Pickup suggestions for custom strat type project guitar

[MarcB]

Hi all

I'm in the process of building my very first electric guitar, I'm basing it on a stratocaster type design, as my main guitar is an SG with humbuckers and fancy a change once in a while to single coils.
The body is made from ash with a maple and ebony neck so far it's going very well. body is almost painted (when its finished it will have a tasty looking MC Escher\art deco  mural design on it) and I have made a very swish acid etched pick guard from sheet copper.

As I mainly play a mixture of punk, grunge and a bit of heavy rock what would you people suggest from a single coil point of view. preferably something with some decent low end without sacrificing the stratty goodness at the top. I could rout out the bridge for a bucker, but am reluctant to do this just yet unless there is a very good reason for it.

I am tempted by the Sinner pickup for the bridge, would they work equally well in the neck and mid positions or is there a better solution?

Hope you can assist in giving me a few ideas.

Thanks in advance

Marc

[AndyR]

Hi welcome to the forum :D

As I was reading I was thinking "mmm, Sultans would be nice in ash with ebony..."

And then I got to "punk, grunge and a bit of heavy rock" :lol:

They still might work well - as would Apaches I guess - take a nice well-balanced stratty tone, not too high output, and then let the playing/rig do the work...

On the "Sinner in the bridge" front, I'm a great believer in matched sets - I reckon you'd be fine with a set.

I've not tried Sinners, my hottest ones are Irish Tours. My ITs do "punk" as I understand it, but they might be a bit bright without the amount of low end it sounds like you want. There is an option of having baseplates on strat pickups - kind of adds more punch to the pickup but keeps the basic strat vibe. I've not tried this, but I imagine it pushes the bridge pickup into "I can imitate a tele bridge pickup a bit, if you want..." territory.

[MarcB]

Thanks for the warm welcome and the response, will take a look at your suggestions unless anyone else has anything they would like to add.

I'm not looking to buy for a little while yet, saving up and buying the relevant bits as and when I can afford them.

will do a little bit of research on the pups mentioned and check a few of the samples posted too.

Cheers

[Philly Q]

On the "Sinner in the bridge" front, I'm a great believer in matched sets - I reckon you'd be fine with a set.

Not coming in with a suggestion here, I'm afraid, but I believe the Sinner is a bridge-only pickup (at least according to the Shop, although the product page does make it sound like a set).

I'd guess the best match in middle and neck would be Trilogies, unless you got something custom-wound.

[lamp]

I've got Trilogies in my Strat and it sounds like they would suit perfectly. 
I've also got a Sinner my Jaguar and so my recommendation would either be Trilogy set or Sinner bridge with Trilogy Middle and Neck.

[MDV]

On the "Sinner in the bridge" front, I'm a great believer in matched sets - I reckon you'd be fine with a set.

Not coming in with a suggestion here, I'm afraid, but I believe the Sinner is a bridge-only pickup (at least according to the Shop, although the product page does make it sound like a set).

I'd guess the best match in middle and neck would be Trilogies, unless you got something custom-wound.

Sinners are, I believe, matched with slightly overwound 'uber'-trilogies in the neck and middle.

As far as the balance goes, I've had a sinner and I've got uber-trilogies, but never had them in the same guitar. Given that the sinner hangs with high output humbuckers and the trils were with an overwound miracle man and now a ceramic nailbomb and balance well with those I guess they're a match.

For the bridge, a sinner or overwound sinner with a zinc-steel base plate will keep stratty top end but give thick humbuckery low end. Its rather unique sounding, having very much single coil character but enough gain and balls for all out metal riffing.

[MarcB]

Hi All

The project is coming along nicely now, just finished the artwork and the sheet copper guard is almost done it needs engraving and heat treating to clear up the oxidisation, The next big step is to sort the pickups and then look at the wiring, just updating you all so you can see whats happening.


Tell me what you think

Marc