes a set of “David Gilmour” pickups.

I am using EMG pickups on an ES335, Tele and a Strat. I only mount the neck and bridge pickups on the Strat, with the 3 way switch. I added an EMG SPC (Strat Presence Control) to both Fender guitars. They sound fantastic, are noiseless in most situations and have extremely low magnetic drag which means more sustain and better intonation than standard single coil pickups. 

 

You could not pay me to use passive single coil pickups again.

[Old Music Guy]

24 minutes ago, KuruPrionz said:

I added an EMG SPC (Strat Presence Control) to both Fender guitars.

Thanks for explaining that. I had no idea what it was. All I knew from looking the EMGs up was that it was a presence control.

One problem for me using active pups is that the guitar has a Floyd Rose bridge. It would be impractical with actives because I have no place to put a battery. The only spot available is in the back cavity, and the only place a battery would fit would end up blocking the trem mechanism. I would have room in the front rout, but that would entail removing the pickguard every time I needed to replace a battery. Floyd Rose users know this is a very bad option. 

I liked the idea of the Lil 59s, but I'm not sold on the humbuckers. I had a SD 59 and an SD JB installed in it early on, but they did not play well together in the sandbox. Regardless of what reviews said about it, the imbalance was way too much for me to get by. 

Another factor for me to consider is that the Floyd requires a non-standard Strat pickguard as the width of the bridge is much larger than a stock PG. I could fit it, but it requires . Nevermind. Just  PITA. 

I was half thinking of P90s? I don't know much about them other than they are fairly weak single coils, but overdriven, they have "something". I've only seen them in Jazz Masters and some Jaguars. 

Another option would be a Seymour Duncan SH-2 Jazz neck and SH-1b '59 bridge. I know. Humbuckers. But I do have a set of Pearly Gates in my Chinese SG, and they are really nice to my ears. 

It would be nice to hear from folks with experience with Fralins, Lollars, or even old school Fendersas well as other SD single coils.

[Old Music Guy]

13 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

What’s your budget?

$250 +/-. It's a hobby for me.

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’m going state an opinion: it seems to me that a lot of Strat players buy gear aiming for a tone that seems to be more in the wheelhouse of P90s*.

 

With a swimming-pool route and a $250 budget, you could get a pair of P90s, a HB & P90 or something similar.  
 

Here’s a video of a guy demoing his Vintage Vibe HB-sized P90s:

Personally, I’ve become a huge fan of the bridge HB paired with a neck P90, and it’s a configuration that’s popping up in the lines of several guitar companies: Reverend, Yamaha, G&L, Huber, and so on.  Godin has a few with paired Seymour Duncan P-Rails, which deliver HB, P90, and singlecoil tones with the flip of a switch.

 

If it weren’t for your guitar’s FR, I’d even recommend a pair of those SD P-Rails, but you might not have the space for the wiring- I don’t know.🤷🏾‍♂️
 

 

 

 

 

* which are available from a variety of makers in sizes ranging from standard to HB to singlecoil to whatever.

[CEB]

One of the coolest ‘Strat’ tones I hear is in a R&B gig I do from time to time. The guitarist plays a Reverend with 3 P90s.  It’s killer but a lot of it is probably his hands. 

[Old Music Guy]

@Dannyalcatraz Thanks for that, and I really appreciate your "opinion". That is not only the tone I seek, but is also a playing style that I gravitate towards. I have a Firefly SG clone that I dropped a set of Pearly Gates in. The tone is very similar insofar as both are very articulate, and responsive to finger picking as well as pinch harmonics. Even though they are HBs, they were easy to wire in and made a HUGE difference, obviously, than the cheap ceramic magnet pups that came with it. Very sweet sound. I personally just don't like the chunky neck on the SG and am thinking of letting it go. (I'll lose $$, but, whatever). 

One "issue" I have is that the Chibsons and the Epiphone have a Volume and Tone for each pickup set. Fender is an entirely different animal altogether. Very limited in how you can wire. This is pretty much why I prefer single coils and avoid HB coil splits, push/pulls and all that. 

@CEB I went shopping with a buddy of mine who is jonesing for a Reverend. He grabbed one with 2 P90s and plugged it into the newest million dollar MESA with modeling. *mic drop* ridic...

Anyway, thanks to all again. I really appreciate the input. It ain't making my selection any easier, but it does open another world of possibilities

 

 

 

[Larryz]

3 hours ago, Old Music Guy said:

Thanks for explaining that. I had no idea what it was. All I knew from looking the EMGs up was that it was a presence control.

