Which Strat set for me?

[Stratoplayer]

I'm looking for a set of pickups to get those Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher tones. I'm guessing the Irish Tours although I'm wondering if they're too bright for SRV. Any input will be greatly appreciated.

[Stratoplayer]

By the way I have a Alder body strat with a rosewood fretboard guitar 12-54 gauge strings. As for the amp I have a vibroverb clone with some mods. The 1st channel has the tweed tone (For Gallagher) and the 2nd channel has the blackface tone (Vaughan).

[Frank]

... 12-54 gauge strings

Good grief, you'd need muscles in your spit to bend those. Not sure about pickup choices here, no doubt one of the resident experts will advise you very shortly so I'll just say hello, welcome to the BKP forum and congratulations on your taste in music. I met both Rory Gallagher and Stevie Ray Vaughan, both incredible players and performers who could blow the roof off any venue they played. And SRV had a handshake that could crush diamonds into powder.

[Stratoplayer]

Thanks for the warm welcome. As for the strings I've been using them for awhile its not that hard once you get used to them. I cheat though I have a 10'' radius and 6100 frets so bending isn't that bad.

[38thBeatle]

Hello, welcome from me too though I am probably not going to be able to suggest something suitable as my BKPs are Apaches and Slowhands-the more vintage end of the range so to speak. Having said that, all the classic Strat tones are there but from your point of view, the ITs, from what I have learned from the forums, would probably do the job but I am sure that others will be along with advice from a position of personal experience.

[gordiji]

Strato player, my only set of bkp's are IT's and they're fantastic, very versatile with a great tonal range. I don't find
them overly bright with my maple strat and engl screamer which is a bright amp.There's nothing i don't like about them( i'm rwp and no baseplate). if your running 12's presumably tuned to E flat this will fatten your tone considerably and you won't need to worry about brightness.
If you wan't to sound like stevie though, feel and phrasing will be the biggest contributer over pups and equipment!
ps i bought mine in a pre wired pickguard so for a few extra quid it was properly wired with all the old fashioned pots and switch, well worth it and only jack socket and earth for me to solder.All the best

[Zaned]

Irish tours would probably be the most obvious recommendation. BUT.

I remember reading that they were created to provide those Rory/SRV tones without having to go to as big strings as e.g. SRV used, and use that much volume/treble from the amp. If I'm misquoting, correct me.

I own the IT's in neck and middle positions of an alder bodied/maple capped strat, equipped with 10-52 strings and tuned a half step down. They get frighteningly close! But you're using thicker strings and a Fender amp, which already brings you closer to the SRV tone.

And that's why I'm considering with the Custom 62 (or whatever they're called) set, which I presume my custom set is. Tim called my set "No. 1's" when I purchased them :) BTW, that set is in an warm sounding alder bodied strat, with a rosewood/maple neck. They're more Gary Moore than SRV in that strat. Moore and the 'Corridors of power' album are what I gave as the main reference and Tim's suggestion nailed it. Woody but biting, absolutely wonderful.

Now, I think the best route to go is that you describe what is missing from the current tone. What pickups is the guitar equipped right now? Is the guitar warm and middy, or what?

-Zaned

[AndyR]

I'm heading the same way as Zaned on this one.

I've been using ITs for a couple of years now, it was the first set I bought, and I love them. I bought them because of the Rory Gallagher reference in the name - it's actually what led me to BKPs across the internet :D

BUT! While researching another set of strat pickups, I came across a post from Tim describing how RG and SRV got their tones out of lower power pickups but with a) heavier strings than "usual" (I think that applies more to SRV than RG), and b) a very heavy/hard attack from both left and right hand. He designed the ITs to give a fattened vintage set that would get most people closer to the tones without having to change strings/style.

Now, what I realised is this - I've spent nearly 30 years trying to play like Rory Gallagher, I use 11s (heavier than Rory did), and I have a heavy left/right hand.

I love the ITs, but in my hands they sound "thicker" than I would have thought for Rory or SRV. Sometimes I've even struggled to get enough top end out of them. I've just moved them recently into a very bright sounding Alder/Rosewood-board strat (Roadworn 60s), and they are getting much more into the ballpark. But they still wouldn't get me the SRV tone that appears on studio albums - they're just too thick with not enough shimmering top end. But that's with me playing them - if I try a lighter touch, it is all there, but try playing SRV style with a lighter touch!!

Based on this experience, if I was to lose all my current kit, the first thing I'd get would be a warm and resonant sounding alder/rosewood strat and put either Mothers Milks or the unadvertised 62 set in.

