Is this possible?

Roguetitan said:
I am not you but if it was me I would use the GF loaded pick guard for the simple reason they are a high quality replacement at a more affordable price in comparison to the other better known brands of pickups...if you do decide to go with the GF pickguard you will be very happy with them
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The Xaviere guitars have GFS pickups. My Xaviere strat clone has the Texas Stagger set, and that guitar sounds kick-ass. The bridge pickup is notably hotter than the other two so it can push an amp nicely. The neck pickup gives a really nice woody sound, and the in-between "quack" positions have quack for miles.

That's my only experience with GFS pickups but it's a good one.
 
If a guitar sounds good clean but not good distorted, the first thing I'd look at for a change would be what is making the distortion. Meaning pedal or amp.
 
ggunn said:
Are you certain that what you are calling "thin" is not just the difference between single and dual coil pickups?
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See, that's where I am not sure of. I've been playing guitars about 2-3 years now but never really dig into the technical side of the guitar and tones. I was focusing more on my playing skills than anything else. Now that I feel my skills have improved over the years, I started to notice that my tones are lacking qualities in some ways that I'm not sure how to described. Maybe I'm just too picky now or just not good enough to create the tones I want.

My current pickups on my strat is all single coils. I usually use the tone knob to change from thick to thin tones. Everytime I play I always feel that this guitar could be better but don't know how it's possible? The only thing I can think of now is to change the pickups.
 
GOYA said:
If a guitar sounds good clean but not good distorted, the first thing I'd look at for a change would be what is making the distortion. Meaning pedal or amp.
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Amp is the last thing I would worry about as I already have a decent amp. Maybe my settings just aren't that great enough to get good tones???

Not all cleans are good. For cleans I usually use the neck pickup majority of the time cause I liked the warm jazzy sound and turn the tone knob full way to get the tone to stand out. For distortion I usually go with the bridge pickup and use the tone knob to roll off the high frequencies to get the warmth and punch from the distortion when I play power chords.
 
What is your amp and what do you use to get distortion?

When you play the bridge PU clean, does it sound like you think it ought to sound?
 
monkie said:
See, that's where I am not sure of. I've been playing guitars about 2-3 years now but never really dig into the technical side of the guitar and tones. I was focusing more on my playing skills than anything else. Now that I feel my skills have improved over the years, I started to notice that my tones are lacking qualities in some ways that I'm not sure how to described. Maybe I'm just too picky now or just not good enough to create the tones I want.

My current pickups on my strat is all single coils. I usually use the tone knob to change from thick to thin tones. Everytime I play I always feel that this guitar could be better but don't know how it's possible? The only thing I can think of now is to change the pickups.
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What style of music are you playing? If you are trying to do something that is better done by a Les Paul, a strat with single coils isn't going to cut it.
 
GOYA said:
What is your amp and what do you use to get distortion?

When you play the bridge PU clean, does it sound like you think it ought to sound?
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I have a Axe-Fx. What do you mean by your last statement? I don't think I quite understand what you are asking:D
 
Farview said:
What style of music are you playing? If you are trying to do something that is better done by a Les Paul, a strat with single coils isn't going to cut it.
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I play soft rock to hard rock. At the same time, I am also considering an Ibanez if changing the pickups isn't going to cut it.:D
 
monkie said:
About my current pickups, which are the Tex-Mex pickups, I'm just not really satisfied with the distortion tones. Are you familiar with the Tex Mex pickups?It sounds a bit too thin for my taste.
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There are a couple possibilities. Number one, single coils are a thinner sounding pickup than a humbucker. If you are used to humbuckers, it may just be that single coil pickups aren't your thing. If you decide on humbuckers but don't want to rout things out, you could look at something like a Hot Rails, a `lil 59, a `lil JB, or maybe even Joe Bardens.

Second, the Tex-Mex pickups are overwound, which can lead to them have weak mids, which a lot of people perceive as "thin". If you decide you want to stick with single coils, you should be looking for something with more of a "vintage" output. The output will typically be about 6-7k. If you want something quiet, I'm very fond of the Seymour Duncan Classic Stack Plus. If you aren't so concerned about noise, Lindy Fralin makes my favorite, but Seymour Duncan also makes fine pickups, as does Dimarzio.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
There are a couple possibilities. Number one, single coils are a thinner sounding pickup than a humbucker. If you are used to humbuckers, it may just be that single coil pickups aren't your thing. If you decide on humbuckers but don't want to rout things out, you could look at something like a Hot Rails, a `lil 59, a `lil JB, or maybe even Joe Bardens.

Second, the Tex-Mex pickups are overwound, which can lead to them have weak mids, which a lot of people perceive as "thin". If you decide you want to stick with single coils, you should be looking for something with more of a "vintage" output. The output will typically be about 6-7k. If you want something quiet, I'm very fond of the Seymour Duncan Classic Stack Plus. If you aren't so concerned about noise, Lindy Fralin makes my favorite, but Seymour Duncan also makes fine pickups, as does Dimarzio.
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Thanks Light. I've been thinking that if I want better distortions I might have to go with an Ibanez with DiMarzio humbuckers. As of right now the cleans in my current pickups on my strat are good enough for me. However, I might still want to change the pickups in the near future for less noises.

Any other thoughts and opinions are much appreciated.:D
 
monkie said:
The pickguard on my strat is too thin, only one piece. It and looks feels fragile. I want something thicker.

Does the pickguard make any sound differences in the guitar?
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Yes, it does. Thickness, and color of knobs, switch ends, string ferruls,
etc. has a TREMENDOUS effect on tone. Monster is about to release a line of "Tone" stuff... (shhhhhh!)
 
I second the Hot Rails suggestion if you want good distortion. I would just put one of those in the bridge position and leave the other ones. You can use the standard SC's for clean tones.
 
Farview said:
I second the Hot Rails suggestion if you want good distortion. I would just put one of those in the bridge position and leave the other ones. You can use the standard SC's for clean tones.
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Third. Especially since you yourself admit that you were happier with the clean and dirty sound of a friend's humbucker-equipped guitar, really I think the problem here is you don't like singlecoils.
 
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