Recommended Single Coils (Page 1 of 2)

The Custom Shop '69's are some of my favorite Strat pickups.  Does the SRV/Hendrix/Trower '60s Strat tone well.  I hear that the Fralins are really nice too.

Yeah, all of those already mentioned are very nice.

    Changing Pots is also a good suggestion. As well as adjusting your PU heights.

    I prefer to have my Strat's Bridge PU hooked up to a Tone Control, and leave the Middle PU with a Tone Control. Even when on "10", the Tone Control seems to "load" the Bridge PU. And this seems to make it fuller, and fatter sounding. While sweetening the Highs it also seems to beef up the Mids in a nice way. And the Middle PU without a Tone Control, will have a little more "Cut" to it. Very versatile, for me.

    Lowering your PUs usually goes a long ways towards a more Open sound. Of course, there will be a Vloume and Output drop. So, you will need to crank the Amp a little more. But, this is the single biggest change you can make, in my opinion. It is a huge factor in Tone, Texture/Timbre and Feel.

    And then there's Neck Angle and Action. I think many don't like their Strat Bridge PU, and end up swapping out the Bridge PU for a hotter PU. And I think this is because they have to raise the Bridge PU too close to the Strings, because of the Neck Angle that is part of the construction of a Strat. If you raise your Action a little, the Strings will raise a little more, as they approach the Bridge Saddles. So, the Strings are a little higher over the area of the Bridge PU. NOW, you can raise the Bridge PU a littles and get a beefier Bridge PU Tone, and still have it far enough from the Strings, to give you a more Open sound. So, Open AND Beefy.

    Just some food for thought.

    As far as Pickups? Rio Grande makes some sweet stuff. Lollars, Wilde, BareKnuckles (I dif the Irish Tours!), Fender 57/62s (Especially if you can get some from the early to mid 80s. They were "improved" in the late 80s, and lost a lot IMO.), Fralins, DiMarzios, and Seymour Duncans are all great.

    All of thes PUs are pretty good. The differences are usually not huge when you are talking top quality stuff. So, I recommend playing as many different Strat type guitars as possible. Ask what PUs are in each. Make some mental notes, etc.

    Also, it does make a difference whether your guitar has a Maple or a Rosewood Fretboard. So, compare Apples to Apples, you know? To me, Maple Boards make the Notes "Pop" a little more. I guess it's a "quicker Attack"? While Rosewood Boards seem Fatter, Warmer and Bloom more.

    Hope this helps.

After you try new pots and some basic setup changes and are still not satisfied, there's a dude from Australia by the name of Slider who hand-winds the best single coil pickups I have found to date. You can find his stuff on ebay. He uses the seller name "svcpickups". If your looking for SRV type tone, he has a set of 59/SRV's that are dead nuts on target! He has other styles too but he will hand wind to your spec if that's what you want.

Tell him Spider sent you.

Best of luck!
me

Have a play with pick up height, then change the pots. And I agree about the bridge being wired to the tone... My bridge and middle pickup are both wired to the same tone pot which suits me a little better then having just one wired up...

I actually like 57/62 pick ups I recently got a Vintage 62 with them in, quite nice sounding especially the neck and neck / middle (on the 3 way switch balanced inbetween) gets a very hendrix Wind Cries Mary tone so much so that I couldnt stop messing round with it the other night....
and the Custom shop 69's are very nice too - look on ebay people are always pulling them out of the Mexican '62 Classic Player (which is custom shop designed) and flogging them on ebay for relatively cheap...

Maybe a different lead will help? I recently had a chance at messing around with alot of different types of leads Fender Coils, Planet Waves, Elixir etc etc (a pal had collected quite a few over the years) well the difference some of these cables made was shocking.... the Fender Coils just seemed to hump the mids or lose highs and lows..... the elixir seemed to add highs and lows. Still sticking with what I have but it was interesting to hear the difference..

As I said he makes other sets too not just the 59/SRV set. Rod also does a 57 Classic set, a 56 & a 54 set thats wound with NOS wire, a 69 set and tele pickups too. Besides those he'll wind sets to your specifications. Slider is definitely worth checking out and talking to. Each pickup is individually hand wound. No mass-produced junk. His work is guaranteed. Don't like it, return it and he'll refund your money. Slider got kudos for his work from ToneQuest Report in I think it was their April issue. That publication doesn't hand out accolades to any and everybody.

I hate texas specials with a passion. Don't get those.

Get some real stuff, I would recommend fralins

Correction:
Sliders review in TQR was in the Jan 09 issue. You can download a free e-copy at tonequest.com

I'm sure I'll get crap for this, but I put David Gilmour EMG active P/Us with the boost and scoop knobs into my American Standard Strat and lo and behold it is reborn! I have a full palate of tone and can hear the guitars woody tone throughout. Crank up the mid knob and it thickens up to a PAF like crunch. Crank up the end knob and the bass and treble tighten up to a piano like clarity. Best is when I go for the in between setings. I know the purist are pissed off but, hearing is believing. Big negative is the battery is under the pick guard and it is kinda expensive ($300 at zzsounds.com). Positive is the tone and flexibility as well as a 5 layer pickguard that looks kickass!

2001 American Standard w/ EMG DG, graphite saddles, black and maple.
1996 Les Paul Standard w/ Duncan distortion and jazz P/Us, push/pull coil taps, TUSQ nut, D Betts set up, Tobaccoburst Marshall TSL100 (repaired!), Fender blues deluxe, Vox ac30
Ibanez Tube Screamer TS9, EH Metal Muff, MXR EVH phase90, Visual Sound H2O, Line 6 DL4, Dunlop Q535 wah, Hardwire digital reverb (for the marshall).
..and alot of practice and BS to make it work.