I'm guessing, if you're using 12s, that you probably dig in quite hard as well, trying to get that "hot-strat" tone out of your amps. You might not actually need the extra push that ITs provide.

So, if your guitar is quite bright/hard sounding like my Roadworn is - yep, ITs sound really good. They give me a very good Rory and a very reasonable SRV, and a whole load of other favourite strat sounds.

If it's a warmer sounding guitar, like the strat I originally had them in, the ITs might prove thicker than you're hoping for. Still very tasty, but if Rory/SRV is where you heart lies (like me), and you're already halfway towards whacking the guitar like they did, then a slightly lighter set might be better - MMs, the 62s, or maybe even Apaches (I think I've read somewhere that the pickups SRV used would have been much more akin to Apaches in the BKP range).

Hope that helps :D

(btw, I'm waiting for this Monday, when I put Sultans into that warmer strat - assuming all goes well, and I find time, I shall be posting some sort of review of them after that).

[MrBump]

Have a word with Tim.

I was after the same thing, and at the time he was working on a cuustom order, I think that he was calling them '62 specials', or something like that - a slight variation on the Apaches, I think.  They were aimed specifically at the SRV/Hendrix vibe.

Mark.

[Stratoplayer]

Irish tours would probably be the most obvious recommendation. BUT.

I remember reading that they were created to provide those Rory/SRV tones without having to go to as big strings as e.g. SRV used, and use that much volume/treble from the amp. If I'm misquoting, correct me.

I own the IT's in neck and middle positions of an alder bodied/maple capped strat, equipped with 10-52 strings and tuned a half step down. They get frighteningly close! But you're using thicker strings and a Fender amp, which already brings you closer to the SRV tone.

And that's why I'm considering with the Custom 62 (or whatever they're called) set, which I presume my custom set is. Tim called my set "No. 1's" when I purchased them :) BTW, that set is in an warm sounding alder bodied strat, with a rosewood/maple neck. They're more Gary Moore than SRV in that strat. Moore and the 'Corridors of power' album are what I gave as the main reference and Tim's suggestion nailed it. Woody but biting, absolutely wonderful.

Now, I think the best route to go is that you describe what is missing from the current tone. What pickups is the guitar equipped right now? Is the guitar warm and middy, or what?

-Zaned

The guitar is very warm. I use GHS nickel rockers which are warm sounding and the rosewood also contributes to the warmth. So I guess I'd want something bright. Then again I am playing through a blackface vibroverb. It has all the sparkle you would expect from a vintage Fender. And SRV did use a vibroverb.

[Buddha]

Thought i would add my two cents to this thread given the fact that i am influenced by the same tones and have read up on stevie's tone endlessly to emulate it  :lol: . I too use 12 - 54s, and while this may sound strange i have used the apaches to acheive a similiar tone to SRV. I have a heavy left hand and as Andy and Zaned explained, the Irish tours were designed to achieve a SRV/ Rory tone for people who play 'Normally' lol.

The apaches are based on a 50s strat set as far as i know, and although SRV's #1 has a rosewood board, it was originally a 50s strat, and as far as my research could tell, he kept the original pickups. However it would be worth e - mailing Tim, as these 62 pickups do sound very interesting

[gwEm]

interesting post andy

[Stratoplayer]

I'm heading the same way as Zaned on this one.

I've been using ITs for a couple of years now, it was the first set I bought, and I love them. I bought them because of the Rory Gallagher reference in the name - it's actually what led me to BKPs across the internet :D

BUT! While researching another set of strat pickups, I came across a post from Tim describing how RG and SRV got their tones out of lower power pickups but with a) heavier strings than "usual" (I think that applies more to SRV than RG), and b) a very heavy/hard attack from both left and right hand. He designed the ITs to give a fattened vintage set that would get most people closer to the tones without having to change strings/style.

Now, what I realised is this - I've spent nearly 30 years trying to play like Rory Gallagher, I use 11s (heavier than Rory did), and I have a heavy left/right hand. As for the grit and push. I would need that because SRV did use a tube screamer to get that gritty and further thicken up his tone. So with the extra push it would remove the need for a tube screamer. Also for the Gallagher tone I would need a bright, gritty, and biting sound in the tweed input on my amp.

My rig right now is:
A Rocketfire Strat with 60s pickups. (The pickups are great but have little bite.)
A studaddy vibroverb. (It is an exact reproduction of a vibroverb but the first input is tweed voiced. Since Rory used a couple tweed amps.)

