How easy is it to change Strat pickups???

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Fishybob

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Hey guys!

I've been playing my lovely Strat for 14 years. It is wonderful... yet I still miss the 'balls' I got from my old Les Paul (copy!).

It has the 3 single coil pickups as standard and I was wondering how easy would it be for me to change the rear one to a humbucker?
The overall aim is to give the guitar a more forceful tone.

I have been using effects to replicate a harder sound but it always seems to be lacking. I have a Marshall Guv'nor (original), a Zoom GFX-8, a marshall stack (of some considerable power!) and the faithful Vox Wah.

... Don't worry, it's not a vintage American strat or anything... I could never bring myself to take apart a classic. It is a Jap... but still lovely!

Any tips? guidance? or warnings welcome!
 
It'd be fairly easy to slap in a Carvin pickguard that's prewired. Order it with a C22B humbucker. If you don't like the sound you can send it back and put your other one back in.
 
If you're handy with the basic operation of a soldering iron it's a piece of cake. There are several models of single coil size humbuckers that can be used in strats without replacing the pickguard or routing anything. Check out the Seymour Duncan l'il '59 (attempt at the PAF sound) or the Dimarzio Fastrack 2 (single coil size version of their Super Distortion). If you're feeling fancy you can also replace one of your pots with a push/pull pot and wire the new pickup for single/double coil switching. Check out the websites of the companies for wiring diagrams.
 
Cool

It seems bazarre to me to have something so obvious explained to me... at the cost of looking stupid, I've been playing for years and I actaully didn't know that you can get humbuckers that are the same size as single coil pickups!

Do you know... would they be less lickly to cause interference when recording next to a pc monitor??? I've read that double humbuckers (now I understand the term properly...div!) don't have the same problems with interference as single coils.

Any ideas???
 
Humbuckers buck hum by having two coils that are of opposite polarity and wound in the opposite direction. The string signal adds, but the electric noise cancels. So, yes, they will be quieter.
 
Fishybob said:
It seems bazarre to me to have something so obvious explained to me... at the cost of looking stupid, I've been playing for years and I actaully didn't know that you can get humbuckers that are the same size as single coil pickups!

Do you know... would they be less lickly to cause interference when recording next to a pc monitor??? I've read that double humbuckers (now I understand the term properly...div!) don't have the same problems with interference as single coils.

Any ideas???
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Erm... it doesn't matter when you are talking about interference from a PC monitor. I have a couple of guitars with humbuckers and a Strat with single coils. Both types of pickups react the same when too close to a PC monitor.

The easy solution is to not stand/sit close to the monitor.

As for putting a humbucker in your Strat... why not just get a guitar with humbuckers?

You are yearning for that LP tone and you will *never* get it from a strat. If you want ballsy humbucker tone... get a guitar that produces ballsy humbucker tone.
 
A very good point! If I could afford to buy a LP with the kind of playability that this creature has... I would. Problem is that like alot of you I play a wide variety of styles and need my guitar to be as flexible as possible.

In an ideal world I would have a room in my house dedicated to the storage of thousands of guitars... but that's never gonna happen! The wife would have to go (.........hmmm..).


I love the way my strat feels. I've been playing it for so long that any other guitar just feels wrong. I do love the idea of being able to change from single to humbucker at any point.. that could provide some great contrast in more complex pieces.

As to getting further away from the monitor... box room... never get more that a meter away! I'll just have to stick to turning it off!!


Thanks though guys... plenty of food for thought. :rolleyes:
 
Man, somebody else slapping a humbucker in a strat.

I don't "get it". :confused:
 
jimistone said:
Man, somebody else slapping a humbucker in a strat.

I don't "get it". :confused:
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For many people it's a simple matter of economics. If they could, they've have a Gibson and a strat. But, they're forced to compromise.

Besides that fact, it allows you to get one solid signature strat sound (the neck pickup) and a very decent approximation of a humbucker sound at the same time. You can play Texas blues and Chicago style blues with one axe. Granted, you're a bit limited, but like I said, if people could afford two guitars, I don't think you'd see pickup changing going on nearly as much.
 
I plan on putting one in my strat's bridge position. I had one there for a while, but pulled it out for use in another guitar.

Most of the music I make is better suited to humbuckers. Those times I do pick up my strat I almost never use the bridge pickup. Throwing a humbucker in there to give me a flavor that I will use makes sense to me. I would not consider doing the same for the middle or neck positions because those are what I use for the "strat tones" when I want them.
 
famous beagle said:
For many people it's a simple matter of economics. If they could, they've have a Gibson and a strat. But, they're forced to compromise.

Besides that fact, it allows you to get one solid signature strat sound (the neck pickup) and a very decent approximation of a humbucker sound at the same time. You can play Texas blues and Chicago style blues with one axe. Granted, you're a bit limited, but like I said, if people could afford two guitars, I don't think you'd see pickup changing going on nearly as much.
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I understand the reasons why people put humbuckers in strats. I just don't understand people who want LP tone and think they can get it from putting a humbucker in a strat. :rolleyes:

Some people will spend a couple hundred dollars on pickups/mods/parts for their Strat when they could save up a little more and buy a guitar that produces *real* ballsy, humbucker tone.