One problem for me using active pups is that the guitar has a Floyd Rose bridge. It would be impractical with actives because I have no place to put a battery. The only spot available is in the back cavity, and the only place a battery would fit would end up blocking the trem mechanism. I would have room in the front rout, but that would entail removing the pickguard every time I needed to replace a battery. Floyd Rose users know this is a very bad option. 

 

OMG, in my post above I noted having 3 Strats with the battery under the spring plate cover so I do not have to remove the pickguard to replace the battery.  It did involve routing out a flat spot so that the battery laid flat and removing the middle tremolo spring. The whammy works just fine with 2 instead of 3 springs.  However, if you're a stickler for tone like Eric Johnson, you can go another route (pun intended) and keep all 3 springs.  Check out the Eric Clapton Strat with the blocked tremolo.  The routing under the spring plate cover is done so that the battery is laying up on it's side on one side of the cavity. Very cool if you're a super talented router as it fits under the spring plate cover on one side with no trace that it's there... 

[Caevan O’Shite]

On 2/27/2023 at 9:27 PM, Old Music Guy said:

What I would really like is something that straddles the Trower/Gillmore tone. Big, fat and round, with great harmonics and chime. 

If you go with three EMG SA's with one Volume control- and, instead of the usual Tone controls, one EMG SPC "Strat Presence Control", and one EMG EXG "Guitar Expander" control- you will be EXACTLY THERE. That's what David Gilmour himself has in his Fender Strats that are loaded with his signature-series EMG loaded pickguards. 

The SA's are very, very nice vintage-sounding Strat-style pickups to begin with; the "S" is for "Strat", the "A" is for alnico magnets. They're also phenomenally hum-free and low-noise. The string-ground wire can be eliminated, too, greatly reducing chance of shock.

As you turn the SPC up, it adds more and more mids and lows while subtly rolling off some of the highs, approximating the EQ characteristics of a classic P.A.F. humbucker.

The EXG increases highs and lows as you turn it up, while scooping out some of the mids- lush, beautiful, chiming bell-tones can be dialed-in.

Blended together to taste, you can find all manner of exquisite tones.

Straddling Trower and Gilmour tones.; big, fat and round, with great harmonics and chime, all in spades.

Both turned all the way down, and you've got the sound of the pickups as they are.

 

Going over the previous posts above, I see that this set of pickups and controls would be above your stated budget; but I'll opine, that if you wait and save for it, you will NEVER think that you need better pickups and electronics in that guitar; and, YOU WILL LOVE THEM.

 

I highly, HIGHLY recommend DR Pure Blues strings, as well. Richer, fuller mids and upper-mids, and a great bendable feel.

[Dannyalcatraz]

5 hours ago, Old Music Guy said:

 

@CEB I went shopping with a buddy of mine who is jonesing for a Reverend. He grabbed one with 2 P90s and plugged it into the newest million dollar MESA with modeling. *mic drop* ridic...

Anyway, thanks to all again. I really appreciate the input. It ain't making my selection any easier, but it does open another world of possibilities

FWIW, I may be the resident Reverend guy.  I own 5 (L-R): a Rick Vito signature (hardtail), an original Roundhouse, a Manta Ray 390 LE, a Flatroc 15th Anniversary LE, and a Sensei RA.  The Vito & Manta both have P90s.

 

 

 

So I understand your comment about the P90s.  The ones in the Vito and the Manta spoiled me for most others.  When I subsequently bought a Fret King Esprit, I wound up replacing its stock Wilkinson 90s (which sounded good) with Bareknuckle Stockholms because I wanted a sound more like I was used to.  Reverend’s owner, Joe Naylor,  knows how to make good pickups.*  And his P90s are one of the things I look for on Reverend models.

 

 

* check out his other company, RailHammer 

[KuruPrionz]

On 2/28/2023 at 1:05 PM, Old Music Guy said:

Thanks for explaining that. I had no idea what it was. All I knew from looking the EMGs up was that it was a presence control.

One problem for me using active pups is that the guitar has a Floyd Rose bridge. It would be impractical with actives because I have no place to put a battery. The only spot available is in the back cavity, and the only place a battery would fit would end up blocking the trem mechanism. I would have room in the front rout, but that would entail removing the pickguard every time I needed to replace a battery. Floyd Rose users know this is a very bad option. 

