Metropoulos Forum

i have a nice mark knopfler strat , with lightweight body, that is a good strat , with all (or at least most) the bell like tone and chime a vintage style fender stratocaster should have but i suppose due to its lightweight (typo error corrected, see next post ! lol ) ash body, has much high end and can get kind of trebly with some amps.
i have tried the stock texas special i didn't like at first as i might have played with a dark or soft sounding amp at that time and also find they have too much mids (but not those rich and complex mids you can hear in a good 60's strat) .
so i tried the 57/62' and the CS69' but still wasn't satisfied !
actauly i am playing much with a repro jtm45 i built i really love through pre rolal / early rola g12h30 speakers and those two sets of pickups are too bright on this guitar with this amp or other marshall amps i use .
so , i recently bought a use Custom shop 66' strat in excellent condition and some Fender parts to build one (didn't receive an,ything yet), so i was thinking about selling that Mark Knopfler strat but in another hand it could be agoof one to keep for some amps and teh neck is quiet easy to play.
so, i look for some good start pu's to tone down / soften its top end a bit and get those creamy mids i love in the good strats.

i read George seems to be satified with his Lollar set that seems to be called the "dirty blondes" with what seems to be the "vintage blonde" model for neck and middle pu's and "special" for the neck (with higher output than the two others).

i also read about Kinman , Van Zandt and Fralin single coils for startocaster but i never heard some and won't certainly be able to hear some here in France, so i was wondering if you could give me your opinion on the pu's you used on your vintage style / reissue / custom shop stratocaster ?and what could sound good on mine .

Remember the Knopfler Strat is an Ash '57 body, so this has some bearing on the pickups/tone.I think you meant ash, but spelled it hash...so I'm sure it has an interesting smell to it.. seriously, I personally love Bare Knuckles and they are based in England, so Euro exchange and all that. They have very Rory Gallagher like Irish Tour pickups, http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/products.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They are killer pickups and sure Lollar, Fralin, ect are great, but damn lets show some love for these amazing pickups!!

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/ZS-slowhand.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/ZS-irishtour.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
How about these the Sultans, just for you know who Mark Knopfler!!! electricskychurch seriously give them a shout If I had suitable guitars I would buy Bare Knuckles all day, so my recommendation is:
http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/ZS-thesultans.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Good Luck!!
yngwie308

yes, i meant ash ! LOL

i heard about bare knuckles P90's that i've been trying to buy for a year in France without success (LOL) but never heard about their strat pu's !

in another hand, i had an american (or is it USA serie now ) stratocaster standard 54-2004 50th anniversary with limited edition 54' pu's , with ash body and maple neck, that really souded dull.

One thing I've found. Is most strats I own sound best with the volume rolled off just a hair like 8 3/4-9.
And also listen close cause the tone controls for whatever reason will bleed into your bridge pickup evan when they are hooked up stock and on the #1 bridge position on the switch.
Maybe its the way mine are wired,cause I ground my tone pots,but I swear its true and VERY subtle.
BTW if anyone does happen to have a strat made out of hash I will buy it name your price......

yes, that's what Clapton says as well, he likes much the tone of a strat with noticeably reduced vol setting !
with the original 63' L serie and 66' (hardtail model) strats a friend brought home recently, no need to do that at all !!!
even with a jtm45 repro with orginal greenback g12h30's , we just lowered the treble and presence pot to 3 (bass a well ) , mids 5 and bright channel volume on 9.
really the most beautifull strat tones i heard in direct and i didn't even think 30 seconds to lower the volume pot, whereas i very often do it with my modern production strats .

I always make sure theres no shim in the neck pocket and sometimes I'll sand the heel of the neck if its got too much clear finish (or a bar code sticker yikes !!) and reassemble and tighten the neck with the back facing up on a level surface. This can improve the mechanical vibration transfer between the body and neck. Thin sounding guitars can be thickened quite a bit.

I went through a bunch of Strat pickups sets...finally wound up with the WCR SR pickups, which had a bit less treble, more balls, somewhere between stock Strat output and a P90. I also changed my wiring to have two volumes, one master tone. The 2nd volume just runs the bridge pickup alone, which allows you to combine the volumes for different tones in the 4th position.

Only took 6 years to dial in the Strat to a point I found it usable...but I'll admit I'm not a typical Strat player who is happy with one volume control, either. Just been an LP player too long and like the different volumes available by flipping the toggle.

All of the shootout clips were done on my Strat with WCR's, by the way.

i finaly sold that mark knopfler stratocaster after 3 or 4 years of use !
now i'm really looking for a good one and heard great vintage ones as reference.
i'm looking at several 62 and 63' strat refin...