Which pickups did joe have in new day yesterday live? (Page 1 of 6)

Yeah I'm 99.9% sure they were Silver Lace Sensors... that's what comes standard on a Clapton strat and I assume Joe didn't do many modifications to it...

No, Clapton strats have the Gold Lace Sensors.  Its a 50's Strat sound.  Silver has more power however.  Red is the highest and blue is the blueiest of the Lace Sensors.  Personal opinion, the pickup sucks.  Instead of 6 poles magnets it has like 36 little magnets lined up in 2 rows.  Then have some kind of shielding around them inside of the pickup that makes them almost noiseless.  That doesn't mean it isn't noiseless.  I'm just saying why do you think clapton decided to change the pickups on his signature model to Vintage noiseless?  Because Lace isn't all its cracked up to be thats why.  Good luck with them and I really hope that I'm wrong but I can tell you its the Gold Lace Sensors 100% sure as maybe one of the biggest Clapton Freaks on this board.

But the reason that strat sounds so fat is the Clapton strat has a 25Db midrange boost that makes it really fat like a humbucker.  You could buy one of those circuits from fender for around $75 and they work with all types of pickups.

I own a 2002 strat EC model with the Vintage noiesless pickups.  The 25 Db midrange boost is a monster you can turn it to 0 and its the normal sound of your pickups.  After that you can add a little boost if you want or you can put a lot of boost in, or go all out.  Clapton always runs the circuit around 2 or 3 because it give the strat a tone thats not ususal to a strat.  Biggest problem I see with the circuit is if your running a amp with a lot of distortion or a pedal with tons of distortion your going to find that the sound muds up quick.  It works best if you have an tube amp and thats your only distortion because its just a clear signal.  Also this boost will make your normal settings extreamly loud.  So if your playing in a basement or a bed room and your amp is maybe used to being set on 2 or 3  your amp will be overdriven and sound like it would be on settings 5.  The other thing is Clapton has a TBX switch which will let him boost the treble by cutting the bass or let him boost the bass and cut the treble.  How it works is at position 5 on the middle tone control it has an indention that would be your normal settings if you were to have a normal tone control turned up all the way.  Like I said before the circuit could get muddy if your using tons of distortion to begin with so use the TBX switch that comes with the kit to help get the treble to cut thourgh and make your sound less muddy.  Lots of people hate the TBX switch and Clapton himself doesn't use it in his guitar any more.  Best bet is to get a mild distortion sound or a clean sound and let the circuit overdrive the clean sound because that will give you that big fat sound.  I think it works great with a Fender amps clean channel, but I did have a marshall JCM 800 and it was turned up on the Pre amp all the way, so really it must depend on the amp and how it takes all the boost.  All it does is boost the midrange which increases the bass a little and does nothing for the treble.  Its Joes secret on that DVD your talking about and I'm sure you'll like it too.  Much cheaper then buying 3 now pickups.

Hey man what kind of amp are you using?  That may be what is lacking the "fatness" you describe.  All of my personal experiences with the Clapton models (especially with the Gold LS PU's) have concluded that they are VERY fat sounding for a Strat.  From what I gather, Clapton wanted something that would sound like a Strat but fatter and sustain more like an ES335 or Les Paul.  BTW you are using some great pedals for the gain layering.  IDK what kind of issues you are having because with a fairly clean Dr. Z Maz 18 I can get some super thick sustaining overdrive with just the Fulldrive II.  I was able to get some convincing Eric Johnson like violin sounds on the bridge pickup of my very bright '57 reissue Strat.  If anyone wants to sell me a Clapton with Golds in it I'd be interested.

http://www.fender.com/products//search. … 0057577000 thats the circuit.  Try your stock pickups first if you can live with the noise it will work fine.  If you cant buy something better then Lace.  Also make sure you shield your guitars cavitiy.

Thats what forum friends are for man!  Glad I could help.

I agree 100% with what your saying but Claptons tone didn't soften up because of the pickups.  During Journyman He was playing a SLO Soldano 100 watt head (he made the amp famous!) and a host of different effect such as Chourse, Delay, and a ton of other things he never even used.  Clapton got sick of having all that equipment and decided to go to a less is more kind of rig.  With From The Cradle, he was using just about all his favorite guitar, and all his Amp that he had collected  up to that time.  His Favorite was a 1950's Fender Tweed Twin that was 50 watts.  After that album he decided to go with the Twin for the next 5 years. 
In 1999 Fender Custom shop built Clapton a Twin amp to replace his older amps.  They used pine floors from an old church to build the cab.  He played those amps for around 3 years. 
2001 Clapton used Vibro Kings thanks to the suggestion to Pete Townshed.
2003 Carr made him an amp using the evil hemp cons those hippies use thats another term for Crap as Joe once said on this board.  He used that amp on his 2004 tour and the Crossroads Concerts.
2005 EC went back to Fender Twins because they came out with a custom shop Tweed Twin.  This is currently what he uses and he was seen playing these amps in the Cream Reunion Shows.

So to say that the pickups soften his sound is not true.  He's playing low wattage amps that are not designed to be "Heavy"  But the statement about SRV playing a EC Strat and visversa is so true.  "It's in the way that you use it" to quote a Chessy 80's song by a certain well know guitar player.