I liked the idea of the Lil 59s, but I'm not sold on the humbuckers. I had a SD 59 and an SD JB installed in it early on, but they did not play well together in the sandbox. Regardless of what reviews said about it, the imbalance was way too much for me to get by. 

Another factor for me to consider is that the Floyd requires a non-standard Strat pickguard as the width of the bridge is much larger than a stock PG. I could fit it, but it requires . Nevermind. Just  PITA. 

I was half thinking of P90s? I don't know much about them other than they are fairly weak single coils, but overdriven, they have "something". I've only seen them in Jazz Masters and some Jaguars. 

Another option would be a Seymour Duncan SH-2 Jazz neck and SH-1b '59 bridge. I know. Humbuckers. But I do have a set of Pearly Gates in my Chinese SG, and they are really nice to my ears. 

It would be nice to hear from folks with experience with Fralins, Lollars, or even old school Fendersas well as other SD single coils.

P-90's have a large coil surface area and have more hum than most pickups.

I am phobic to hum myself, don't want it ever if possible. 

I change my batteries in my guitars about every 18 months, as long as you unplug them when you aren't playing them the batteries last a long time. 

Almost every time, there is still juice in the battery when I replace it. For a while, I was gigging a lot and using the same guitar and eventually the battery got weak. 

I'm a guitar tech for decades and adding a battery compartment on the back with 2 screws to hold the plate I made was pretty much super simple to do. It only took a few minutes. 

 

I've used Floyd Rose whammy's off and on for decades. The last thing you want is pickups with a strong magnetic draw. If you push the bar just bit too far, the magnets will suck the loosened strings right down onto the pickups. A lovely popping sound will ensue. 

[Dannyalcatraz]

9 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

P-90's have a large coil surface area and have more hum than most pickups.

I am phobic to hum myself, don't want it ever if possible.

FWIW, if you like the sound but fear the hum, RailHammer (and probably others besides) make noiseless P90s.  (All of theirs are HB-sized, though.

[Caevan O’Shite]

15 hours ago, Dannyalcatraz said:

FWIW, if you like the sound but fear the hum, RailHammer (and probably others besides) make noiseless P90s.  (All of theirs are HB-sized, though.

I, for one, LOVE the sound and feel of P-90's, but I've also experienced their notorious buzzing HUM- even with clean tones, and dodgy AC power and environments. It can be very bad!

So bad that, if I were going to load some soap-bars into a guitar, I'd be VERY likely to try something like Lindy Fralin Hum Canceling P90 soap-bars, or Kinman P-90 HX; those would be my two choices.

[KuruPrionz]

I had a 2014 Gibson Melody Maker Les Paul, which was more or less a thinner bodied (and much lighter!) Les Paul. It came with P-90's, I replaced them with a set of EMG pickups that are sized as P-90s but sound like EMG hum buckers. Then it was nice and quiet. 

 

I consider pickups to be one factor in guitar tone and unless they have an extreme character I think of them as a lesser consideration. 

I've played acoustic guitars since I was 13 (67 now) and to a slightly lesser extent, electric guitar. Playing an acoustic guitar with no pickup caused me to learn to create my tones with the way I plucked the strings - different picks, fingers (the end of the fingers or downstrokes using my nails with fingers and upstrokes using my nails with thumb) my choice of strings and to some extent, the tone of the acoustic guitar. I do the same with electric guitars, they respond to these same approaches. 

 

If pickups hum, that is part of their sound, useless and annoying to be certain. Acoustic guitars don't seem to ever have hum problems, not the ones I've played at least. 

It doesn't make the guitar sound better, it sounds worse to me. P-90s and the original Fender Jazzmaster pickups hum more than I will put up with, so I don't use either of them. They would sound good if they didn't make so much extraneous and useless noise. 

[Scott Fraser]

Fortunately technology marches on & we have improvements in many areas of life. Noiseless single coil pickups are readily available now, so there's no need to put up with the hum.

[Dannyalcatraz]

There’s also humbuckers* of all sizes as well.  In all kinds of flavors.

 

 

* ditto singlecoils, Charlie Christians, and a bunch of other pickup types, if you know who to ask.

[KuruPrionz]

And low impedance active pickups that are virtually silent and can be engineered to a variety of tones. 

[Ivan May]

Dave Murray of Iron Maiden uses DiMarzio pickups in his Strats. They can be heard on the exquisite heavy metal classic that is Run To The Hills.

