Not much strat talk recently..

[JustaGuitarHero]

Had some Mules in my Lester for a while now - just love them. Swapping in my strat with noiseless pickups just doesn't feel/sound right.

Help me decide what to get pls. (I shoudl just ring Tim but I'll end up ordering them and I want to wait a few days to think it over.)

I got a bog standard USA fender deluxe strat circa 2000. Its got the translucent crimson red (alder) paint job and is a three piece body with a (slab?) rosewood board.

I know its either MM/ Apache or ITs just not sure which ones. I like the idea that the ITs can get MM with volume rolled off a bit.

As the guitar has currently has noiseless pups atm I am guessing that they have specific pots and caps designed for them, so I am thinking I'll need some new ones for the new pups?

I use Matamps and fuzz.. The noiseless pups dont really live well in that space. I like the usual SRV/ Hendrix/ Blues style and if I need a humberbucker I use one.

[Telerocker]

I think you will like the IT's for those styles, but they are quite versatile. I have them in a HSS-swampashstrat with a Crawler in the bridge. They handle gain very well. I also have the MM's sitting in a ash HSS-strat (Fender American Series). They have this early sixties vibe (Frusciante) and a bit more woodiness to them then the IT;s. In general the IT's sound a bit fuller, the MM's are a tad brighter and have less bass.

[38thBeatle]

Traditional wisdom would perhaps suggest MMs but you might consider Apaches too. I haven't tried ITs but I do have a set of Slowhands which I also enjoy a great deal.

[With Full Distortion]

im putting a nailbomb set on this guitar

By wfd666 at 2010-08-05

and i have some videos with the nailbomb bridge on my youtube channel if you want to take a look
q: )

[AndyR]

You are facing exactly the same dilemma as I was when I started :lol:

I now have ITs, Apaches, and Sultans in three different strats. I've never got round to MMs. Only one guitar has had just the ITs, the others have had all of them.

The differences between the sets are actually quite small in a given guitar. They're definitely there, but not enough to say any one set is a wrong choice.

In my experience, with these three guitars:

The ITs sound good in all three but HEAVENLY in one of them (rosewood board, alder body). The Apaches made both guitars I tried them in sound fabulous (both alder, one with rosewood board, one maple neck). They've ended up in the rosewood board one because the maple neck guitar works equally well with Sultans or Apaches, and the rosewood board one feels "better" with Apaches.

If you lean towards a harder/grittier SRV sound, more like Rory Gallagher, ITs for definite. If you lean more towards the bubbly/mellow SRV sound, more like Jimi Hendrix (little wing, wind cries, etc), then I'd say Apaches.

They happily cover each other's territory - the IT neck for clean/semi-clean is gorgeous. The Apaches rock like good 'uns. (Purple Haze sounds best on Apaches in my house :lol:)

Btw, when I was in your position, I chose ITs for my first set (over MMs and Apaches in 3rd place) and I never looked back. A couple of years later I got some Apaches and was blown away by how good they are. They finally found their way into the guitar that the ITs were originally bought for. Either set would have suited me down to the ground in the first place.

Mother's Milks I've not tried, so I don't know for certain, but if you want a good early 60s woody strat tone, I believe that's the one. I wanted early 60s, but I wanted the ability to push the amp a bit more - so it was ITs for me. I have a gut feeling that it's ITs for you as well :D


Er... Nailbombs... that's kinda going in another direction there JP! :lol:

[Telerocker]

Nice review Andy. I think you're right the IT's are a good starting set when you're not familiar with the BKP-range. You can nearly play everything with them.

[gordiji]

the IT bridge (without baseplate) is superb, so is the rest of the set. mine are in alder/maple usa strat. it does everything a strat should do very well. blackmore, srv,nile rodgers(funk),knopfler ,you get the gist.
i'm sure the other sets are equally great. i went for the extra output of the IT's for rockier stuff but clean they sound
georgeous. i never thought 'gritty' was a good word to describe them.
they'll (whichever set) be a big improvement over the fender noiseless.  
dirty and clean clip below, same guitar/amp

[JustaGuitarHero]

Yeah I was thinking about Blackmore too.. Also maybe Townshend.. I know PT was mainly P90s but he played a strat too!

Listening to the official clips the MMs really grabbed me. Also liked the Pat Strat Rosewood slab pups.

But I understand that with the Apache's that you can always add whats not there.. Much harder to take away output/treble if its already there.

[robbyboy]

i have a 1987 squire and have/are putting a neck/mid slowhands with a trilogy bridge...should be different  :lol:

[JustaGuitarHero]

And the order went in for...

... Strat Pat 63 pickups!

A little off what I thought but I was talked around to the slightly hotter and better Bass of the 63s (after discussing muscial tastes). New pots and cap too.

The waiting has begun.

[AndyR]

Nice one :D

After I'd posted my reply I realised I haven't been in the market for pickups since the new strat models came out, I keep forgetting them and I suspect that I would be looking at them if I had another strat. But I forgot to come back here and say it though!

I just read up on the 59 and 63 sets again. I lean towards the 59s for most of my strats (especially the CIJ which is quite warm sounding). But the 63 set sounds intriguing. I've been playing a 335 a lot recently and getting back into humbuckers. Switching to the strats afterwards is a bit of a culture shock for 10 minutes or so - I can hear why some people just don't "get" the strat tone then! :lol: Soon wears off though - I'm a strat-man at heart.

The 63 set sounds to me like it would give the strattiness but just a bit more weight - ideal for situations where you're switching back and forth between strat singles and humbuckers and don't want too much amp-fiddling time (not that it worries me much because I don't gig anymore :lol;)

Looking forward to hear how you get on with them - I don't think I've read anyone's review of this set  yet.

[JustaGuitarHero]

I actually quite liked the idea of the 59s first but the extra bass response and slighty hotter wound bridge of the 63s lend themselves nicely to Hendrix/SRV. MMs were also discussed but we decided firmly againt Apaches. You would ofcourse get more treble with the 59s but in the end it had to be the 63s. I am sure either set would do really well for what I want. Thinking it over the now I am sure the neck will be killer for Jazz too.

[JustaGuitarHero]

Well a little different for me than others I guess. Seems like all my playing life I haven't had proper single coils. I've had active jobbies and more recently now Fender noiseless. Installing the 63 veneers I really couldn't see them making that much of a difference - but how wrong I was.

At first I was shocked. I didn't like the sound at all. It was loud and brash. No sweetness. Then half a hour in I remember to adjust the pickup height (not much) and fiddle with the amp settings. Then it hit me. My previous single coils we smooth & quiet - but very one dimensional. These have so many more possibilities. I can ride the volume controls and set the amp to take advantage of the pickups new range. All things that I've done with other guitars but I've just kinda lived with the noiseless pickups... blandness.

Whack up the master volume - drop the gain and bam super smooth (treble rolled off slighlty) jazz.

Work the guitar volume and tone controls with the overdrive channel and perfect honky tonk blues to lead tones.

Can't wait to introduce these to my much abused (but single coil starved) Fuzz Face.

I might have had more time to play but some of it was taken up with my confusing the pc for 60hz cycle hum. Bring my guitar within a couple of feet of the PC and I can hear the machine squeel. Back off abit and all is fine. Had me worried for a while.

The kicker for me to get new pickups was that the previous ones just got lost in the mix when trying to jam with backing tracks. Now I am happy that a quick twist of the tone or volume on the guitar, will allow me to keep pace with what ever I am play along to.

Bravo - superb pups!

 

 

[Telerocker]

Congrats! Yeah, the pu-height makes a lot of difference with scatterwound pickups.