Guitar Fetish Strat Pickups

[Roguetitan]

I build guitars, not pickups.

In my book, if you want a high end set of Strat pickups, Lindy Fralin is the best, hands down. And I can just about guaranty I've heard more pickups than the vast majority of people on this board. It is, after all, my job.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

I can bet you a dollar to a doughnut that in a double blind A/B/C test, you cannot tell the Difference between the Fralins, GHS or Wilkinson out of the same amp on the same settings.
bottom line: a single coil pickup is a single coil pickup, there is going to be little to no difference in one from another.

 

[Light]

Not likely since Lindy uses surgical tubing (not springs) to mount his strat coils. See: http://cgi.ebay.com/STRATOCASTER-PI...ryZ22670QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Likewise, so are the products being made from other pickup makers like Lollar, Lawrence, Duncan, Bartolini, Kinman, including the custom shop pickups made by Fender.

First of all, get over yourself. I stated an opinion. Deal with it. If people around here have come to trust my opinions, well, it's probably because I've done a pretty good job giving good advice.

Second of all, he may send tubing with his strat pickups (as he should, it's way better than those stupid cone springs), but with his humbuckers (which I use a lot of) he sends really nice springs. So does Lolar, and probably a lot of other boutique pickup manufacturers.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[sound125]

First of all, get over yourself. I stated an opinion. Deal with it.

Your blanket statements don't make valid arguments.

If people around here have come to trust my opinions, well, it's probably because I've done a pretty good job giving good advice.

Based on your failure to support your various statements on this thread, I'd say you've done remarkably well at blowing smoke.

Second of all, he may send tubing with his strat pickups (as he should, it's way better than those stupid cone springs), but with his humbuckers (which I use a lot of) he sends really nice springs.

Nice try, but your claim is hinged on Fralin making the best strat pickups, yet, you didn't even know that he uses surgical tubing to mount them to pickguards, which I had to point out.

Like it or not, Fender has set the standard in the manufacturing of single coil pickups, along with the materials and number of windings used in making those pickups, which extends to mounting them with surgical tubing. Fralin has copied these procedures, as well as other pickup makers. You might want to take some of your own advice by getting over yourself and dealing with it.

 

[jimistone]

Fender's pickups suck ass. I've never seen a single pickup out of them that came close to being a good pickup, though my shop manager likes the Gold Lace Sensors (which I can't stand). Bill Lawrence's stuff has always been pretty mediocre, to my ears. They just don't have the character of a really great pickup. Jason Lolar makes exceptional pickups (the only one you mentioned whose stuff I would put on par with what Lindy does), and I love his P-90s, but for Strat pickups I've got to go with Lindy's stuff. There are others in that league, like Joe Barden, or Bartolini, but they do different stuff. They aren't even trying to make a vintage style pickup (which is a good thing, because just sticking to what you know is boring and stupid).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

Fender pickups suck ass??

You have to be kidding.
The tone of FENDER pickups in the 1950's and 1960's is the benchmark by which all modern "vintage style" single coil pickups are measured. (Lindys included)
The technology of sigle coil pickups is primitive...definately not rocket science by any stretch of the imagination.
It's wire wrapped around magnets on a bobbin...that's about it in a nutshell.
The only differences are the type of wire, the type of magnet, the quality of the work, and the attention to detail.

I don't think any other company has done any more research and paid any more attention to detail in trying to clone the old vintage pickups than fender has...and their product is priced lower than most of their serious compitition.

Don't get me wrong...I think Fralins are very good (though very pricey). That being said "very good" is judged by how a pickup captures the sound in ones head, ...and that sound is usually a fender pickup sound when it comes to strat tone.

I have been playing my '66 strat since 1976 when I bought it. I have had so many different types of pickups on it in those 30+ years.
The original '66 pups, hot rails, mighty mites, dimarzios, seymore duncans, kidmans, several different types of fenders...on and on.

There is no better pickup combo for my '66 strat than the original grey bottom fender pickup on the neck, a fender 57/62 in the middle (a Bill lawerance project), and a texas special set very low on the bridge. That combination is simply as good as it gets and they are all 3 fender pickups.

I have a good friend who has a strat set up with Lindy fralins...it's sounds VERY good...but not as good as mine. He would be the 1st to tell you that because it's a fact.