By the way... you don't need a guitar that says "Gibson" on the headstock to get ballsy, humbucker tone.

Anyway, to each his own... All I'm saying is don't expect a Strat with a humbucker to sound like a Les Paul-- it won't.
 
Scottgman said:
I understand the reasons why people put humbuckers in strats. I just don't understand people who want LP tone and think they can get it from putting a humbucker in a strat. :rolleyes:

Some people will spend a couple hundred dollars on pickups/mods/parts for their Strat when they could save up a little more and buy a guitar that produces *real* ballsy, humbucker tone.

By the way... you don't need a guitar that says "Gibson" on the headstock to get ballsy, humbucker tone.

Anyway, to each his own... All I'm saying is don't expect a Strat with a humbucker to sound like a Les Paul-- it won't.
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I was just using "Gibson" and "Fender" because they are clearly the most prominent two brands that are famous for their respective sounds. And I know it's not going to sound exactly like a LP, but I bet I could play you examples where you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
 
famous beagle said:
For many people it's a simple matter of economics. If they could, they've have a Gibson and a strat. But, they're forced to compromise.

Besides that fact, it allows you to get one solid signature strat sound (the neck pickup) and a very decent approximation of a humbucker sound at the same time. You can play Texas blues and Chicago style blues with one axe. Granted, you're a bit limited, but like I said, if people could afford two guitars, I don't think you'd see pickup changing going on nearly as much.
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Well, If someone can't afford 2 guitars I guess I can see it, but, a decent humbucker, that will actually work on a strat, will cost $100...then there is the pickguard, the wiring, roudering out the pickup cavity on some strats. You can get an old electra guitar (pretty decent) for $200. It don't see where it is that cost effective to alter a strat to accomadate a humbucker.

Its not going to sound like a les paul anyway (like Scottman said). And this pickup change makes for an ugly ass strat IMO.

If I were going to put a humbucker in a strat, it would be a hotrails....a humbucker that would fit in a standard single coil size hole. That way, you could change it back over to single coil with ease if you ever wanted to.
 
Carvin also offers a single coil sized humbucker. I've heard that it's got a fairly decent single coil tone when split.
 
jimistone said:
Well, If someone can't afford 2 guitars I guess I can see it, but, a decent humbucker, that will actually work on a strat, will cost $100...then there is the pickguard, the wiring, roudering out the pickup cavity on some strats. You can get an old electra guitar (pretty decent) for $200. It don't see where it is that cost effective to alter a strat to accomadate a humbucker.

Its not going to sound like a les paul anyway (like Scottman said). And this pickup change makes for an ugly ass strat IMO.

If I were going to put a humbucker in a strat, it would be a hotrails....a humbucker that would fit in a standard single coil size hole. That way, you could change it back over to single coil with ease if you ever wanted to.
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I have an unaltered strat, an SG, and a strat with a bucker in it. It's a hot rails that I got for $60 used. No routing, No new pickup needed, and I did the wiring myself. $60.
 
It's also interesting to point out (this is the reason I have the guitars I have) that the only way to approximate a humbucker sound and a single coil sound during one song is to have a guitar that has both of them. Obviously, a Gibson will get its sound better than anything else, and a Strat will do its thing as well, but if you have a song that needs a wide tonal variety, something's gotta give. In the studio, this is no big deal obviously, but live you've gotta make do.
 
Personally I prefer the tonal qualities of a strat with a humbucker over an LP. It has a very unique sound that is worth a try, but I agree, it's not gonna give you the sound of an LP (not that that's necessarily a bad thing).
 
Tell you what. A few years back I bought a Mexican "Fat Strat" with a twin-coil humbucker in the bridge. I don't use the bridge pickup very often so I didn't much care about it. My old Strat was trashed and I needed a replacement fast.

After playing this new guitar for a while, I thought, "Pfft." The sound just didn't jazz me. Thin. Know why? The new axe had plain-jane Fender pickups. The old guitar had a set of EMG active pickups. Big difference.

Although I do enjoy the crystalline sound of a clean Strat with light strings - think Sultans of Swing, it's not what I usually play. So, I dug the old EMG's out of a box, bought a new pickguard, installed low-impedence pots, new caps, soldered them up and POW! Things sound great now. Really nice punch.

I wasn't going for a Les Paul sound - just something Vaughan-ish. Yes, twin-coil pickups have a raunchy sound that is part of the equation but, as stated previously, the construction of the instrument and the quality of the amplifier (or pre-processor) are big factors, too.

Anyway, the last step was moving to heavy strings. Presto, I'm in Vaughan country. :cool:

To your original question, the Fat Stat is routed with a wider opening for the bridge pickup. That's something to consider if you're going to install a double-wide.
 
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