Problems from upgrades (string gauge, pickups)

Kebabkid

I took the step of upping my string gauge on my Strat from 9.5s to a standard 10 gauge set of Thomastiks as the 12" radius was proving a little too slinky for my strings and I wanted a little more fight. Whilst it was in at the repairers, some Suhr MLs I had lying around got installed in the neck and middle positions (replaced my Fralin Blues but left the S.D. Lil'59 in the bridge) and I replaced my pearloid scratchplate with a parchment one and matching knobs. Great! An almost NGD!

I've not had 10s before so I didn't know what to expect. The 10s do feel good/right on the Strat but the guitar has lost it's zing and sounds dull. Is that common? The strings almost sound like bass strings! My Keeley Compressor also needed dialling back as that effect really come to the fore, and not in a great way. I'm not even sure of the pickups as the Fralins had more quack and character and whilst I love Suhr MLs, I'd only ever heard and tried them on £2k Suhrs.

All the work that's been carried out is top notch and I can get back to the repairer for his opinion but I thought I'd see what people's experiences are of upping your string gauge. Does it effect your fx/amp settings? At this moment, I don't know if it's the string gauge or faulty strings that are dulling the guitar (even acoustically it's lacking from what it was before) or the pickups. I think I can see the Fralins going back on anyway. I keep thinking if it ain't broke and feel some regret at tampering with my Strat.

boogieman

Before you panic too much, try tweaking the pickup heights a tad. Might make all the difference.

ICBM

What brand were the 9.5s?

I've always found Thomastiks very dull. The difference between 9.5s and 10s shouldn't be huge otherwise.

As boogieman said, maybe try lowering the neck and middle pickups - if they're too high, the magnetic pull can dull the string vibration. I find Fralins very bright in general, so probably the Suhrs will sound duller too - I'm not really familiar with them though.

Kebabkid

Cheers guys. The 9.5s were D'addarios and to me, just seemed like regular strings and not overtly bright. The Thomastiks have that "old strings on a jazz guitar" sound and I'll start the process of elimination by changing them today to a different brand.
The Fralins had a little more output and my ones had baseplates but they weren't necessarily hot and they still had plenty of Strat quack in them on cleans and worked well with OD too, but as Suhr ML users will tell you, that's exactly what you should expect from them too.
Once I've changed the strings, I'll experiment with pickup height too and see what gives- cheers for your suggestions .

ICBM

Kebabkid said:

The Thomastiks have that "old strings on a jazz guitar" sound

That's exactly how I would describe the sound of them. They're great jazz strings, awful for anything else! (In my opinion.)

Kebabkid

Ok. A check of the Thomastiks showed they were tarnished so there was a string issue. I also managed to get to Guitar Guitar before close of business today and did a side by side test with a Suhr Pro loaded with ML Standards. Whilst the Suhr body benefited from a basswood body with a maple cap, maple neck - my MIM Strat has an Alder body  and rosewood neck (yeah, I known, how can you compare the two), the inherent characted of the MLs came through and sounds were very similar on both guitars. They're very woody, mid-pushed and not my kind of Strat sound, but great for SRV any overdriven sounds!

A quick change of strings back to my 9.5s to 44 gauge brought back some zing but these pickups really push the mids, a bit like Lollar Blondes, and that confirmed it for me that my Fralins are better suited to the more quacky, bouncy, open Strat sounds I prefer whilst still being able to deliver nice fuller and smoother than normal Strat sounds with OD- Fralin Blues have 5% more windings but are still only. 6.2k in value (slightly lower than the MLs). I did experiment and lower the pickups which helped and boy, do those ML p/ups have a lot of magnetic pull on them.

So, it's back to the original string gauge and pickups and I've not taken to the parchment, single ply look of the scratchate as it's not aged or mint green enough.
A semi - expensive customisation that needs reversing and a lesson learnt. Once all this is rectified, I'm going on a HAS until my birthday in November. I need nowt and I'm not changing a thing amongst my gear.

EDIT:Within the next few days, watch out for a new parchment scratch plate loaded with Suhr ML Standards on the Classifieds - ?£80?? It'll be just pickups and scratchplate NOT vol, tone of selector knobs/switches.