Compensating for an overly bright Strat

[JonnyScaramanga]

I've bought a Strat blind, off eBay. Luckily, it's quite good.

It's quite lively played unplugged, but compared to my other Strat it's a bit lacking in bass. It's also got a harsh boxy/ honky quality to the tone. I've used the word bright in the subject line, but that's not quite right. It's more a mid-rangey thing.

I'm thinking of Mother's Milks for it. Would they be a good choice to compensate for this guitar's nasal voice?

[Kilby]

Personally I'd suggest the Mothers Milks as I love the mid 60s tones, but others may suggest the clapton styled ones (whose name I have conveniantly forgotten)

Rob...

[JonnyScaramanga]

Thanks Kilby. I think the Slowhands would have too much mid range for me; I want to keep that hollow Stratty quality.

I think Apaches are the real alternative to Mother's Milks for me. Irish Tours sound cool (I love SRV) but I use heavy strings and I have a heavy pick attack, so I don't think the extra output it really necessary. I do need pickups that sound good under high gain though; the stock pickups sound cr@p when I crank them up.

I've also got VHII which I'm planning to stick in the bridge position.

[Elliot]

Mothers are the way to go here - the Apaches have a sweet strat tone that can get quite impolite when wound up, but the Mothers are smooth, woody, and acoustic - with a more pronounced bass eq than the Apaches: think Jimmy on Wind Cries Mary or Hey Joe and thats the tone.  Sounds like a perfect corrective  to yer guitar.

[TwilightOdyssey]

I would never use a pickup to 're EQ' a guitar. First I would sort out the tonal issues and then use a pickup to enhance what's good about it.

In this case, I would put a small high freq rolloff circuit into the guitar. Then assess the new tone and go from there.