JHS-Vintage Strat Wilkinson pup performance ?

erky32

I decided I needed another strat to play a few Shadows tunes in the band. My main strat (1991 USA Std.) is fully modded as a rock machine with a blocked bridge, hot pups, EC-boost, which renders it inappropriate for Shadows!! So I blew my pocket money on a brand new "Vintage" icon relic. I tell you what, it's brilliant value for money, I've played 3 or 4 gigs already with it and have formed a bond!! .......BUT I do find it does lose a bit of umph at the dusty end. I've set it all up for max playablity with some Elix 10-52, but without using processing pedals, apart from delay , of course!!,  it lacks energy in the 12-15th and beyond fret zone on the thin strings. I'm sure there will be loads of experts out there who can advise me on this, so please do.
I understand Wilkinson pups are good, but have they a limitation? I do have the original USA Std Strat pups taken out when I modded my main one, also some CTS pots. Do you think that this would make a major leap in its performance? I'm too lazy to dive in there to change all of there items if it will be of marginal value.

DannyP

Maybe try a compressor first, if you haven't already?

Sassafras

Try lowering the pickups on the treble side.

erky32

DannyP said:

Maybe try a compressor first, if you haven't already?

thanks @DannyP , I dont really want to enhance it with pedals, I'm sure compression would beef it up a bit, but I prefer to get to the bottom of it to have the guitar to perform unaided, ....there's something lacking in it somewhere. If all else fails though, I'll probably adopt your idea!

erky32

Sassafras said:

Try lowering the pickups on the treble side.

Do you mean raising them to get closer to strings? ....yes, that actually seems to give a bit more presence ....duh! ...I thought I'd already tried that ?!!, ...but it does seem louder, ...true test will be with the rest of the band playing. Thanks!

Richardj

I though someone had already suggested backing the pickups away to find the sweet spot...........

erky32

Richardj said:

I though someone had already suggested backing the pickups away to find the sweet spot...........