Questions on replicating a "Vintage Tone"

[Patrick from Davis]

I understand, but the "go no further" line in you previous post implies to only look there.  I have tried quite a number of pickups from custom jobs to big name manufacturers, and I have found for the sound/price factor that I like Roadhouse Pickups.  The Fralins I have are dandy, no doubt, but they are about twice as costly as well.  A set of Roadhouse pickups I have are, and this wasn't by design, in the same area as BKP Nailbombs.  Again, the big difference is price.  Also there is something that Ken does differently with his, it is audible, and it is really fun to play with.  The neck pickups are where it really shows up.  That "other" factor combined with him knowing how to get the commonly asked for sounds, make it quite fun.

Anyhow, it was mentioned somewhere on the boards that suggesting pickups is like tell someone who to date.  While I agree that Lollar and Fralin are nice, I have come to the conclusion that unless it is the exact thing I want, I'd see if there were alternatives out there as well.
Patrick

 

[Maka491]

You are right, I did use that line and apologies if it came across as it did. However that line was used in a moment of excitement over my very own Lollar Strat Blackfaces and was not intended to say 'these are the only pickups you should consider'

Indeed 'telling' someone which pickups to buy is probably not the right way, so I stand by my previous post that it is only my opinion with regards to trying to achieve a 'vintage' strat tone. Lollars where recommended to me on personal opinion of a friend and I love them. Of course it could have gone the other way.

I agree that there are other pickups out there in a lower price-range with many different characters, fun and alike. But as you probably would agree, tone is one thing that we could all have a different opinion on and for me personally the higher end of the price-scale like for pups like Zexcoils is not a too high a price.

Having said that, I would be interested in getting other recommendations for similar sounding sets at any price-bracket.

 

[Cagey]

Having said that, I would be interested in getting other recommendations for similar sounding sets at any price-bracket.

If you haven't tried any of the GFS pickups yet, you may want to give them a go. They don't cost jack, but are of a high-quality construction and the tone is stellar. I've used a lot of pickups from a number of manufacturers over the last 40 years or so, and I'm a big fan of whatever they're doing. The stuff works, and well. If it turns out you aren't happy, they're cheap enough to be almost disposable. But, don't judge them on price. Install some and see how they sound. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Having said that, I would be interested in getting other recommendations for similar sounding sets at any price-bracket.

If you haven't tried any of the GFS pickups yet, you may want to give them a go. They don't cost jack, but are of a high-quality construction and the tone is stellar. I've used a lot of pickups from a number of manufacturers over the last 40 years or so, and I'm a big fan of whatever they're doing. The stuff works, and well. If it turns out you aren't happy, they're cheap enough to be almost disposable. But, don't judge them on price. Install some and see how they sound. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Hmm, well I'll be... the liverpool humbucker didn't sound half bad. I'll have to give these a further look.

 

[swarfrat]

yah - I'm wanting to try a liverpool, but dont have a home for it yet.

 

[Maka491]

Cagey,

From the Strat GFS pickups, which would you recommend for blues tones? Or at least which ones have you personally tried (bluesy or otherwise)?

thanks again

 

[Cagey]

I've used the Neovins and Tru-Coils, and they both sound good. The Neovins are silent, and behave much like the "Area" series pickups from DiMarzio. Very close to traditional single coils sound, but not perfect. Not to take anything away from either design - they're both sweet - but if you're in love with honest-to-god "vintage" single coil sound, they're just a tad off. They use the stacked coil trick everybody's using these days to get noiseless single coil sound, which tends to bite off just a touch of the high end, presence and attack that a true single coil has.

The Tru-Coils, on the other hand, are very faithful. If someone didn't tell you it's not really a single coil, you wouldn't know. It's also a stacked coil, but the second coil is smaller and only exists to pick up noise so they can do the CMNR trick that makes "humbuckers" and balanced cables work. As a result, they're not as quiet as the Neovins or other "noiseless" designs, but the noise is dramatically reduced while leaving the character of the actual pickup coil intact. Highly recommended.

 

[Maka491]

Thanks Cagey,

I will definitely check them out. As you say as well, at those prices I can hardly go wrong.

A guitar tech friend will soon be showing me how to properly wire up pickups as I have a couple of strats I want to use to experiment with pickups and necks. I think its always good to have a kind of guinea pig of a guitar around to try different things on like that.

Thanks again for the recommendations.