Need some Strat Part ideas

[jkokura]

So, I picked up this rad Fiesta Red Warmoth strat body off ebay, and I think I have most of the hardware, and a neck sorted to but this strat together. But, what I don't have figured out is what to do for pickups.

The body has a universal route, which means any combo of Singles through humbuckers will work. Keep in mind the following details:
- I have a wide variety of guitar sounds already available to me, including Super Strat type with vintage sounding hum-canceling single coils, Hum-canceling Tele, PAF style equipped Dot, Nashville Tele (strat middle pickup) with piezo bridge, and cheap Les Paul copy with vintage Dimarzio Humbuckers
- I would rather get a gretsch for gretsch sounds than try and get them out of a strat (only guitar type I might not try and cop here)
- What I'm not interested in is hummy or noisy type pickups (P90s, I'm looking at you), or weak single coils
- I'm game for considering outside the box ideas on what to drop in this thing
- I'm willing to go vintage with humcanceling, hot, interesting combos, or even go with a single pickup, but I prefer master volume and tone, and obviously I need to be able to find a pickguard for the setup.
- I don't want to spend a fortune on pickups I may or may not like (so, a $300 set of X Brand isn't an option), used is a great option.

So, can you give me your favourite strat setup considering the above? (basiclally, not wimpy, not aggressive, and not noisy)

Oh, and If you have them, I'm looking for Schaller locking tuners, a White Pickguard with Master Volume/Tone (no middle Pot hole), and the pickups to buy used if possible.

Jacob

[pryde]

You can do tons of cool things with a couple 4-conductor humbuckers and a 5 way super switch.
Here is a nice one I just did for a customer

[timbo_93631]

As you have all the other standard bases covered, and don't want P-90's you could stick Jazzmaster or Jag pickups in it but they have some noise too.  Maybe a very clear and jangly humbucker in the bridge position is gonna do it.  Rose Pickups makes a fairly affordable jangly humbucker called the Daybreaker that might be interesting in that application as it is not a full blown filtertron but does have some nice twang. http://www.rosepickups.com/apps/webstore/products/show/3862791

[midwayfair]

Kinman Broadcasters. Very beefy tele. They're the middle and bridge in the red tele in some of my demos.

His P90s would be good, too. No noise, but they sound just like P90s; they might overlap a little with the PAFs tone-wise, though.

Thought about Filtertrons? You won't get exactly a gretch sound, but they're a very cool "almost humbucking" pickup. Nothing else really sounds like them.

[jkokura]

I like the ideas so far. I've not really listened to your guitar Jon, I tend to focus on the pedals in your demos! I know others swear by Kinmans for Teles, so I'll go look at their website. I'll also look at filtertrons, cause I have no idea what they are. I liked that Rose Pickups idea too tim. I listened to the demo, and it's on the list to consider.

I'm waiting to decide on wiring until after I pick my pickups. I have super switches, and 3, 4 and 5 way blades around I think. 250 or 500K pots. I'm good to go once I have my solutions made. I actually prefer fewer pickups selections, rather than more, so I'm more likely to go standard three way with a pair of HBs than go 5 way super switch. My super strat has a 5 way super with an add bridge toggle switch and a series/parallel switch for the bridge pickup, and I rarely use more than like 2 or 3 settings of the 11 different options available.

One of the interesting ideas I found, stumbled across really, is this new GFS thing. Brian May style pickups and wiring kit:
http://www.guitarfetish.com/Brighton-Rock-Vintage-Correct-65K-Pickup-set-of-three_p_1520.html
http://www.guitarfetish.com/BHM-Style-SeriesPhase-Switching-Kit-3-Ply-White-Pickguard_p_1181.html

Master volume and tone, lots of switches to tweak though, which I don't really love to do. But it would certainly sound different than anything I have. What I like about this idea, is that if I don't like it, I can probably offload the whole shebang as a loaded guard, and start over with another option. Of course, I'm not sure I'd like the end result, and it seems more like I'd be paying to try an idea for a while, see if I like it, all the while I'd be %90 sure I'd move on. Seems an expensive experiment to me.

Keep those ideas coming!

Jacob

[timbo_93631]

I have had quite a lot of GFS pickups including the RWRP Brighton Rocks set with the mini switch pickguard and I was not really very impressed with that setup at all.  Their '64 Surfy Greybottom strat set is probably the best set of Strat pickups I had from them.  I gave away the guitar all of those had been in to a younger guy at our church with a Dream 90 in the neck and a mean 90 in the bridge wired with a tele 3 way and a series switch for fat leads.  That was a nice sounding guitar and I think it can be heard in some of my oldest demos here.