I admit there are alot of other factors involved such as new wood vs old wood...but the bottom line is that the fender pickup equiped guitar sounds better than the fralin equiped guitar in this instance.

You are very knowledgeable and I respect your opinion...but...I don't agree that fender pickups suck ass.

 

[Lt. Bob]

what I'm stating are my OBJECTIVE OPINIONS, and I have no doubt in my mind that Lindy makes the best sounding strat pickups I've heard,

Technically ..... what you've given are your subjective opinions and not objective since they are your specifically personal opinions.
Also, you did not originally state them as an opinion ...... you stated them as an absolute ... "Fender p'ups suck ass" and that is what people are reacting to.
To react as if someone is not willing to allow you your opinion when you originally stated it in a way that was not given as your opinion is asking people to make assumption as to what you're saying. All they have to go on is the specific words you post. Especially when you seem to say that their opinion is worthless.

For the record, I don't usually care much for Fender p'ups and I'm as professional as it gets.
But something like p'up tone is such a personal taste issue that blanket statements are meaningless.
For example ...... I have a Strat I built 25 years ago and put what, at the time, were fairly newish p'ups ...... some EMG actives. Now this guitar is the best sounding guitar I've ever heard even though it's so heavy I don't gig with it anymore. And I've had literally dozens of excellent professional players that have sat-in with it say the same thing.
Yet, I've read many times that you don't like the way they sound. But you always stated it as an opinion. Have I ever jumped in and told you that you're full of it?
No ..... because it was clearly an opinion. But I'm absolutely as experienced as you at hearing p'ups ...... I absolutely have as much (probably more) playing experience as you. So how could we come to such diametrically opposed opinions?

Simple ........... personal taste which is very under recognized by you sometimes.

 

[sound125]

The following link is to some MP3 music samples that I recorded: http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=759761&content=music

Song #1 "OK Blues" uses a set of FAT 50s and was played through a vintage Fender SF Princeton amp using a SM57 to mic it.

Song #2 "Caroline Alexandra" uses the original strat coils through the same rig and setup.

 

[Light]

Your blanket statements don't make valid arguments.

I wasn't making an argument, I was stating an opinion. The OP asked for opinions, I gave mine. I don't feel any need to defend it. If you MUST have a defense for it, I have almost 4,000 posts on this board (quite a lot more than that if you want to include the Cave, but there is no reason to do so in this context). Go back and look. If my advise has been overall good, there you go. If it's not, feel free to ignore me.

Nice try, but your claim is hinged on Fralin making the best strat pickups, yet, you didn't even know that he uses surgical tubing to mount them to pickguards, which I had to point out.

Like it or not, Fender has set the standard in the manufacturing of single coil pickups, along with the materials and number of windings used in making those pickups, which extends to mounting them with surgical tubing. Fralin has copied these procedures, as well as other pickup makers. You might want to take some of your own advice by getting over yourself and dealing with it.

Oh NO!!!! I can't remember every tiny little detail of every package that goes through my hands day in and day out as our shop is dealing with over 2,000 guitars a year!!! I must be a complete and total fraud!!!!!!


Either way, I'm done with you, and this thread. I stated my opinion. If you want to listen, feel free. If you don't, I really don't give a fuck.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Light]

Fender pickups suck ass??

You have to be kidding.
The tone of FENDER pickups in the 1950's and 1960's is the benchmark by which all modern "vintage style" single coil pickups are measured. (Lindys included)

Sure, back in the `50's and `60's, when some of them were killer and some of them were lame. Consistency matters to me.

As for modern Fender pickups, well, any pickup which isn't special is a waste of my time, so to me anything which is merely average sucks. Modern Fender pickups suck. Bad QC, boring tone, and they are aimed (as are most things by major manufacturers) for the lowest common denominator. They suck.

Technically ..... what you've given are your subjective opinions

Your right. For my grammatical mistake I do apologize. (Seriously here, grammar matters.)


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[jimistone]

Sure, back in the `50's and `60's, when some of them were killer and some of them were lame. Consistency matters to me.

As for modern Fender pickups, well, any pickup which isn't special is a waste of my time, so to me anything which is merely average sucks. Modern Fender pickups suck. Bad QC, boring tone, and they are aimed (as are most things by major manufacturers) for the lowest common denominator. They suck.






Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

Well, like you say...it's all opinion.
I think eric clapton sounds pretty good with modern fender pickups.
robert crays tone isn't bad.
bonnie raitt has a killer slide tonne IMO.
jimi hendrix got alot out of fender pickups...maybe he would have done better with lindys...i dunno.

Bottomline is this...
There are 2 factors that are alot more important in ones tone than pickups...
the guitar players right hand and their left hand.

If your hands are doing the right things...and you have a good enough ear to recognize good tone and set an amp accordingly...minute differences in pickups don't really matter that much.

 

[Lt. Bob]

for that matter, if your hands are doing the right things ..... there almost aren't any p'ups that'll make it bad.
Satriani would burn on an old Tiesco and Jimi would hve burned on the cheapest Rondo Music ax.
I do care about tone but ultimately it's what you play musically.

Also ...... I think that often the player himself can be less worried about it than the audience because a good player tends to make any git he touches sound the same because he has a tone in his head he's going for and within a few minutes he's gonna set the amp and git so that it's at least in the ballpark.
I get complimented on my tone a lot and yet, I use wildly divergent gits because I tend to play whatever's closest to the door when I walk out of the house.
So one night I may play my custom strat with active EMG's and the next night I may play my Schecter and on a beach gig I'll usually play my Squire tele 'cause it's cheap.
I set things so they all are in the same general area in terms of how they sound because that's what I want.
For me it's all about the playing ....... different gits sound different true ...... but a bad-ass player is bad-ass regardless of what he plays on or thru. People get a little too caught up in equipment sometimes.

 

[WhiteStrat]

For me it's all about the playing ....... different gits sound different true ...... but a bad-ass player is bad-ass regardless of what he plays on or thru. People get a little too caught up in equipment sometimes.

As the guy who started this debate in his quest for an opinion--let me say that I agree wholeheartedly with you on this Lt. Bob. Even though I have ordered new pickups & electronics for my Strat, an interesting thing has happened. I've started playing it more. I wanted to sear it's sound into my head as much as possible so I can better hear the difference when I replace the pups, but guess what? I really like it right now!

I'll still change 'em, and I'm still looking forward to it. But it really is more about my hands & head than the wire wrapped around those magnets...

 

[Lt. Bob]

As the guy who started this debate in his quest for an opinion--let me say that I agree wholeheartedly with you on this Lt. Bob. Even though I have ordered new pickups & electronics for my Strat, an interesting thing has happened. I've started playing it more. I wanted to sear it's sound into my head as much as possible so I can better hear the difference when I replace the pups, but guess what? I really like it right now!

I'll still change 'em, and I'm still looking forward to it. But it really is more about my hands & head than the wire wrapped around those magnets...

Cool ...... and playing around with your gear is a big part of the fun!
Let us know how you like the new p'ups.

 

[sound125]

bonnie raitt has a killer slide tonne IMO.

She definately plays a mean slide guitar and her tone is awesome. There are some videos on you tube of her accompanying John Lee Hooker on slide with her blue signature strat. I think it's loaded with Fender Texas Specials, but I may be wrong.

jimi hendrix got alot out of fender pickups...maybe he would have done better with lindys...i dunno.

Hard to imagine Lindy improving on: Castles Made of Sand, All Along The Watchtower and Little Wing.

 

[apl]

As the guy who started this debate in his quest for an opinion--let me say that I agree wholeheartedly with you on this Lt. Bob. Even though I have ordered new pickups & electronics for my Strat, an interesting thing has happened. I've started playing it more. I wanted to sear it's sound into my head as much as possible so I can better hear the difference when I replace the pups, but guess what? I really like it right now!

I'll still change 'em, and I'm still looking forward to it. But it really is more about my hands & head than the wire wrapped around those magnets...

So what happened?

 

[WhiteStrat]

So what happened?

Well, as promised, I went back to three single coils, instead of Humbucker in the bridge. I went with some overwound 60's/70's style coils. Hotter than stock strat pups and some serious quack. But I also did a "superstrat" wiring mod. Three mini toggles instead of a 5 way selector. So I can have all three on, the neck on with the bridge (my favorite addition) or even one out phase with another.

Here's the thread that covers the mod (complete w/pics!):

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=260682