Need Some Help - Strat Pickup Driving Me Crazy

Thanks RFR.........I think you might be right about the pup heights being a factor. I set them to the following......which seems sort of universal for strats:

BRIDGE
Low E 2.5mm
High E 2.0mm

MIDDLE
Low E 3.0mm
High E 2.5mm

NECK
Low E 3.5mm
High E 3.0mm

I've always used the above as starting points but these 70's RI pups don't seem to like those settings. I'll lower them a bit and see what happens. In particular.....the bridge pup is a little too "screechy".

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Do you have the tones wired for the neck and bridge pickups? I just turned the tone down on the bridge a tad when I had a strat (after making that mod if necessary).

It was funny, just last week I played a MIM strat I bought when I started to play again just a little over 10 years ago. Sold it to the bass player in the church/praise band/team I was in about 8 years go. It's been hanging on a wall in his man-cave since then. Still has the same strings on it :) - a "little" corroded. But, it sounded good once the noise in the pots got scrubbed out. Didn't hurt that he has a nice (equally unused) DRRI to play though.
 
Thanks RFR.........I think you might be right about the pup heights being a factor. I set them to the following......which seems sort of universal for strats:

BRIDGE
Low E 2.5mm
High E 2.0mm

MIDDLE
Low E 3.0mm
High E 2.5mm

NECK
Low E 3.5mm
High E 3.0mm

I've always used the above as starting points but these 70's RI pups don't seem to like those settings. I'll lower them a bit and see what happens. In particular.....the bridge pup is a little too "screechy".

Anyone have any suggestions?

I never care about measuments. Do it all by ear.
Strat has a master volume and 2 tones. To take some bite off of the bridge you can always wire the bridge pup to a tone pot and back off the pot a bit.
Lowering it might tame some of the top end as well.

One a sidenote; 70s were thinner, brighter pickups.
I prefee 50s and 60s winds.

Jfyi. I prefer a linear taper pot for volume and audio taper for tones. Using a linear for volume gives a much more usable vol range.
 
You could also experiment with just putting a resistor and/or cap across the bridge pickup itself. That is, if you prefer the traditional T pot arrangement or find that you always want to turn down the T lot using that pickup. You can do these experiments outside the guitar with alligator clips on the cable, or if you had cut that pickguard... I'd start with a resistor. If you happen to have a spare pot around, wire that as a variable restance across the two wires of the B pickup and turn it down till it sounds like what you want to hear all the time. Disconnect the pot and measure its resistance. Find a static resistor close to that value and solder it in there. It'll probably be pretty big just to take the very top edge off. The difference between having a T pot even at 10 and not having one at all is sometimes not subtle.
 
Excellent idea ashcat ! I do have a pot I can use to get that measurement. I’ve been playing it and adjusting pup height to try to get that bridge pup sound where I want it but height alone isn’t gonna do it with out affecting the combo position of middle and bridge too much.
 
I think some come lower, this is a pic of the same...so it seems. Poles up and pushed in "looks like"
 

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Yup......that neck pup (top) looks just like the one I have...except that the d and g string poles on mine are even higher. The high e and b poles are way down. Makes you wonder if the neck radius was way different on the early strats and the pup heights reflected that.
 
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