Help me find the right pickup for my Strat, please.

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Rex Rocker

Rex Rocker

Well-known member
So I've got this Strat, right? It's gone through a bunch of transformations. I've really enjoyed modding it and trying new stuff out, but I feel by now it's time to settle into something. Let me tell you briefly what it's about.

It's a Fender Road Worn Strat body from 2010 I got in a trade. The neck had a bass truss rod, so I got a new Fender baked Maple neck. It originally came with an HSS pickguard, but I didn't want a middle pickup, so I then replaced it for single hum pickguard. The issue I had with it, though, is that the "stock" bridge pickup position on Fender Strats is usually really far away from the bridge compared to Gibsons, so amplified, it tended to sound softer and smoother. Too smooth for my taste, so I ended up with a Chinese pickguard that has the bridge pickup 2 or 3 mm closer to the bridge itself. It's not much, but it really made a difference. The other thing was that I kept experimenting with different saddle materials, so I got a bunch of cheapie saddles off Amazon. They all sounded dull and dead until I got a set of Highwood saddles that sounded much better and brought the guitar to life.

I've had a few different pickups in there. None of them had me going "Aha! That's the one!". A few were close, though. I've had in there:

Duncan Pearly Gates Plus: Not what I wanted, plus being really far away from the bridge and having 250K pots really watered it down.
DiMarzio Super 2: Had kind of a cheap stock pickup vibe. Sounded bland and thin. Not what I wanted.
Duncan Black Winter: I did have it in there with the old pickguard and the cheap Amazon saddles. I was surprised because I love that pickup, but in the Strat it just sounded wooly and undefined. Could maybe consider revisiting it, though.
DiMarzio D Activator: Overall cool, and it was a standout for me. It's balanced EQ-wise and really hot, which I like. But I'm not sure it's what this guitar needs. The voicing of the attack... It's just kinda there. It's not crunchy and aggressive like the 500T on my Les Paul, which is my benchmark here. If I had to nit pick, it does has a little of that same cheap stock pickup vibe as the Super 2.
Gibson 500T: I really wanted to make this one work. I love it in my Les Paul, but with the long leg baseplate, the extra tall magnet, and the low profile Fender bridge, it had really limited adjustability, and couldn't make it work.
Duncan Distortion: Another one that I usually really like that for some reason didn't work on the Strat. When I tried it, I did have the cheap Amazon saddles in there, though, so I'm considering revisiting it now with the good saddles. If only I hadn't sold it...
Duncan Nazgul: The biggest standout for me. It's tight, crunchy, mid-focused, and really polished sounding. That's kind of it's downfall, though. I feel it's too polite at times. I'm missing that rasp and really definied and aggressive attack that I get from the 500T on my Les Paul.

So what do you guys recommend I try next? I don't know if you've noticed, but the baseline I'm trying to follow here is a tight, bright, hot screaming pickup with a very emphatic and mean attack. I don't want a PAF type or anything mid-output. I want to go all out here because I want to be able to switch between my Strat and my Les Paul and not have to completely rework the settings. I, of course, don't want them to be clones of each other, so some difference is welcome. But I also don't want a super dark pickup like the X2N of the Invader.

So... thoughts? Thank you!
 
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If you can’t get what you want with so many different pickup swaps it may just be the guitar, not pickup’s fault. That being said, the best pickups I’ve tried for your criteria would be an early ‘80’s metal back Bill Lawrence 500L or 510L, ‘70’s Bill Lawrence L90, or Lundgren M6 (one of the few worthwhile non-vintage pickups IME). Even if you those pickups can’t save the guitar they’ll at least be great in something else and imho are significantly better pickups than what’s listed above
 
braintheory said:
If you can’t get what you want with so many different pickup swaps it may just be the guitar, not pickup’s fault. That being said, the best pickups I’ve tried for your criteria would be an early ‘80’s metal back Bill Lawrence 500L or 510L, ‘70’s Bill Lawrence L90, or Lundgren M6 (one of the few worthwhile non-vintage pickups IME). Even if you those pickups can’t save the guitar they’ll at least be great in something else and imho are significantly better pickups than what’s listed above
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I'd like to try the Lundgren. How hot is it, though?
 
I'm also considering the Tom Anderson stuff, but with a 1 Meg pots. I've heard those can get dark.
 
Rex Rocker said:
I'd like to try the Lundgren. How hot is it, though?
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I think it was around 12k when I measured it. Not insanely hot, but hot enough imo for modern metal. The vintage pickups by Bill Lawrence, Mighty Mite, Schaller’s, and Dirty Fingers will be all be way hotter, more saturated and also more organic and rich tonally (inherent quality of those older pickups vs recent stuff being more sterile/tonally bland)

The neck M6 fwiw is also killer and for whatever reason doesn’t get talked about. In some ways I’m more impressed with it than its bridge pickup
 
braintheory said:
I think it was around 12k when I measured it. Not insanely hot, but hot enough imo for modern metal. The vintage pickups by Bill Lawrence, Mighty Mite, Schaller’s, and Dirty Fingers will be all be way hotter, more saturated and also more organic and rich tonally (inherent quality of those older pickups vs recent stuff being more sterile/tonally bland)

The neck M6 fwiw is also killer and for whatever reason doesn’t get talked about. In some ways I’m more impressed with it than its bridge pickup
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I've read the coils are taller on those, though. So if it's 12K of a higher gauge wire, it might be hotter than the DCR would suggest. I meant more as in if they feel as loud/saturated as the 500T, for example.

