Pickups for a Strat

[jtvernon]

Hello All-

 

I just bought a new MIM Strat - and I am in the market to make some modifications... First off, I would like to lose the pickups that it came with. There is one humbucker at the bridge, and two single coils in the front. I would like a nice distirtion sound (w/ a nice fat, heavy crunch) for the humbucker, and mellower, clean tones for the other pickups. In fact, I may lose the middle pickup all together.

Secondly, I am not in love with the factory tremolo system...any suggestions there as well?

 

Thanks,

 

Jason

[Bunny,]

Perhaps you bought the wrong guitar!

[dotneckman]

A guy out of Australia named Kinman has some amazing noiseless Strat replacement pickups. I think his website is www.kinman.com check him out. I should mention that a set of his pickups might cost more than the guitar your talking about...Mike

[Gator Wing]

Originally posted by dotneckman:

A guy out of Australia named Kinman has some amazing noiseless Strat replacement pickups. I think his website is www.kinman.com check him out. I should mention that a set of his pickups might cost more than the guitar your talking about...Mike

Kinman's are awesome!

[Wow]

I have tried a ton of them, if you want a HEAVY sound then go for the semour double stack. Its a perfect replacement for a strat.

[baronedo]

I converted the pups on my MIM Stat (which previously sounded great acoustically and played well) but sounded lousy electronically. I went with the Kinman Fat/Modern Hank Marvin set. They are probably the hottest set Kinman offer and they sound great. The guitar really rocks now. If you have time, search by my previous posts on Strat pup changes as I provided much more info on the Kinmans plus the recommended pup rewiring that Kinman gives you. It greatly increases the versatility of the Strat with very little to modifiy. If allows you to use it as a standard Strat or get at Tele sound.

 

Note that the Kinmans are noiseless but are true single coils, unlike the other brand of "noiseless" Strat pups available which are in reality just stacked humbuckers that lose Strat tone.

[CAFeathers]

http://www.billlawrence.com

 

Excellent prices and pups.

Chet

[Wickerman]

I'd sugguest Kinman single coils with a Rio Grande humbucker. The BBQ Bucker is the best Gibson type humbucker I've ever heard. It's got that really thick, milky Les Paul tone with the clarity of a single coil. Bloody amazing. For something fuzzier with more bite, the Fat Bastard ROCKS in a strat. My friend put one in his MIM Fat Strat and it's the sweetest metal tone I've heard! He just got it this week and it's IN-BLOODY-CREDIBLE!

[Blue Strat]

Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge, and I'm not sure about the neck or middle. Blocking the tremolo is good if you want a fixed bridge.

 

I've got a JB jr. it the bridge of my Strat

[Chipotle]

Originally posted by Lancer:

Note that the Kinmans are noiseless but are true single coils, unlike the other brand of "noiseless" Strat pups available which are in reality just stacked humbuckers that lose Strat tone.

Actually the Kinmans are not true single coils. If you look at his patent, it states

 

"A transducer for a stringed instrument comprises a first uppermost coil and a second lowermost coil with the axes of the coils coincident. Permanent magnet pole pieces are arranged in the first coil and metallic non-magnetized pole pieces are arranged in the second coil. Oppositely directed U-shaped shields each having a web and outwardly directed opposed flanges are arranged back to back and receive the coils to shield the coils from each other both magnetically and inductively. "

 

So it sounds like a stacked twin coil pickup but with one "dummy" coil to make a humbucker. A clever variation on the stacked humbucker theme.