Pickups

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dabluesman

dabluesman

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Does anyone know of a good replacement pickup for the neck position that has the (I THINK) 1.95 string spacing for an Am. Std. strat with a twin pivot bridge? The Bill Lawrence 280 pickup that I have now is just to muddy and humbucker like. I'm thinking of putting a real single coil in its place, maybe something like a Fat 50's neck pickup. I just need to know if it will match my string spacing before I buy it. Another thing, does anyone know of any problems with mixing pickups, such as putting in a single coil in the neck while I have two stacked humbucker type pickups in the middle and bridge, or should that be ok? I'm just looking for ideas and thoughts here. I know of good pickups but I dont know if they will match the narrow spacing of my strings or not. Thanks!
 
As far as spacing goes, I really don't know specifics off hand. As far as mixing pickups. There's a couple of things to consider. How the output will blend with the others. How the frequency repsonse will react when combined with others. The wiring will probably not match color code wise. All these things can be worked out, but depending on how picky you are you may be dissatisfied. Plus most of all, if you really want the single coil thing. (IE. Clarity, bell like clean sound, and stevie or jimi drive) I've come to the conclusion all these stacked and rail pickups can't do it.(especially in the neck position) I just recently went through this and just wasn't happy. I was on the phone with DiMarzio for awhile trying to sort it out. They would suggest this and that, but I just don't have the time to be swapping pickups in and out. And then probably never be satisfied in the end. I got two guitars now one for Heavy humbucking and one, once I get the money, will be a true single coil. Something to think about. Plus think about changing all of them so you can get a balanced set. Plus will make wiring a sure thing. Either way you need to make sure to wire the pickups in phase with each other.

All I can think of right now.
Let me know if i can clear anything up for you.

PS I think most of the vintage style pickups of various companies will match your string spacing. Check their website for details
 
Chris N, thanks for the input. I just got off the phone with Bill Lawrence and it seems that I have a defective neck pickup, so he is shipping me out another. Its a funny thing about the late 90's Am. Std. Strats. The spacing for each pickup is different. Neck = 1.95, Middle = 2.00, Bridge = 2.05. I dont know of any companies that make individual pickups with spacings respective to their positions except for Bill Lawrence. And Bill is a consultant for Fender so he must know whats going on. Now as far as getting authentic single coil tones out of stacked or railed pickups, I agree with you. But have you tried Kinman AVn Blues (or Traditionals) pickups? They are amazing, they really do sound like hot single coils with no noise or hum. As far as the Bill Lawrence 280's goes, I can say the middle and bridge pickups are very convincing maybe not as much as the Kinmans but are right up there, and they cost about a third of what the Kinman's go for. I'll know for sure when I get that neck pickup replaced. It sounds like you have been tring out the more well known names like Duncan and DiMarzio, but dont give up on finding that "noiseless" single coil tone, because it is out there. Did you try that pickup from Duncan that they swear is a match for SRV tone? I forget what they called it. Anyway, hopefully this neck pickup that is being shipped to me will fix my problem, cause i'm tired of dealing with pickups, I just wanna play and make music. Thanks again!
 
I know what you mean about messing around. Yeah there are others I came to hear about after buying the set I went with from dimarzio. I guess I would have to hear them on another guitar before spending any more money on the hum cancelling single coil thing. I didn't know that about the Am std. strat's. Good luck and get back to playing.
 
dabluesman

Have you ever thought about using EMGs or some other kind of active pickup? The string spacing doesn't matter and you don't have to put the pickup right up under the strings pulling the strings out of tune with the magnetic pole pieces just to maximize output.

Just a thought.
 
I thought of going with active, but I think I'd rather stay more "vintage" and not fool around with adding the electronics. I also thought of tring rail type pickups but I talked to Bill Lawrence last week about my neck pickup problem, he believes that the pickup is defective so he sent me out another. It should be in anytime now, hopefully that'll take care of it.
 
Interesting. I haven't used Bill Lawrence pickups in 20 years. Used to have bad feedback problems and they seemed to lack low end.

But, they're probably better now.
 
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