The D Activator is surprisingly loud for only being 10-11K.

Which are the Bill Lawrences to look at, BTW? Are the current Bill and Beckys not worth it, then?
 
Rex Rocker said:
I've read the coils are taller on those, though. So if it's 12K of a higher gauge wire, it might be hotter than the DCR would suggest. I meant more as in if they feel as loud/saturated as the 500T, for example.

The D Activator is surprisingly loud for only being 10-11K.

Which are the Bill Lawrences to look at, BTW? Are the current Bill and Beckys not worth it, then?
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They seem loud/saturated enough to me, it's more that I'm comparing them in the same guitars to these vintage pickups that are just very over the top (even my Mighty Mite 1400 rate at just ~9K sounds super saturated). They can make even the Wagner Iron Man I had at 22.5k come off comparatively not as hot and more importantly comparatively stale

I'd say the 500L, 510L or L90. The L100 is my favorite, but I'd predict those other 3 would fit your criteria better. I haven't tried the Bill and Becky's. I tried the otters US version 500XL and it's not like the real deal '80's ones. They're not priced super high anyway, so I don't see much point in getting recent made ones vs the old original ones for not much more
 
braintheory said:
If you can’t get what you want with so many different pickup swaps it may just be the guitar, not pickup’s fault. That being said, the best pickups I’ve tried for your criteria would be an early ‘80’s metal back Bill Lawrence 500L or 510L, ‘70’s Bill Lawrence L90, or Lundgren M6 (one of the few worthwhile non-vintage pickups IME). Even if you those pickups can’t save the guitar they’ll at least be great in something else and imho are significantly better pickups than what’s listed above
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Have you tried Bill Lawrence circuit board HB-R pickups btw?
 
CrystalSky said:
What do you think about them? I have a pair too, although with removed covers.
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I like them. Pretty much all the vintage Bill Lawrence’s are really good IME, but I do like other models more (generally his earlier ones like the L90’s, L100’s and Tarbacks)
 
braintheory said:
I like them. Pretty much all the vintage Bill Lawrence’s are really good IME, but I do like other models more (generally his earlier ones like the L90’s, L100’s and Tarbacks)
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Good to hear that. Have you tried Tom Holmes pickups? Heard some praise on those, but they are not suited for metal afaik.
 
Are you running 250k pots? Try a 500 or a 1 meg instead of swapping all those pups….
 
JackBootedThug said:
Are you running 250k pots? Try a 500 or a 1 meg instead of swapping all those pups….
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Nope, single 500K. I also have a 1 Meg around, but it thinned out the current pickup it has in there (Nazgul), and it brought out the ugliness on the D Activator even more.

I think the Distortion with 1 Meg would be nice, though.
 
napalmdeath said:
Duncan Custom.
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I used to have one in the past. Liked it, but didn't love it. I wouldn't think it's as hot and aggressive as the D Activator, the Distortion, or the Nazgul even, IIRC.

I'm not opposed to giving it a try if I can find a used one for cheap, though. I've always wanted to try a Custom + honestly with a large Ceramic magnet.
 
CrystalSky said:
Good to hear that. Have you tried Tom Holmes pickups? Heard some praise on those, but they are not suited for metal afaik.
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I have not. They are I believe PAF type pickups. I didn't try them because other guys seemed to like Virgil Arlo's even more, which I have had and were really good, but I liked Tone Specific even a little more when compared for lower output pickups. I feel they can work for metal (some of my clips that you heard used those pickups), but you have to kind of make them work. They're not the most natural fit like with tighter, more attack-y sounding pickups
 
Given that you already tried so many Duncan's and Dimarzio's and wasn't satisfied, I'd try something else and would still think at some point it may just be the guitar itself not being able to get the tone you want. I've been there myself many times doing countless pickup swaps and eventually just realize the guitar inherently can't get the sound whether it lacks tightness, attack, low end presence, good tone or whatever it is. You can hear those qualities (or lack there of) generally when playing it unplugged
 
braintheory said:
I have not. They are I believe PAF type pickups. I didn't try them because other guys seemed to like Virgil Arlo's even more, which I have had and were really good, but I liked Tone Specific even a little more when compared for lower output pickups. I feel they can work for metal (some of my clips that you heard used those pickups), but you have to kind of make them work. They're not the most natural fit like with tighter, more attack-y sounding pickups
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By the way, what about metal pickups from Tone Specific? I remember you told me that you have something coming your way.
 
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