Replace my Apaches, with.... ??

[jordan]

Hey all,

I've had a set of Apaches in my hollow Warmoth strat for a fair old while now, and I do love the tone they give. For clean tones, they're perfect.

However, I'm finding more and more that I need a heavier rock sound, and the bridge pickup in the Apache set doesn't really hold up (even with a bridge tone pot mod made to the guitar).

I don't fancy a full set of Trilogies or Sinners, as I'd still like to keep an element of great clean tones available on the guitar. As a result, I'm thinking maybe Irish Tours in the neck and middle, and something heavier (like a Sinner/Trilogy) in the bridge.

Does anyone have any input on this? What's the heaviest I could go at the bridge, while keeping a neck+middle combination (especially in position 4) that can produce great clean tones. Obviously a Sinner in the bridge and an Apache in the neck would create a fair imbalance between the output, so that has to be a consideration.

Also - would it be possible to keep positions 2 and 4 as RWRP with a mixed set of pickups?

For reference, the guitar has a hollow alder body, flame maple top, and maple neck.

Thanks in advance,
Jordan.

[Mr Ed]

Before changing pickups, maybe try adding a clean boost to saturate your gain more. It'll drive your amp up the wall. :D

[AndyR]

My understanding is that RWRP applies to the winding of the middle pickup, so I would guess yes, you would keep the behaviour of 2 and 4 as long as the middle is RWRP.

Your other questions, I'm not sure I know enough yet, but I'll give you what I can. I've had Irish Tours for several weeks now - they sound very "strat-like" to me, and they still clean up nicely (though perhaps not as sweet as your Apaches from what I've heard). The bridge certainly has a lot more body and oomph than the Texas Specials they replaced, but still with that sharp Strat bridge-pickup bite. I've never been able to use a Strat bridge on it's own before (I play mostly blues-rock, not hi-gain stuff), but I love it now.

But have you considered this? When I was ordering, there's an option of sticking a baseplate (zinc?) on strat pickups - to beef them up a bit. Is it possible you might want to do that instead? Maybe contact Tim - can it be done to your existing Apache bridge? Might that do what you want? Or maybe go for an IT bridge with the baseplate (mine is without, and has plenty oomph for me), keeping the neck and middle Apaches - I'm not sure what the volume difference would be (wouldn't have thought it would be huge).