Help with Strat pickups!

[kahawe]

I am looking for pickups for a more vintage-oriented (warmoth) Strat with an alder body and a maple-only neck. I want it for beautiful cleans and blues mostly... The apaches and mother milks look like a good choice, maybe sultans or even the irish tour? I am a bit worried the Mother's Milk set could become TOO bright in that wood combination?

Can you help me pick: Which of those pickups is going after which classic Strat tone?

The Apache set as in The Shadows? Mother's Milk like Red Hot Chili Peppers? Irish Tour hmm Mr Gallagher?

[38thBeatle]

Apaches I would say. Don't place too much upon the name. They handle blues very well indeed and I am also fond of the vintage Strat tones and I have that in Apaches. They are warm and articulate and by articulate I mean that chords ring out true and you hear everything. For your guitar I would recommend them without a hesitation. When you want to get a bit bold then they react well to a cranked amp. I get a chance to play some blues/boogie stuff in my band and the Apaches are superb for such little pleasurable episodes.

[kahawe]

So the Apaches are more a 50s set, Mother Milk are a 60s set and the Sultans...? Or the Irish Tour?

[djl]

Yes MM are aimed at a 60s sound (as are the new 59 and 63 sets which are also awesome). Irish tours are a slightly overwound set which will suit if you want a more overdriven sound. Never heard the sultans, but they're obviously aimed at the mark knopfler sound.

Personally I agree with 38thBeatle - if I was building a maple neck strat and wanted an authentic vintage sound I'd go for the Apaches every time. I think the MM and Irish tours might sound a bit harsh with a maple board (prob ideally partnered with rosewood board) unless anyone has any other experiences?

[Telerocker]

I have the MM's in a an ash Fender American HSS-strat with rosewood fretboard
and IT's in an swampash MXG custom HSS-strat (handmade by Patrick Eggle) with (more percussive) ebony fretboard.
The MM's are great for Frusciante-tones and the neckpickup provides classic woodiness. I love this neckpickup. MM's are  brighter then  IT's, which are not harsh! At least not in my guitar. Present, yes, cutting yes, but not harsh. I can get beautifull round clean tones. Both react very well on the vol.knob and handle gain very well. The IT's are indeed very suitable for blues(rock), but I play a lot of clean stuff with them too.
But I think you want APACHES. The description of 38Beatle is spot on  They do very well with maplenecks. Round tones / belllike cleans. Very vintage and with a nice fatness too them. Some people combine the bridge-Apache with two MM's. The Apache provides a fatter tone in the bridge then most sc's, which is great for big chords/solostuff. Don't let yourself fooled by the lower output. The fatness the bridge Apache produces, compensates that. I think they are quite versatile, as most BKP's.

[timski]

Definitely Apaches.
I have these in a Fender Japan '54 reissue strat and they are perfect. Super cleans and plenty of articulation when driven.
I chose the vintage-correct, non-RWRP middle pickup and wholeheartedly recommend this.

[Elliot]

i'd say Apaches or the 59 set (which would also match the pickup specs for a pre-rosewood 1956-58 strat).  The 59 will have a bit more spank and bite to them as they are alnico V but the Apaches will be a bit sweeter and rounded sounding (if that makes sense).

[gwEm]

apaches, mothers milk or sultan's would all do what you ask for..

but I think apaches too!

[paulmapp8306]

Ultimately it depends on your tastes.  I tried the MM and wasnt keen - I found them too bright in truth.  I tried the Apachies and thought they were worse.  Put some Irish Tours in and im in heaven.  There not harsh at all.  They do have more output but its subtle.  The trebble is rolled off a bit compared to the MM - and ther is more body and mids.  

It took a week to get used to them and the amp settings needed changing a little - rolling off the mids a little as ideally Id want something between the MMa nd ITs in that range.  Since then Ive not looked back.

i suppose if the appachies are 50s flavour, and the Mothers Milk more 60s - the Irish Tours would be a slightly overwound 69 sound - so maybe not as vintage as your post would suggest your after but for a full bodied clean tone, to singing blues in a brighter strat - I couldnt recommend the Irish tours enough.

[kahawe]

Thank you all for your suggestions! In the sound clips, I too found the MMs to sound good but a bit on the "light" side, veerrrry Frusciante. The apaches sounded great too but a bit more on the "muffy" side... I liked the St60s set Kloppmann makes, lots of body and still lots of treble too but never harsh and I'd like a BKP set like that. Of course, the maple neck is an excellent point vs. the rosewood neck so MM might be too bright/thin but the Apaches might just be perfect in that configuration... or the IT!

[Telerocker]

The MM's are littlebit leaner then the IT's. I would not put MM's in a strat with a maple neck. The IT's can sound like the MM's when you roll the guitarvol. a bit back. Nevertheless I think Apaches are the way to go. I heard clips that were clear and not muffled. Depends on your amp too of course. They will sound better with a Fender tubeamp then on say a Blackstar, as far as we're talking totally clean.

[Nolly]

It follows that the Irish Tour bears a resemblance to the Mother's Milk - it's essentially an overwound MM. You get the more muscular low end and slightly darker top end you'd expect, though the extra output does push the front end of the amp harder, giving a grittier sound than identical settings with the Mother's Milk or Apache.

[Telerocker]

It follows that the Irish Tour bears a resemblance to the Mother's Milk - it's essentially an overwound MM. You get the more muscular low end and slightly darker top end you'd expect, though the extra output does push the front end of the amp harder, giving a grittier sound than identical settings with the Mother's Milk or Apache.

Exactly my experiences, though I have the MM's just recently installed and have to tweak a bit and finetune on my amps. Plus on the MM's: the neckpickup and the fourth position (neck/middle) are really happening. Like that woody character.

[38thBeatle]

Whatever you decide, you will have to let us know what you think- thems the rules.

[kahawe]

Only fair I should finally post an update to this eventhough it has been quite a while... the plans on the Strat ultimately changed and I only recently got a Carvin Bolt-T alder body, maple neck, birdeye maple fretboard for surprisingly cheap, which is exactly what I wanted. Ben was very helpful and recommended IrishTours and I decided to go with a whole pre-wired BKP pickguard and an IT set plus I slapped baseplates on all three pickups - now this kinda makes me wonder how big the difference would be without those baseplates!

Anyway, for the record there were some minor changes necessary to fit the pickguard and I blame Carvin for that, even on their HH guitars the cavities seem to be a little on the narrow side and there is one hole you would have to drill or just leave the screw out. Why they didn't go for 100% Fender-style pickguards is beyond me.

Tonewise it sounded a lot darker and thicker than I would have ever imagined, this being alder and maple and all; MUCH less noise and you can still get close to a funky Strat tone but overall it is very thick and muscular, absolutely no icepicks since it is much darker! I was surprised at first but I got to say, I like the tone a lot, it is a bit like thick singlecoils with an almost humbucker-like edge and it just feels good to really dig into the strings so the ITs are staying!