 

 

[surfergirl]

I use Fender Vintage Noiseless in my Strat, they came in it and never saw any reason to change them. I bought a set on sale a few years ago and put them in Squier Strat. I was going to sell the Squier, but it was my first full size guitar and I can't bring myself to part with it.

[hurricane hugo]

P-90s or FilterTrons

[Old Music Guy]

I've made a command decision. Not really happy about it, but I'm beginning to believe this guitar is cursed, and I need to get it out of my life. 

I dropped in the set of Fender 016730 plastic bobbins and the Atomic humbucker that were originally in my 2004 Highway 1 HSS. 

I would have spent the $$ for new pups, but, in the long run, I would have had to get a new pickguard for the FR bridge, and I really didn't want to go there. 

So, I modified a PG that I had, and dropped in the old pups. All wired up and tested. Did a little body work that will be ready tomorrow. Polish and shine, drop in the PG, set the neck, and set it up.

I'm already thinking of the next project, but, I really think I need a break. 

Thanks, and I'll post pics when it's complete. Should be a nice tuxedo when it's finished!

[KuruPrionz]

20 minutes ago, Old Music Guy said:

I've made a command decision. Not really happy about it, but I'm beginning to believe this guitar is cursed, and I need to get it out of my life. 

I dropped in the set of Fender 016730 plastic bobbins and the Atomic humbucker that were originally in my 2004 Highway 1 HSS. 

I would have spent the $$ for new pups, but, in the long run, I would have had to get a new pickguard for the FR bridge, and I really didn't want to go there. 

So, I modified a PG that I had, and dropped in the old pups. All wired up and tested. Did a little body work that will be ready tomorrow. Polish and shine, drop in the PG, set the neck, and set it up.

I'm already thinking of the next project, but, I really think I need a break. 

Thanks, and I'll post pics when it's complete. Should be a nice tuxedo when it's finished!

Guitars come and go. It sounds like you are pretty skilled at messing about with what I call "screwdriver guitars" I LOVE Strats, Teles and P-Basses so don't take it wrong. 

I usually gravitate towards Warmoth necks, simply because they do make wide, fat necks and at 6'2" I have large hands. I am not so picky about bodies. Squier, Fender or small company manufacture, they all sound pretty similar, especially if you are using a Floyd. The way those are constructed they are not transferring much energy to the body if any. 

Take your time and build the guitar YOU want!!! We are all different, write down your need/want list and start accumulating parts. 

If you know anybody who is using EMG pickups, give them a spin. Bear in mind that they used to print in their spec sheets that the low magnetic drag meant that you could put the pickups closer to the strings without intonation problems. While this is true, I hated that tone and I found that lowering the pickups down a bit made them sound much sweeter, less attack and more even response. In general this is true of all pickups. 

 

And, Surfergirl, I had a Strat in the shop with the Vintage Noiseless pickups and I could not believe how strong the magnets were. You gotta keep those pickups down a fair bit or the magnetic drag on that side of the string will make intonation impossible. Just sayin'...

[surfergirl]

13 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

And, Surfergirl, I had a Strat in the shop with the Vintage Noiseless pickups and I could not believe how strong the magnets were. You gotta keep those pickups down a fair bit or the magnetic drag on that side of the string will make intonation impossible. Just sayin'...

Having breakfast with my tech, aka grandpa, he did the setup, and he did have to lower the pickups. Whatever he did with them, it's good now. I'm having him teach me a lot of the tech stuff so I can do my own work. 

[KuruPrionz]

Just now, surfergirl said:

Having breakfast with my tech, aka grandpa, he did the setup, and he did have to lower the pickups. Whatever he did with them, it's good now. I'm having him teach me a lot of the tech stuff so I can do my own work. 

That is fantastic!

I'm just about done with working on other people's guitars (I've worked on thousands over the decades) but I still have a few of my own that need worked on and I love that I can make guitars sound and play their best, it makes me a better player to have a better instrument. 

 

So learn all you can, while you can! And try things that are wrong and bad as well, just to see what happens. 

[Old Music Guy]

14 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

You gotta keep those pickups down a fair bit or the magnetic drag on that side of the string will make intonation impossible.

@KuruPrionzThanks for that bit of information. It is truly something I had never considered. I normally set all my pickups are .125" with little intonation troubles, but I may try a different strategy: Lowering the pups way down and do the intonation that way, and then raise the pups. I've not really experienced the intonation issue, but I think I will give it a try. Just to have another rabbit in the hat. TY