Electric guitar strings

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bburch88

New member
I am a beginner guitarist and want to know about pickups and strings for my Fender Stratocastor. I am considering the Kinman's pickups but not sure about strings. I would appreciate it if someone could steer me in a good positive direction. I want quiet/noisless pickups. I play Christian Praise and Worship.

BB
 
Hey, bb,

Strings: Elixers are great for their longevity. I use them and like the tone.

P/U: There are some "stacked" single coil humbuckers, and there are some humbuckers that are side by side and fit in a single coil space.

Really, is it that noisy now?
 
I think I have used nearly every kind of strings made on at least one of my three Fender Strats. It honestly doesnt matter all that much. Not nearly as much as your pickup choice. I like Elixers, I like plain old D'Addario's, and I like the Fender Bullets. The cool thing about bullets is that they're made to fit your Strat's tremelo and fit perfectly snugly in there. I do think it may help a *bit with sustain. Being a new player, you have years and years to try out different strings for yourself and find out what you like. I've also used DeanMarkleys, the DR strings, Super Slinkys, the Blue Steel Cryogenic Strings, various GHS, and 2.99 Guitar Center specials. They all work, you'll get the feel for what you like over a long period of trying stuff out.

H2H
 
If it's a real fender, why would you change the pickups. What kind of sound are you going for?
 
Pickups

My guitar is a cheaper Fender Squire, it has noisy-hummy pickups that sound crappy, the strings are 4-5 year old stock. I like the sound of the Kinman Traditional pickups and am considering them for this guitar. I want to put good strings on at the same time. I play acoustic guitar and have used martins and elixers.

BB
 
It sounds like anything would be an improvement. To a certain extent, it doesn't matter what pickups you choose. Unless you pick something completely inappropriate, you will learn to work with what you have.
4 year old strings?! You should change them when they get dull sounding, not when the frets have worn through them.
 
Pickups/Strings

I haven't been using the guitar that much in 4-5 years, however, I plan to for our Church Worship Team and I want to get the sound right prior to.

BB
 
Pickups/Strings

I want a clean un-distorted sound for the Church program. Like I said, I have listened to the Duncan sounds on their website, the Kinmans on their site and the Texas Tallboys on the Rio Grande site. Just based on the sounds I've heard I like the Kinman Traditionals, but the price--Man!

BB
 
you should expect to pay from $75 to $175 for a good pickup. I know that is tough to swallow when you only have a $200 guitar. Any pickups you find for $25 are going to be the same kind of stuff you have in the guitar already.
 
Kinmans are awesome but, no offense, could be overkill in a Squire. The pickups are around $270 a set from what I recall. Lindy Fralin fall in that same top-end category.

If I was you, I would look at the usual suspects: Seymour Duncan, DiMarzio. They both have a large selection of affordable pickups, including noiseless if that's what you're looking for. They're readily available and you could probably exchange them if you don't like the ones you get. Personally I would stay away from Fender pups.

Rio Grande are good but a little more expensive. Also look at Joe Barden and Bill Lawrence.

You can also read reviews at http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/00man.html to help steer you in the right direction.

For strings: if you're pretty good about changing your strings regularly, any major brand will work (Ernie Ball, D'Addario, et al) until you find one that works better for you. If you're the type who leaves the same strings on forever, go with Elixir or another coated string. In any case, I find the string gauge influences the tone more than what brand they are.
 
I like DR and D'Addarios. But, like said above, it's more brand choice than actual product performance. Except for EB's. For some reason, I dislike EB's.

As to the Pickups, I LOVE Rio Grandes. The tallboys are nice, the Muy's are hotter, (and a bit of noise, but nothing like your Squires) and cut nicely. The Duncans Antiquity's are a safe mellow pickup that has an absolutely gorgeous sound.
 
As for the pickups, maybe you should look at a used set of Vintage noiseless out of somebody elses American Strat. Lots of people seem to put the more $ pickups in their guitars, and you can buy a whole set of the ones that came standard on the nicer Fenders for well under a hundred bucks.

H2H
 
Except for EB's. For some reason, I dislike EB's.
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wierd, i always use eb's.
if your looking to get a better sound out of your guitar switching to a slightly heavier set of strings could work. i find they sound better, but there will probably be people telling me that makes no difference. the ernie ball power slinky strings are my personal favorite, they're 11s, but the bottom is a tad smaller than some other brands 11s.
 
Hey, bb, check out Carvin's pickguard, only $99 and you just slap it in while you're changing strings. The guitar in the song in my signature line is a Carvin with S/S/H pickup configuration. Sorry 'bout not suggesting it before.

Noncon, I love the sound of the wound G,too, but three bends and BOING, there it goes!
 
bburch88 said:
I am a beginner guitarist and want to know about pickups and strings for my Fender Stratocastor. I am considering the Kinman's pickups but not sure about strings. I would appreciate it if someone could steer me in a good positive direction. I want quiet/noisless pickups. I play Christian Praise and Worship.

BB
Click to expand...

If you are a beginner, use the regular cheap strings. Try many brands and choose the ones you like. String gauge will be the biggest difference to your preference and not expensive strings. I have played for over 30 years both in a pro band and recording for others (session). I use whatever I can get for cheap, but always stay with 9 gauge sets. If there is a big sound difference, then there are many albums out there that I play on that must sound bad. No producer or engineer ever singled out my guitar for "bad sound".

Save your $$$ and get the gauge you like. Have your guitar setup for that gauge and practice playing instead of buying and upgrading.
 
There are lots of good strings. I use GHS Boomers, gauge 10, for my strat.

Given the cost and effort for buying new pickups, you might want to consider seling your current Squire and buying a better used Strat with good pickups. Investing $100+ in pickups for a Squire model is $ you will probably not get back later if you decide to sell.

Ed
 
Since it is a squire, and assuming you don't want to sell it,

Look into Shielding it. Just Google "guitar shielding" and find a site with some diagrams.

This will not only eliminate rf pickup but make the most out of your new pickups
 
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