I love the ITs, but in my hands they sound "thicker" than I would have thought for Rory or SRV. Sometimes I've even struggled to get enough top end out of them. I've just moved them recently into a very bright sounding Alder/Rosewood-board strat (Roadworn 60s), and they are getting much more into the ballpark. But they still wouldn't get me the SRV tone that appears on studio albums - they're just too thick with not enough shimmering top end. But that's with me playing them - if I try a lighter touch, it is all there, but try playing SRV style with a lighter touch!!

Based on this experience, if I was to lose all my current kit, the first thing I'd get would be a warm and resonant sounding alder/rosewood strat and put either Mothers Milks or the unadvertised 62 set in.

I'm guessing, if you're using 12s, that you probably dig in quite hard as well, trying to get that "hot-strat" tone out of your amps. You might not actually need the extra push that ITs provide.

So, if your guitar is quite bright/hard sounding like my Roadworn is - yep, ITs sound really good. They give me a very good Rory and a very reasonable SRV, and a whole load of other favourite strat sounds.

If it's a warmer sounding guitar, like the strat I originally had them in, the ITs might prove thicker than you're hoping for. Still very tasty, but if Rory/SRV is where you heart lies (like me), and you're already halfway towards whacking the guitar like they did, then a slightly lighter set might be better - MMs, the 62s, or maybe even Apaches (I think I've read somewhere that the pickups SRV used would have been much more akin to Apaches in the BKP range).

Hope that helps :D

(btw, I'm waiting for this Monday, when I put Sultans into that warmer strat - assuming all goes well, and I find time, I shall be posting some sort of review of them after that).

What amp are you using? I really don't think your tone can get too thick to run into a black face fender and lose all the top end. I also play in standard and Eb tunings.

Here is my rig:
Rocketfire Strat with 60s pickups. (They're great but have little bite.)
Stu daddy Vibroverb. (Exact reproduction of a vibroverb. Although the normal input is tweed voiced and the vibrato channel is the normal blackface.)

[AndyR]

I did think about that after I'd posted, Stratoplayer, it has quite a bearing on it, doesn't it :lol:

I'm using modellors during the week, and a Vox AC4TV at the weekends. It's on the modellor I sometimes struggled for top end with the ITs in the warmer CIJ.

My main modellor is a Vox Tonelab LE - and yes, I totally agree that the "black face" type models don't lose the top end. I usually use the "fender" models for getting cleaner sounds, I haven't been able to get a raunchy sound I really like out of them... the "tweed" end of fender seems to work better for me, but overall it seems I'm a Vox or early Marshall sort of guy :D

I think I lean that way because my earliest love, when I really started to wake up to electric guitar sounds, was Ritchie Blackmore on Made In Japan, and then Rory Gallagher, big time. SRV didn't appear until I'd been playing live for a year or two. When he did, he was mind-blowing, but my taste in amp tones was kind of set by then...

So yes, I'm probably using a "thicker" toned amp most of the time.

My favourite set up at the moment is my Roadworn with ITs into the AC4TV running at about 3/4 (I have to use it fully attenuated to the 1/4W setting unfortunately), with the amp tone full open. The guitar has recently had it's tone capacitor replaced with a Vitamin Q paper-in-oil capacitor, and I've found PIO capacitors seem to mellow out all my guitars (in comparison to orange drops or ceramic) making them sound more "vintage".

I have a feeling, taking the amp into consideration, if you could get your hands on my Roadworn at the moment, you be going "yes, that's what I wants, ITs for me then..."

But they weren't doing that job quite so well in my warmer CIJ. Unfortunately, the only other pickups I really have for direct comparison right at the moment are the Texas Specials back in the CIJ where they started - and they are, well, Texas Specials :lol: I personally like the tone, but it's not what we're looking for at the moment... And also the Tex Mexes that came in the Roadworn - they were thin but very expressive in the Roadworn, almost perfect when moved to the CIJ (preferable to the ITs for me in that guitar, and seemed much more SRV-like to my way of thinking).

I've only got to wait until tomorrow morning though. The Sultans go in the CIJ and then we'll see what we'll see :D

[Prawnik]

I am not a SRV/Gallagher freak, but I also mostly pay Strats with heavy strings and high action.

My take is that if you are going to play a Strat with big strings and want to sound like SRV, do what he did - go with something vintage-voiced: Apache or Mother's Milk.

Contrary to popular belief, SRV's Number One did not feature "hot" pickups. While the pickups in that guitar died and were re-wound several times, the voicing of those pickups was always quite low-output, even by vintage Fender standards.

SRV "made up" for this with heavy strings (which boost output) and, of course, pedals. Also do not forget a cheap coiled guitar cable, which will take off some of the highs. SRV got his from Radio Shack, which is like Matalins in the UK.