Single Coil Pickups for a Strat

Post by Bg » Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:02 am

Jenesis wrote:In fairness it is mostly glue, you can understand my confusion.

you may be confusing it with 100,000 year old kauri?

Hot_Grits · Post by **Hot_Grits** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:03 am

bluesgeek wrote:
Hot_Grits wrote:
bluesgeek wrote:stevie didn't use normal strat single coil pickups.... there was a dummy coil hidden in there as well, so rumour has it...
I've heard that rumour, from memory it was one of many things he tried. In the end he just heavily shielded his guitars.

Tests on Number One by the Fender Custom Shop guys did reveal that the pickups weren't high output, as commonly thought (and aped by the texas Specials). Stevie did use more gain than many think further down the chain, but the majority of that magic sound was in his touch. Though perhaps 'throttle' is a more apt term.
yeah but the rumour was that the secrets behind number one were removed before fender got a look, and that was from SRV's guitar tech and it isn't on snopes either some stuff was definitely removed, a dummy coil was part of his sound. Apparently.

But of course they're going to try and keep the mystique alive...

I try hard to love stevie but the best I can come up with is like, some of his wild live stuff is absolutely beyond this world but I think the hype is a dying young thing... sadly didn't get to go really whack before doing the clapton crossroads thing.

A much bigger loss to the world was Rory Gallagher, a personal private person till he took to the stage in his denim jacket and cheesecloth shirts - absolutely no 'taste' but a groundbreaker in many more ways..

haha, no 'taste', I geddit...

Of course, it's a measure of SRV's incredible soulfulness that no-one ever talks about his clothes. And that man was one of the worst dressers in the history of popular entertainment.

I find all the SRV gear voodoo hard to believe. It's like all the fuss surrounding EVH's plexi. I reckon if you opened that up about all you'd find would be a cap job.

I would be interested in any Rene Martinez interviews you may have come across on the subject, though...

Rory Gallagher was a great guitarist. Irish Tour is one of my favorite records. I'd imagine the two of them onstage together would have made for one hell of a jam. But Rory loved his booze, and Stevie got so successful that he had to leave gigs via helicopter...

Post by Bg » Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:26 am

I had a couple of links from the horses mouth saved somewhere, I'll see if I can dig them out... but having listened to the amount of noise on his live recordings - that was a duff dummy coil! or he was boosting it in the guitar as well. But I don't care much for his tone, so I would say that!

Rory liked his booze, as do we all... well most of us

raz · Post by **raz** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:33 am

I saw Gallagher play in Christchurch round 1980 - great gig by a very tasty guitarist.

crushing day · Post by **crushing day** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 1:02 pm

I read that recent interview with Eddie about his original gear. He said that 'Jose' never really did any mods to his Plexi, but the rumour sure got him a whole lot of work

Post by Bg » Sat Dec 01, 2007 2:36 pm

raz wrote:I saw Gallagher play in Christchurch round 1980 - great gig by a very tasty guitarist.

yeah a great guy live

Cabb · Post by **Cabb** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 2:58 pm

Just for the record I was only using Stevie as an example simply because he was the most salient example at the time.

I don't want to sound exactly like Stevie, or anyone else...
Wouldn't mind playing as good as him, but I'm not out to collect his gear.

Anyways, gonna roll with the p90s and if they aren't for me I can pass them on via trademe or whatever.

STRAYFALCON · Post by **STRAYFALCON** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 4:05 pm

BG wrote.....

A much bigger loss to the world was Rory Gallagher, a personal private person till he took to the stage in his denim jacket and cheesecloth shirts - absolutely no 'taste' but a groundbreaker in many more ways..

