50's Strat

Sliders Classic Pickups!!!!! I won't use anything else!!!!!!

Rod usually has a set for sale on Ebay and has 100% positive feedback. All of his pups are the cats arse! Not only do they sound fantastic, they look like the real deal too! I cannot say enough good about this man and his attention to detail and customer satisfaction! If you've ever read ToneQuest Reports, (read I believe it's Jan 09 issue) they gave high praise to Slider for his creations. They don't hand out accolades easily to anyone like some rags do. TQR you earn it! For a Strat you'll never, ever find better!!

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d … llFeedback

Email me and I will pass along his personal email address if your interested.

If its a 50's classic you are very limited to strat sized pickups as well.  You find the body is routed for SSS which is good if thats what you want (More wood makes More tone theory) But if you want Humbuckers your stuck with mini sized buckers from Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio, and the guys I've advertised all day about GFS.  Seymour Duncan Hot Rails sound good, but the GFS Vintage Little Killers is the same pickup for $25 and comes in 3 flavors Hot, modern, and vintage output.  If you decided to go the Noiseless route avoid Fender products IMHO they to me don't sound like a strat, they are beefier sounding and I think you can do better either with Lace, EMG, or DiMarzio 58's (which Dimarzio would be my choice for noiseless) Personally I think when you add a coil to single coils no matter how much better the hum gets it changes something to me that I can not put my finger on except to say there is magic in the 60 cycle hum.  If you have your guitar sheilded well (which I know your guitar stock isn't because I got one) you should be able to stand under a neon sign and only hear a slight hum to it.  By itself not plugged to anything else that could contaminate the power running to your amp you should be as quite as a EMG.  I know people who would argue with me till they are red in the face that 60 cycle hum is aweful and needs to be eliminated out of band setting with noiseless pickups but believe me SHEILDING works and you don't have to loose your tone over it.

The pots in your Strat are CTS 250k and belive it or not are about as good of pots as anything Fender is putting out.  RS Guitar works makes great stuff but honestly you already have the exact thing they would sell you in your guitar already except for the Volume pot that is $14, and a $20 Capulator that is worth it.  Everything else in that kit is in your guitar prewired.  Here is what I suggest to you if you wanna do something cheap, find what is called a Volume kit.  Its a resistor and a capulator wound together that solders between lug 1, and lug 2 on your volume pot.  This should give you a lot of controll over your volume pot for under $2.  I suggest that to anybody with modern wiring if you need it or not, its only going to help. 

If your pickups sound thin to you your not alone they are!  These are Tex Mex pickups, but when I asked in an Email what the pickups are the response back was they are 50's Style pickups made in mexico using the same formula for their american vintage reissues 57/62 pickups.  They are slightly hotter then those pickups.  So if you want thicker pickups you can now use this for a starting point.  You might want to avoid anything saying 50's style and look for pickups in later styles like the Custom shop 69's.  Fat 50's sound good too imho.  Fender still makes good vintage style pickups but I think I would be careful of Texas Specials I've heard they are not really made in the Custom Shop when you buy them in guitars, but if you buy them to put in your guitar as a set from fender they are Custom Shop. 
GFS makes tons of cheap stratocaster pickups.  I pointed a friend to the Alnico II's set and they are heaven, his set was before they did reverse wound in the middle posistion for hum canceling (BTW your pickups are not reverse wound either some don't like that but I can live with hum if it = tone) I have GFS 64' Over wound's in my main Stratocaster "Lucky" the sunburst.  In it I have RS Guitarworks kit in it and no volume kit because its volume control really is that good and I have what is known as 50's wiring in it which you hear Gibson guys talking about all the time.  I'm sold on GFS personally, Spend $70 on a set of pickups, and take the rest and buy the RS guitar works kit, and still have money left to buy some strings or something.  Sorry this is so freaking long but I felt like I should share my testimony.  AD3

It depends on what you're looking for sound-wise.  I have Texas Specials in one of my strats and I love them.  I also have '54 Custom Shop pickups in another strat and love them for different reasons.  The Texas Specials are much hotter and more versatile, but the '54s are closer to what I would expect from a vintage strat.  Several boutique companies make great pickups as well.  It's really up to the sound you want.  Just one guy's opinion and it's worth exactly what you paid for it!   

Try putting the Clapton Midboost in it. Gives you 25db clean boost and really fattens up the guitar.

Totally didn't catch that!  I thought that guy sounded like he was really smart except for the confusing LED talk.

Fatboyguitars!

http://fatboyguitars.co.uk/category/911 … ckups.aspx

They do great pickups! I got a full wired pickguard from them a while back. Love it.

Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Area '58's. I think they are the best noiseless pickups out there. Or a set of Seymour Duncans would do nice. I'm actually going to talk to him later about some new pickups for my Strat. He's a good friend of mine and a fan of my band.