[jkokura]

I have had quite a lot of GFS pickups including the RWRP Brighton Rocks set with the mini switch pickguard and I was not really very impressed with that setup at all.  Their '64 Surfy Greybottom strat set is probably the best set of Strat pickups I had from them.  I gave away the guitar all of those had been in to a younger guy at our church with a Dream 90 in the neck and a mean 90 in the bridge wired with a tele 3 way and a series switch for fat leads.  That was a nice sounding guitar and I think it can be heard in some of my oldest demos here.

Yeah, that's what I was guessing with those GFS pickups and wiring kit. Great idea I thought, but the more I think about I'm positive I would move on from them quickly.

I spent some time emailing with my favourite pickup guy, Tom Anderson, and he also recommended I try some Hum Cancelling P90 pickups. He makes them, and I'm looking into a quote for them as well.

Jacob

[oldhousescott]

Check out the Bill Lawrence stuff. High quality and affordable. The NFs and Twin Blades are noise-free.

[GermanCdn]

Three P rails, three dpdt on off on switches, a standard five way, push pull on the tone for bridge pickup in all positions, and a fatpants jr in place of the second tone. 

[jkokura]

Three P rails, three dpdt on off on switches, a standard five way, push pull on the tone for bridge pickup in all positions, and a fatpants jr in place of the second tone.

You would...

What do you think of the noise cancelling p90 suggestion? Apparently I can get them in a Humbucker size, and use a fairly stock pickguard then.

Jacob

[juansolo]

I've got a TV Jones Powertron Plus in my Telemaster and that's rather good (soon to be joined by a P90 in the neck position, but in your case why not try a mini-humbucker?). Another option might be the SD P-Rails which are really versatile things. Wire the vol and tone as push pulls to change the modes (it's not that complicated) and leave the selector as is.

[GhostofJohnToad]

What about those new rail hammer pickups that some of new Reverend's use?  I think stewmac sells them.  They supposedly have been getting good reviews.  Disclaimer, haven't looked up how much they are.  They may be too pricey.

[RobA]

I have the P-Rails in my main guitar and I really like them. There are a couple of things about them though that could be weird/good/bad (something to think about) in a three pickup setup though. The first is that I don't really find the straight humbucker sound to be very good except for heavy distortion -- it's a bit dull. On the other hand, the two coils in parallel humbucker mode sounds great. So, I think you really want to be able to get that mode from them. Which means you need two SPDT (On/On) switch sections per pickup. You could do it with a pair of DPDT and a pair of SPDT if you didn't mind switching two of the pickups together. But that's still 4 switches. If you could find a set of On/On 3PDT toggles, you could do it with two.

And then to add to the switch madness, my second favorite tone out of the things is using the bridge and neck rails coil in series. That's another DPDT.

The second thing is that they are set up to be reverse wound when you use two matching coils in the separate pickups. So, the neck and bridge of either the rails or the P90 are humbucking. You'd need to figure out where you wanted the that to match in a three pickup arrangement and get it to work with the output levels of the pickups. And, then you'd need to figure out what you wanted to do for the output level of the pickups in each position. (They've got a normal and a hot version of the bridge.)

I've seen a couple of people use the P-Rails in the neck and bridge positions and some other Strat pickup in the middle slot. You'd lose the three position P90 setup that way, but it kinda seems more sensible anyway.

I played a Reverend with some Railhammers in it -- nice pickups. 

So, after all that, it's a red Strat. You could go for EMG's.

[wstimson]

What do you think of the noise cancelling p90 suggestion? Apparently I can get them in a Humbucker size, and use a fairly stock pickguard then.

Jacob

I have Harmonic Design's Z-90s in my Les Paul (humbucker sized P-90s) and I LOVE them.
They are hum-canceling together and honestly pretty damn quiet alone.
Pretty high output, but not overly aggressive, to my ear. 
I spent years swapping out pickups in this guitar, but haven't even considered changing since I got these 5 years ago or so.

They aren't cheap, though, ($100 each) so it may be a little more than you are looking to spend.

Other people make similar pickups, and I haven't tried too many of them, so you may be able to get something that is also awesome for less cash.

[GermanCdn]

Three P rails, three dpdt on off on switches, a standard five way, push pull on the tone for bridge pickup in all positions, and a fatpants jr in place of the second tone.

You would...

What do you think of the noise cancelling p90 suggestion? Apparently I can get them in a Humbucker size, and use a fairly stock pickguard then.

Jacob

Of course I would.  Actually, no I wouldn't.  If I was building a triple P Rail, I'd do it in a top route guitar with three Tripleshots, and would probably do it with a TOM bridge so as to avoid having to source THPRs.  But that setups like a $450 touch just for the pups and the rings, and given my penchant for PRS guitars, would end up costing me $3000+, which ain't going to happen.

I've used Dimarzio P-100s (noise cancelling), pretty nice pickups all around, but they are standard P90 size.  If you're looking for P90 tone in an affordable humbucker size, go with Dimarzio Bluesbuckers, you'll get close enough to the growl without having to shell out serious coin (think they like $80 each w/o covers).