S/C pickups, help me decide......

daveyh

So, have the 'ideal strat' build quietly ticking along at the moment but I've reached a dead end trying to decide which pups to put in. My fave choices so far, although Ive not looked past Seymour Duncan, are the SSL-3s or SSL1/5 hybrid set. I want a versatile guitar, its looking at being used for everything from heavy rock to funk, even a bit of new country/Americana, for example bands like Aerosmith, Skynyrd, Stones, Faces, Chic, RHCP, Raconteurs. Any suggestions?

crunchman

Personally I'd got for something a bit more vintage style.  You can always add gain from pedals (like Gilmour).

My main Strat has Lindy Fralin Vintage Hots in it.  If you use DC resistance as a guide, then the neck and middle are around 6kOhms, and the bridge around 6.8kOhms compared with something like 5.7kOhms for vintage spec pickups.  They have a bit more beef to them but they are still vintage in character.  They aren't so hot that you lose the classic Strat sparkle.

I bought the Fralins years ago.  There are a lot more home grown options now that would be a lot cheaper than Fralin.  Something like Oil City Triple Blues would be similar.

fretmeister

Lollar Blackface if you want true single coils and not hum cancelling ones.

Superb pickups.

Funkfingers

Tell us about the woods in your Strat build. It may influence pickup recommendations.

daveyh

Defo not hum cancelling, and its a swamp ash body, using Wudtone to finish it. The neck is all maple

Single coils have never really been my thing, although I have owned strats and frequently had HSS superstrats. Probably the only ones I've had I've come close to liking were the Fender CS69s in a 60s classic player strat I had a while back. Its only recently I've really come to appreciate the sound. 

Megii

Just FWIW - for one of my strat builds, I got an alnico 2 set made that are hot wound (neck and middle) around 7.3K, bridge 8.5K, but tapped at a more vintage wind i.e. 5.7K ish neck/middle, 6.4K bridge. I really like them anyhow - to be honest, even for clean sounds I mostly use the hot output, as it just sounds a bit bigger and fatter and the extra output is useful - the difference between the hot and vintage settings is subtler than one might imagine, but it's nice to be able to switch to a lighter, crisper, vintage-type strat tone when desired.

Also I do think the alnico 2 magnet poles help with getting a warm, sweet sounding version of strat tone - it's still very stratty, but perhaps not quite as edgy and bright as some pickups. A while ago I bought a couple of the steel base plates from Oil City, and I plan to try these on the bridge and neck pickups - but it's a nice-sounding guitar as it is.

mudslide73

My two current sets are SD Antiquity IIs with an SSL-5 bridge and Oil City Stonetones. I also alternate the Stonetone bridge with an Oil City prototype I got from here (bigger poles and hot). I can't remember if it ever came out officially @TheGuitarWeasel . Great pickup though. 

menamestom

I generally like slightly higher output pickups, I find less than 6k can be a little thin and bright (I struggled with CS69's) for that reason.   Of course you can turn your tone control down a little to tame the brightness, but it's not the same as a higher output pickup.

Axesrus do an interesting range, but also see the thread about the cheap solderless Fender pickups.

impmann

My fave Strat pickups of all time are the Mojo/Wudtone ones with Alnico 5 slugs under the bass strings and Alnico 2 under the treble ones. In conjunction with a baseplate on the bridge unit, these are just the best sounding I've ever heard.

Gassage

Grey back's from 63 to 69 - unbeatable. Or, the Fralin equiv of them.

CloudNine

Always enjoyed Fralins in the past, had in a few strat (and Tele) builds and been great. Only thing better for me have been Rocketfire Total 60's. 

Chalky

Bare Knuckle Apaches are good because their strong tone can be tamed nicely with the Volume and Tone controls.  I'm also a sucker for Lace Sensors, all Golds, or especially Blue in the neck and Burgundy in the middle.

Lebarque

CloudNine said:

Always enjoyed Fralins in the past, had in a few strat (and Tele) builds and been great. Only thing better for me have been Rocketfire Total 60's. 

Yep, agree with @CloudNine ;. Rocketfire Total 60's are the best I've found after a long search too. They remain in my strat. Hard to get hold of now though I believe.

If I were you, I'd skip the big companies like Fralin / SD and opt for something handwound from the likes of Mojo or Oil City from this parish. Ring them up, tell them what you want/like, guitar wood etc, take their recommendation and live happily ever after. Simples. 

mike_l

I have DiMarzio HS-2 and HS-3 in different superstrats. Both are really "stratty" in tone and sound fantastic either clean (think Marshall clean, not Fender clean) or shit-your-pants dirty.
Both are noise cancelling but retain the single coil sound.

bingefeller

What about the Seymour Duncan Fury pickups?

Marshall

impmann said:

My fave Strat pickups of all time are the Mojo/Wudtone ones with Alnico 5 slugs under the bass strings and Alnico 2 under the treble ones. In conjunction with a baseplate on the bridge unit, these are just the best sounding I've ever heard.

I have these in my number 1 also- pure magic and rather unique, Presumably similar to the fabled Ron Ellis 50/60s which I’ve never had a chance to play but which do have various demos on YT...
...one thing though impmann, presumably you meant to say Alnico 3 not 2 under the unwound strings...

Marshall

Lebarque said:

CloudNine said:

Always enjoyed Fralins in the past, had in a few strat (and Tele) builds and been great. Only thing better for me have been Rocketfire Total 60's. 

Yep, agree with @CloudNine ;. Rocketfire Total 60's are the best I've found after a long search too. They remain in my strat. Hard to get hold of now though I believe.

If I were you, I'd skip the big companies like Fralin / SD and opt for something handwound from the likes of Mojo or Oil City from this parish. Ring them up, tell them what you want/like, guitar wood etc, take their recommendation and live happily ever after. Simples. 

Like what I’ve managed to hear of the Rocketfires

Sage advice imo re: skipping the big companies and opting for handwound closer to home

west

Suhr v60lp's / Lollar Blackface ......

west