Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Pickups => Topic started by: Chris1974 on August 11, 2006, 02:12:43 PM
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Question for you tone hounds out there :
Which single coil pick up set would give the closest sound to a stock '62 vintage strat ?
I.e. rather than getting Irish tours for a Gallagher, SRV, Hendrix vintage hot type sound or slow hand to get a clapton sound or Sultans for a knopfler esk sound etc. which pickup would give the closest standard strat sound ? Surely all these players got amazing tones from standard pups, apart from maybe they got them rewound (slightly differently) when they wore out - i.e. like SRV and Gallagher did through their playing careers.
From everything I've read about the various single coil sets would the Apaches be the closest to a standard set of vintage pickups ?
What I want is a blank canvas to find my own sound with rather than starting with a pickup set that is slightly biased to a certain style/player. I can then shape my own tone with choice of amplifier, tone settings, strings, pedals etc.
Or to put it another way - which set would be like picking up a standard strat in a shop in 1962/64 ? obviously allowing for variances in hand wound pups at the time !
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I think the Sultans are the nearest in k's to the 62 strat pickups (which I notice from measurements of actual early 60s strats in magazines over the years normally come out at between 5.9k to 6.2k) but I think Fender had moved to Alnico V by the 1960s - you could ask for AV Sultans or stick to the A2 for a tone of how an early 60s pickup would sound now.
I would be tempted by an Apache set for basic 50s and early 60s tones - in fact one of my 60s RI strats has them and it sounds so cool.
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I'd agree with Elliott. Apaches are the boys.
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Actually the Mother's Milk set are pretty close to a '62 set albeit with a slightly hotter bridge.Apaches are based on early '54 single coils.
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Cheers for the advice folks, its a big help.