Thoughts on Fender Fat 50's Strat pickups

[bluze81]

Basile I think you would be served well with the Dimarzio pickups for the tone you are after, I have used the fat 50s Fenders, and Texas specials, also a set of Fralin vintage hots, they are all good pickups,nothing like the orig,Fender pickups, I also have a Fender custom shop 56 relic Strat, I read somewhere that the pickups in these guitars are a different wind than the fat 50s set, I dont know for sure if its fact. just wanted to share, hope you find what you are after, Steve

[basile865]

thanks. yeah I was afraid of them being diff.

[razelfrax]

Why dont you try an SRV strat with the Texas Specials there overwound but also have stronger magnets. I had a set of fat 50's and loved the middle pickup but found the neck pup dull. My #1 strat has a cs54 bridge @ 6.5kohms cs fat 50 reverse wound pol middle at 6.3k Ohms but a 69 in the neck . You can get txs specials at the Stratosphere pretty cheap. I prefer a Rat pedal with the Ruets clip mod ( makes it less gain and very transparent with a very slight mid boost )as an od with vintage wound pickups in the neck.

[basile865]

tried them plenty of times, too hot and SRV sounding.

[razelfrax]

I agree too clangy for me. The magnets are very strong.

[razelfrax]

Do you have a cold rolled steel trem block ala Callaham. I make my own and they make strats sound bigger stronger fuller ; more Straty lol. I think my fat 50 neck pup was a dud as others really like them.

[basile865]

no I need to upgrade that eventually as well. The 69's have a 5.8 output, I think the fat 50's are 5.9 or 6.0 in the neck. I never truly realized that I needed new pickups until comparing my strat with a 62 reissue strat that had those 57/62 pickups in it. They have even lower output of about 5.6 I believe. My american standard pickups sound like they have a blanket over them and dont allow the full tone to breath through.

[razelfrax]

American standards are wound on a plastic bobbin. Vintage style pickups have a thin coat of varnish on the magnets. The closer the wire is to the magnets the more dynamic they are. Much the same as paper wound vs plastic bobbin output transformers.

[basile865]

yea I figured the two crucial things in my setup to work on as of now is pickups and an Output Transformer for the marshall. Problem is I dont know what pickups I want. My friend has one of those made in mexico 60's custom player strats that has 69 pickups in them. In comparison on cleans I like my american standard better. His sound sorta punchy with a lack of steam behind them. Could very well be the guitar because its quite punchy unplugged as well. Its the fretboard setup. But mine always sounds warmer so I thought maybe fat 50's would be vintage but warm sounding. Plus a custom shop 56 strat I played sounded incredible through a cranked 70's twin. But I now know that guitar doesnt use fat 50's pickups.

[JimiJames]

Clapton uses a TBX mid-boost circuit to fatten up his sound, for 'fat note' single coil sounds I prefer to use a P-90, as that is the fattest single coil sound there is, it has hair growing on it.. .
For me, I like weak single coil Strat pickups, they lose their character imho if the output is jacked up, that's why there are pedals and high gain amps for boosting the signal.
You can get P-90's that fit in a Strat size slot if I'm not mistaken.
yngwie308

kool... who makes it?
I have a Gibson P94 which smokes !

[JimiJames]

Do you have a cold rolled steel trem block ala Callaham. I make my own and they make strats sound bigger stronger fuller ; more Straty lol. I think my fat 50 neck pup was a dud as others really like them.

+1 This adds to the "lack of"...

[JimiJames]

Alrighty then...
Are these going in a cap or slab board?

The chemistry would be best served in a slab.
It has nothing to do with weak...
The Killer Strat tones of yesteryear had mid 5's to low 6's.
Obviously the "fat" would also be understood as slightly overwound.


Yes, P90's are a singlecoil but not the same as the Fenders (type).
This is my absolute favorite spankin' tone !
Nuthin' meaner that Jr. thru a PLexi !

DiMarzio Virtual 54's are great for their hum canceling & tone in their price range...
I would also Highly recommend Fender's Samarian Cobalt's

In an issue of The oldtimers were asked to compare tones of the SC's and the 50's era pickups...guess what they chose ? ...yup the SC's

The reason I'm sort've after these pickups is theres a 56 custom shop strat in the local GC that sounds great through a 76 super lead and also a 70's silver face twin. Its really in the ballpark of tone I'm shooting for. Thick and bluesy and all you need is to work the volume knob here and there to get the dynamics. .......

I DO NOT recommend EMG's nor the YJM's to achieve what your looking for although work good for an overdriven sound.

BTW saw that vid... nice !
Chicago always has a spot for Bluesy Cats...
Oh yeah, and my 69's, well... KILLER !

[basile865]

hey thanks man. These would be going in my american standard maple neck so its not slab or cap. But I agree mid 5s low 6s so thats what attracted me to the fat 50's. I would assume warm but not too hot.

Yea it seems I need to check out chicago sometime. The blues just dont seem to be happening much in North Carolina

[JimiJames]

Spent 3 years in North Carolina...'86-'88. Lotsa strip joints
ahhh...Camp Legeune... paradise lol

american standard maple neck is a cap...maple on maple.

whatever you choose, your pickup selection should be narrowed down by now...That's were warrantees come in with a 30 day trial... If you don't like them/it return for the next sucka !

[basile865]

haha. I didn't know you could return fender pickups. Thats good to know.

The american standard strat - atleast mine is a 1 piece maple. Skunk stripe down the back. I am sure of it because mine has some light figuring on an area which clearly goes all the way through the neck from the face of the fretboard down the sides to the back.

hey by the way, I like that tone you have on your sound clip called mymetrobuild2. Which amp and speakers is that?