Recommendations for classic Strat PUs?

Rowby1

paulmapp8306 said:

Rowby1;676388" said:

Thanks for those, I'll have a look at them.I think I'm likely to head for something at the lower end output wise rather than the "vintage hot" type of options, as per my OP of 50s rather than 60s.Anyone any more suggestions?

Don't 50s tend to be slightly hotter than 60s? Certainly the case with tele pus

Not the impression I've had from the PU winders websites I've visited so far......but you may be right. Anyone else, are 50s Strat PUs hotter than 60s ones?

Sarge

Tonerider surfari/squier cv50s are a superb strat pickup, worth a look.

Megii

This chap has made me a couple of good strat sets in the past:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wound-4-sound-custom-hand-wound-pickups-Chris-Hernandez-/218915574880565

He can pretty much do whatever specs you like - he did me a nice Eric Johnson spec set for example, which IIRC is alnico 3 magnets for the neck and middle, and alnico 5 for the bridge. I think the neck was around 5.8K, then 6K ish for the middle, and the bridge a bit beefier at 6.8K. I later had another set made, which was all alnico 2 magnets, and that one is really sweet-sounding. If you email him for a quote, you will find his prices are very friendly.

Dan

chrisj1602 said:

I really liked the Fender 57/62 pickups.

+1

Had quite a few strat pups in various strats including 'boutique' ones and still think these are the best.

crunchman

Dan said:

chrisj1602 said:

I really liked the Fender 57/62 pickups.

+1

Had quite a few strat pups in various strats including 'boutique' ones and still think these are the best.

These were stock in my Strat.  They are good.  I prefer the neck and middle from the Fralins I have now.  I did like the bridge one in that set though.  It seemed a bit more meaty than the Fralin one.  The Fralins seem a bit more detailed, and are brilliant overall, but the bridge pickup did sound thinner than the stock bridge pickup.  I put a baseplate on the Fralin bridge pickup which has beefed it up and seems to be the best of both worlds.

Rowby1

Thanks for the info/suggestions etc. Looks like I'm going the Oil City route. I will report back when it's all sorted.

OilCityPickups

Just a 'for your interest' thing: Fender output went up and down a lot over the long production run of Strat pickups. This was down to many factors, changes in winding techniques, wire batches wire types (Formvar in the fifties v plain enamel in the sixties), and perhaps most important, magnet strength.The actual perceivable volume hasn't altered much at all actually ... though the tone has. Late sixties/seventies pickups have the lowest DC resistance readings, but more powerful magnets. Fender also changed from totally hand wound ... to machine wound under CBS, which also changed the character of the pickups ... and no, not always for the worse.

During the hand wound days I believe it was common for some winders to put more turns on ... for luck so to speak, so odd sets are significantly more pokey!

I speak from the experience of rewinding many old Fender pickups and taking lots of notes ...