Pickups for the "jazz strat" - possible?

Van_Hayden

I run Bulldog Pickups...seams a bit like a shameless plug!

Good luck!

Megii

Van_Hayden said:

Try running your volume low, under 6. Drop the tone down and crank the amp. Set the amp to a balanced clean tone. For this to work there shouldn't be any treble bypass caps on the volume.

Basically you're using your volume as a tone by loading the pickup down to get rid of high end.

Lol - there is a treble bleed on the volume pot at the mo - doing everything wrong it would seem!    But can try all these things, and I am thinking about changing the guitar's circuitry anyway, cheers!

OilCityPickups

Megii said:

Cheers Weasel! could you expand on that a bit? i.e. what would be the thinking behind that idea. I can understand the alnico 2, but what benefit would the alnico 5 bring? Also any thoughts on number of winds, winding wire, that kind of thing?

A2 is too flabby the bass for my tastes on a Strat neck ... I'd either drop the bass side and bring the alnico 2s in close ... or do a custom stagger. Alnico 2 is a little less clogged in the upper mids to my ears.
Base plate's a very good plan too.

Megii

Van_Hayden said:

I run Bulldog Pickups...seams a bit like a shameless plug!

Good luck!

Shameless!   but I did ask didn't I?   Appreciate your restraint on that also, cheers!

Megii

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Megii said:

Cheers Weasel! could you expand on that a bit? i.e. what would be the thinking behind that idea. I can understand the alnico 2, but what benefit would the alnico 5 bring? Also any thoughts on number of winds, winding wire, that kind of thing?

A2 is too flabby the bass for my tastes on a Strat neck ... I'd either drop the bass side and bring the alnico 2s in close ... or do a custom stagger. Alnico 2 is a little less clogged in the upper mids to my ears.
Base plate's a very good plan too

I like what you say about A2 being less clogged in the upper mids. And thanks for the comment re the base plate - I notice you have these on your website (yes, I've been perusing a bit there!). Would you say the "flabby bass" is a kind of general characteristic with A2 for pickups, or more something that applies to strat pickups only?

EricTheWeary

Van_Hayden;79140" said:

I run Bulldog Pickups...seems a bit like a shameless pug!

I'll get me coat.. :o3

EricTheWeary

Megii;78977" said:

EricTheWeary said:

Jimmie Vaughan ( who isn't a jazz player but can certainly get jazzy) would tell you it is all in the strings. Strats were designed for jazz and country players in the era of flatwound strings so a set of them should get any roughly vintage sounding strat in a jazz/ rockabilly/ vintage blue ball park.





That is a thought! However, not trying to be awkward, but I don't really want to get into using flatwounds on this guitar. I'd rather keep the brightness and zing of roundwounds really - I currently have the guitar strung with 11-48, which I like a lot. Still, maybe it is possible to do something useful by changing to a different string brand or type, so I do appreciate you putting that thought in my head Eric, cheers!

a set of D'Addario 11-50 Chromes would cost you about £10 which is a lot cheaper than new pups ! Having googled this a bit more its a pretty marmite experience but stuff like makes the strat sound ' smooth and thick' seems in the ball park.

octatonic

Neck pickup, roll off the tone will get you 90% of the way there in terms of the mechanics of the guitar.

It is mostly how you play, not what instrument you play.

Branshen

I echo the advice given here. Definitely remove the treble bleed mod and then roll down the volume, vary tone to taste (I like 4).

Megii

Cheers for the input guys. With respect Eric, and you're not wrong, but I've used chromes before - I even have an archtop guitar on which I've used them quite a lot in the past. Afraid from experience it's just not something I want to do with my strat. I'm sure would warm things up, but also I think bring in other qualities I don't want in this case. Take your point re the tone roll off and playing style octatonic - all true things, but again experience (in particular having several other guitars that do jazz better) tells me this is not (at least for me) going to be the whole story for getting the best jazz tone from the strat. But I will have a go with removing the treble bleed, and experiment more with tone/volume control settings.

OilCityPickups

Or a different amp ... my own favorite 'jazz' amp

Branshen

Post up your results after trying it out! would be interested in knowing how you fare.

Megii

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Or a different amp ... my own favorite 'jazz' amp

Lol - a man after my own heart - I already have the exact same amp, and it's my favourite jazz amp too!

Megii

Branshen said:

Post up your results after trying it out! would be interested in knowing how you fare.

I promise I'll do that Branshen.

OilCityPickups

Megii said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Or a different amp ... my own favorite 'jazz' amp

Lol - a man after my own heart - I already have the exact same amp, and it's my favourite jazz amp too!

I can't really play Jazz ... but with my mates Polytone and my deep bodied Ibanez semi ... with one of my humbucker sized P90s in the neck (my DeArmond 'Sun-T-Ron' clone in the bridge) ... I can fake it like a bastard

Megii

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Megii said:

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Or a different amp ... my own favorite 'jazz' amp

Lol - a man after my own heart - I already have the exact same amp, and it's my favourite jazz amp too!

I can't really play Jazz ... but with my mates Polytone and my deep bodied Ibanez semi ... with one of my humbucker sized P90s in the neck (my DeArmond 'Sun-T-Ron' clone in the bridge) ... I can fake it like a bastard

Can anyone really play Jazz?    Well, Joe Pass could I guess, and I've at least had fun myself trying to for the last 30-something years. I can imagine that gear setup you describe would sound pretty epic. Just coming back to the pickups for the strat, and I appreciate your advice and restraint in not plugging your own fine products - but could I ask what you might think about something like this Klein "Dallas Blues" set spec-wise? http://www.kleinpickups.com/p-82-dallas-blues-stratocaster-pickups.aspx - alnico 2, and the neck wound to a meaty 7.25K, going up to 8.5K for the bridge. Listening to the sound clip for the neck pickup, although blues, that is getting into the kind of tone ballpark I'd like I'd say.

MattG

if all else fails if you're routed for it a new gaurd with 2/3 p90s, should give you intstant jazz and keep the guitar nice and versatile :P

Lewy

This guy seems to be making some jazzy sounding pickups for strats and teles............

Don Mare Pickups

 

Megii

MattG said:

if all else fails if you're routed for it a new gaurd with 2/3 p90s, should give you intstant jazz and keep the guitar nice and versatile :P

Thanks Matt, that's undeniably true, and that 2P90s plus a strat pickup in middle version of the strat would be a great guitar - maybe a thought for a future guitar build for me there. But for the strat under discussion, I do want to keep it as a classic-looking strat - so any changes could be reversed as it were. And in the end, if I can't get it to do jazz the way I'd like, it's still fine with me, and I will still have a nice classic strat.

Megii

Lewy said:

This guy seems to be making some jazzy sounding pickups for strats and teles............

Don Mare Pickups

 

Cheers for the link Lewy, I'll have a browse around on there and see what he's up to!