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Amen to that brother BG

sydknee · Post by **sydknee** » Sun Dec 02, 2007 6:12 pm

+ 1 Rory Gallagher A legend....I had the pleasure of seeing several times and now have the "Live at Montreux/The Definitive Collection" as a reminder as to how good he was

calling card · Post by **calling card** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 11:15 am

Aaargh! back at work again on Monday...help! (the blues comes calling with it's calling card)
Did someone say Rory?...Yeah stock '61 pickups & a treble boost pedal just to make her squeal a little more thru an AC30.
Ah! that feels better...I hate my job, even more I hate radio stations, TV etc... for not giving Rory Gallagher more/any air time.
To think my kids gave me the Montruex Dvd for fathers day...just when I was gonna straighten up & get off the booze(3 year post divorce habit)...He just bursts out of the TV at me making the sweetest Strat noises I ever heard.
Rock on Rory...

mahtone · Post by **mahtone** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 12:12 pm

Tagging onto the thread a bit late, but still for what it's worth I have CS Texas Specials in my strat and am pretty happy with them. To get much better sound I would've had to spend a lot more. Picked them up off TM for around $200 (probably from one of you jokers). When I got it it was set up HSS with stock singles and a DiMarzio humbucker in the bridge. Didn't like it all that much - found I never used the humbucker even after I coil tapped it - so I converted to SSS, and am never going back.
A decent whack of shielding in the pup cavity helps a lot with the noise, I found, and I play with relatively little gain most of the time, so it's a bit less of an issue for me anyway. It's a rosewood fretboard, so not quite as glassy as it might be too.

I can definitely understand people finding the sound too compressed, but I like it. That said, I've been getting complements on my tone lately from a number of people, including sound guys, so I'm pretty happy.

Not sure if this link has been thrown up yet, but I'll throw it in the ring anyway: http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Strat_Pi ... ips_W1.cfm

Cdog · Post by **Cdog** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:44 am

mahtone wrote:Tagging onto the thread a bit late, but still for what it's worth I have CS Texas Specials in my strat and am pretty happy with them. To get much better sound I would've had to spend a lot more. Picked them up off TM for around $200 (probably from one of you jokers). When I got it it was set up HSS with stock singles and a DiMarzio humbucker in the bridge. Didn't like it all that much - found I never used the humbucker even after I coil tapped it - so I converted to SSS, and am never going back.
A decent whack of shielding in the pup cavity helps a lot with the noise, I found, and I play with relatively little gain most of the time, so it's a bit less of an issue for me anyway. It's a rosewood fretboard, so not quite as glassy as it might be too.

I can definitely understand people finding the sound too compressed, but I like it. That said, I've been getting complements on my tone lately from a number of people, including sound guys, so I'm pretty happy.

Not sure if this link has been thrown up yet, but I'll throw it in the ring anyway: http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Strat_Pi ... ips_W1.cfm

Hey those texas specials sound fantastic to me too... I would say fat rather than compressed... Their only drawback by me was the susceptibility to noise when the gain is up... I would have liked them otherwise, but very stoked with the Dimarzios since the swap.
BTW Great link thanks, very useful

mahtone · Post by **mahtone** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:18 am

Very welcome.

I absorbed a lot of work's bandwidth on that site trying to figure out which way to go...may yet swap them out for different coils at some point, but will probably trade up to a different kind of hot.

crunchy as kellogs · Post by **crunchy as kellogs** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:49 am

amen to rory gallagher saw him a few times inthe uk and once in dublin.

for single coils see if you can bare knuckle (i have played them ina strat and they sound awesome, nice output but still twangy and not too much noise) also worth seeing if you can find are dimarzio noiseless fat, seimilar to the ones in the jeff beck strats

Voxshall · Post by **Voxshall** » Mon May 05, 2008 4:01 pm

My vote goes to low output vintage style pickups. It has the sparkle, dynamics and and it's easier to add heat than take it away. I liked the stock pickups in the Masterbuilt 54 strats and the Rory Strat. My favourite is J.M. Rolphs they sound as close to the originals as I've ever heard. As soon as I learn how to post clips I will- if you want to hear them in action.

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Single Coil Pickups for a Strat

Rory G

Re: Single Coil Pickups for a Strat