Pickups for mahogany strat?

[Alfi27]

Hello!

It's been a little while, been busy enjoying my BK equipped axes, haha. So, I got a really sweet deal on a Fender American Select Stratocaster (essentially an American Deluxe) with mahogany body! The pickups are not the best to put it nicely. Tex-Mex singlecoils and Diamondback humbucker. I haven't tried the guitar myself, but my buddy says the guitar is great and has a lot of potential. So I want to upgrade it with a HSS set from Bare Knuckle.

I am pretty set on an Abraxas in the bridge position, but I am also open to suggestions. When it comes to the singlecoils, I want something a little hotter than vintage output pickups. I like to use the neck pickup for leads occasionally, so it has to be at least a little beefy. Not too beefy though, RHCP and SRV are two favorites when it comes to strat tone. Slow Hand and Irish Tour are the two candidates here. I might consider something even hotter for the middle position also, because I like to screw it way down (almost flush with the pickguard) to keep it from getting in the way for the pick. I might use quite heavy strings on the guitar also (not by SRVs standards though), but if I decide to keep it in Eb I might go with 11-50.

And like always, I am aiming for a setup that takes versatility to the max. I know it is possible to achieve crazy versatility with a HSS strat, especially one with a mahogany body!

[PhilKing]

You might want to try the 63 Veneer Board Strats and put the neck in your middle for that bit of extra umph.  I have a set in a hardtail 57 strat and they really deliver for rock and blues.  I have a couple of Mothers Milks with a VHII in another Strat and really like that combo too, and they might also work for you.  The difference between them is pretty subtle and since one set is in a hardtail maple neck and the other in a trem/rosewood, they will sound very different in mine.  I think the difference is that the 63's are a little more detailed in the sound and retain more of the cleans when you drive them, but that could also be the guitars.

[Alfi27]

Thanks a lot for your answer! I have heard a lot of great things about the 63' Veneer Boards. They might work very well with the extra mids from the mahogany body, and I do have a trio of very powerful pedals (clean/mid-boost, overdrive and distortion) but I hate being dependent on them. Most of the time I just plug straight into my Silver Jubilee and I get everything I need from it (great amp by the way)!

Once upon a time I did have a set of Veneer Boards actually, but it was about five years ago and I had played guitar for two years or something. My amp was not optimal, and my skills nor ears were trained. What I do remember though, was that they were a little weak feeling. The sound was great, but they felt very underwound and almost like I was using a powerful limiter that didn't want to let through all of the signal. I have always been a "hit the strings as hard as you can" kind of guitarist, and although I can play dynamically I have never been and will never be BB King or David Gilmour; which is exactly why I have never gotten along with strats as well as Les Pauls and SGs. For clean tones it just won't get any better than a strat with the neck and middle pickups in parallel, but I always hated the fact that I had to switch guitar if I wanted to turn up the gain for some heavy rock and metal tones. Hopefully the mahogany body will be a blessing!

[Telerocker]

I would pick Irish Tours, they're a a beefier and tad less woody than Mother's Milk, which are very close to the Veneer Boards. Blindfolded I could not tell which is what.
The Irish Tours just have a little bit more of everything compared to those two, except a little less topend, but they have enough sparkle.
 If you turn the volumeknob on the guitar a tad down you're close to the MM's. RHCP, SRV, the IT's will do those tones.

But, if the guitars natural voice is quite dark, MM's or Veneer Boards could be better options.

[Alfi27]

Yeah, I'd imagine the Slow Hands being a bit too much in the mids department with the mahogany body. I don't think I've ever experienced a strat single coil lacking in highs, and I used to have a set of Sinners! And I won't have the opportunity to decide if the guitar is naturally dark or bright, because the guitar is at a friend's while I'm away for music school. However, I don't think I want to gamble and order vintage output single coils again.

[Alfi27]

Alright, so I went with a used VHII. Very eager to try it out! All I have to do now is to get two single coils, but I am not 100% set on Bare Knuckles. I might get a deal on two used Suhr V60LPs, and those are the best strat pickups I've ever tried (but I have very little experience with BK's singlecoils). Looking to save some money after I spontaneously bought a Hello Kitty Squier strat and a Suhr Aldrich for stage use... Will be a very cool project though

[Piplodocus]

Hahaha! Gotta love those Hello Kitty strats!

I'm not going for quite the same area but last night finished putting my new BKPs in my mahogany Parker Nitefly. (Bolt-on, pickguard mount pickups etc, so basically my mahogany "strat"). That has a mother milk neck, which I worried about  score purchase and was told I may be better off with an Irish tour. It's too early to tell as it was too late to get it "up to proper volume", but based off my initial test I think I'm glad I went for that rather than the Irish tour. As I say, it's a little too early to tell, and I'm also thinking of going to play with pickup height in my other mahogany "strat", but as a neck, initial verdict is very good indeed (not that I have anything against the ITs, I think they're superb, I just can't have a nailbomb + Irish tour in 2 mahogany v similar guitars as that's not exciting enough, and I think the MM wins for my taste).

[gwEm]

I have Sultans in my mahogany strat and I'm very pleased with the tones. They are more rocking than you may think.