Strats and the 12000 series?

MacGaden · Post by **MacGaden** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:04 pm

Those Custom Shop

mushmouth · Post by **mushmouth** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 6:14 pm

Thanks for the response. You're not alone in that opinion, Mr Kickass Jimi Avatar. I spent a half hour on the phone with Kenny from Solid Body Guitar in MN today who strongly suggested the Bare Knuckle Irish Tour pickups. He's done that swap in a number of these Relics and says it's the fix. After a bunch of reading, it seems my problem is apparently universal for the 50s era relics, so I'm going to give that a shot. I'm relieved the problem isn't the guitar itself.

These pickups in this guitar are the first I've heard make my 12000 series sound mediocre. They're that bad.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm gonna give this a whirl. I'll post some clips when I get it sorted.

yngwie308 · Post by **yngwie308** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 9:39 pm

Lovin' my YJM DiMarzio's,and my HS-3,plus my '83 '57 reissue sounds fine,and of course my double rail sc's from Bill Lawerence in my Hamer Superstrat rock.
I unferstand what everyone is saying,jumping from a Les Paul ,to weak thin sounding '50's retro p/u's is a big leap.I used to hate a Strat into a Fender in the old days,from silverfromt days on,that is..to bright.
yngwie308

72/73 50Watt · Post by **72/73 50Watt** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 11:00 pm

It is a challenge to go from a humbucker to single coils in your favorite marshall set up. Especially if you are simply relying on the pickup and tubes for your overdrive and tone. From my reading, most strat player who had huge tones from a strat were using something on the front end of the amp to boost the signal. Malmsteen has said to use the mixer eq, SRV used a tube screamer, and Hendrix relied on the wah and his pedals. I'll never forget seeing the Isle of Wight video where Hendrix comes out, plugs in and turns the volume up to check his signal. Those Majors sounded horrible, bone dry like they were on 4 or 5. Then he steps on that Octavia pedal and the amps just exploded. There he was with that wall of sound. He also would turn on his wah wah use that as a boost.

It takes a lot of trial and error to match single coils to particular guitar and amp combo that sound great without a boost of some sort. If you find something that works you gotta share

. BTW the base plate for the bridge pickup makes a HUGE difference in the right direction. It's well worth the 20.00 or so bucks.

JimiJames · Post by **JimiJames** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 1:44 am

72/73 50Watt wrote:............. BTW the base plate for the bridge pickup makes a HUGE difference in the right direction. It's well worth the 20.00 or so bucks.

\
Crap !
Thanks for reminding me. I have one somewherez. I have to find it 'cuz I'll be making a clip of my 50th Anniv. with the Cobalt Samarian's.
So far I'm diggin' what I here but I'll leave it to youz guyz...

shakti · Post by **shakti** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:23 am

What is that baseplate thingy? Never heard of it...

And what's the word on the PUs in a CS '60s Relic? I love the way it sounds, but as a tone-hound you never stop looking...

clarkydaz · Post by **clarkydaz** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:44 am

mushmouth wrote:Thanks for the response. You're not alone in that opinion, Mr Kickass Jimi Avatar. I spent a half hour on the phone with Kenny from Solid Body Guitar in MN today who strongly suggested the Bare Knuckle Irish Tour pickups. He's done that swap in a number of these Relics and says it's the fix. After a bunch of reading, it seems my problem is apparently universal for the 50s era relics, so I'm going to give that a shot. I'm relieved the problem isn't the guitar itself.

These pickups in this guitar are the first I've heard make my 12000 series sound mediocre. They're that bad.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm gonna give this a whirl. I'll post some clips when I get it sorted.

i also use bareknuckles, the apache set. they are his take on the fender custom shop 54s, which were my orignal pickups. much sweeter.

also, try removing the backplate from your strat, see if you notice anything.

MacGaden · Post by **MacGaden** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:57 am

shakti wrote:What is that baseplate thingy? Never heard of it...

And what's the word on the PUs in a CS '60s Relic? I love the way it sounds, but as a tone-hound you never stop looking...

This is a baseplate:

A steel plate you fit under the bridge PU. It adds beef to the tone.

The Cobalt Samariums have sounded great in the guitars I have tried them in, including a Jeff Beck Sig. Strat, but that set have a hotter bridge P.U.

And I also think you need a booster or a mild OD to get the best from a Strat into a NMV Marshall.

JimiJames · Post by **JimiJames** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 7:42 am

...right Mac. (sorry 'bout the type o) Those pickups out of the gazillion single coil style I've tried were the Stratiest sounding without that 60 cycle hum.
Haven't heard the Lindy's in a single but my next pickup would definitely be the Suhr's. (Back Plate Silent Single-Coil System)

So the JB has a hot SC? hmm... must be custom huh? I know that Fender now sells the SC's in sets.
They were already on fleaBay before they even listed them on Fenders website.
...and their still not listed on Feders site?
...at $120 for the set they are the biggest bang for the buck and I'd put them up against any boutique.
At one time eBay'er "reliablefender" was fetching $250 for just 1 pickup

Oh yeah, another thing... I really like that new push button volume knob that gives you series/parallel.

neat feature.
I'll post a clip soon as I can...

JJ

MacGaden · Post by **MacGaden** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 9:09 am

Hi JimiJ:

Found them:

" Hot "Noiseless" Strat

wdelaney72 · Post by **wdelaney72** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 10:29 am

Interesting. It's hard for me to have faith in anything these days with the name "Fender" on it.

I'd more inclined to try the Suhr or Fralin pickups.

JimiJames · Post by **JimiJames** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:02 am

*...as I listen to that clip

*

hmmm... those are the Cobalt Samariums that JB uses??? So those are considered SC's too?

I knew he used the noiseless models and I too had them for about a month and replaced them with DiMarzio Virtual Vintage series before I found out about the SC's...
Night & day !

These are what I'm talkin' bout baby ! You can't go wrong !

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... arch&fgtp=.

Nice with a Strat thread on this forum at last...

We should start it in Guitars though

http://forum.metroamp.com/viewtopic.php?t=8355

texwest · Post by **texwest** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 2:16 am

Hey mushmouth I have the same amp as you from George except mine has the mercury magnetics OT. I play a PRS and a G&L s-500 strat thru it. On both I jumper the channels. With the PRS I have Everything dimed except the normal volume which I just turn up to add more beef. When I switch to the strat I usually use a cleaner sound and use a fuzz if I want more distortion, so I turn both volumes to around 5 and it sounds great. Very Hendrixy. I've got a little distortion with the guitar volume on 10 and it gradually cleans up very nicely. If I want to go over the top I have a silicon fuzzface clone. Oh I forgot I use the 500 volt setting for the strat. So when I switch guitars I just flip the standby swtich over to the 500 volt setting and tweak the two volume knobs a little bit and I'm done. You could always jumper the channels and just turn down the normal volume all the way if you don't want it. Thats how I do it. Also S-500 pickups are already pretty beefy sounding.

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:12 am

The foot switch will work fine.

Later on if you want, experiment with an eq in line with the foot switch

Make ch2 bassy and too wet by itself , but tight.

Then you crank ch 1, but only turn channel 2 up to like 2 or 3 because it's too bassy on its own.

This way you still retain the tightness of channel 1, and are only blending ing in channel 2's bassyness for your strat work, but then you have a footswitch in line with it to take it out for when you use the Les Paul.

BrownSound1 · Post by **BrownSound1** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:14 pm

Here's an interesting tidbit on the Fender Samarium Cobalts...seems they were designed by Bill Lawrence.

http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/SCNHistory.htm