Dear all,
I have been around here a while ago to ask you about different pups for my Strat as well as the less known BKP Strat tremolo. Time has come for a review.
Target guitar: Fender SRV Signature. Original guitar was very good already in terms of resonance, TX Specials were fine, too. (Fender changed the specs of those within the last two years and made a pretty decent pickup out of those). I found BKP by coincidence and listened to the probably long forgotted clips of Stefan Price (e.g. here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPrKiqvQrEI&feature=channel_page). That sold me on Apaches. Tim has custom wound an Alnico 5 Apache in the neck to give at a bit more early 60s vibe. Of course I swapped all caps for vintage type, too.
The other thing I bought from Tim was his 50's replica of the Strat tremolo. The special task for Tim was to do gold-plating, lefty version, right hand tremolo arm. The guy did it :-)
In addition, my incredible luthier converted the Strat lacquer from poly to nitro lacquering and refretted it to perfection (especially higher frets were not installed precisely by the factory - a detail I overlooked unfortunately when buying it)
Bottom line of all these changes: very good Strat transformed into sth that I have never heard before anywhere. The scientific problem is that I just can't say in % terms which of the upgrades contributed most :-) I'll try anyway.
1. Pups: Remind me a lot of Eric Johnson's sound - especially that roundness & sweetness that I have never experienced before. Very silky, very transparent. Good treble response. All three pups have a distinctive beautiful sound. I could stick with any of those until the very end of my life and be happy. Excellent string-to-string balance, especially as I bought the flat magnet array pups for a 12 inch radius neck.
2. Tremolo: much more difficult to describe. I think that together with the nitro lacquer it lays the acoustic foundation for the sweetness in the sound of the guitar. You feel a bit more string tension when playing the guitar - that gives more and sweeter top-end treble, a very smooth and solid sound. Go for that trem, guys!
Sorry I can't find better words. When I played the Strat for the first time after those changes I thought 'this is what the guitar was supposed to sound probably'. It's not a toy any more, it's an instrument. If Eric Johnson came around I would definately show it to him, as my guitar make his sig sound cr@p in comparison.
The guitar still has 'SRV' written on it, but I should probably change the engraving to 'BKP'
Cheers,
Tomasz
