Rio Grande Dirty Harry?

[bagman67]

Aloha, folks.

Anyone have any experience with the Rio Grande Dirty Harry in the Strat form factor?  The Dirty Harry is put forth as a P90-ish pickup but in a Strat or Tele form factor.  I've developed a real fondness for the P90 in recent years, but I am kinda stuck on my belief that a strat should look like a strat, i.e., I find the narrower pickups more visually satisfying in a strat pickguard.

So, any input on this is welcomed.  I've really liked other Rio Grande pickups I've played in my local guitar shops, but haven't encountered the Dirty Harrys anywhere yet.

Peace

Bagman

 

[Alfang]

I put some rio grands in a buddies Warmoth last year for him and they sounded great, for the life of me I don't remember the model type name.

Having said all that, I just installed the lindy Fralin Blues specials in todays build, I was expecting a good sound from them, But instead am blown away by the great sound.

So in the last week I have heard and played 3 awesome sets of single coils for strats: all three are good sounding so here in no particular order

TroubledTreble on this forum    http://www.roadhousepickups.com/RoadhouseOrder.html
Fender noiseless                    http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-SCN-Samarium-Cobalt-Noiseless-Stratocaster-Pickup-Set?sku=301651
Lindy Fralin                            http://www.fralinpickups.com/stratstyleBS.asp

The best price for your buck, and I have a set on order, is the Roadhouse pups, I am getting the RoadWarrior set which is quiet for a single but hot too.

 

[bagman67]

Thanks for the response, Alfang.

Some remarks:

I have tried the Fralins and they really are excellent Strat p'ups, I agree, but as such they're not what I'm looking for in my contemplated build. 

I have tried the Samarium Cobalt Noiseless Fenders, and I just don't feel the love there.  The Fender Noiseless pickups (both SCN and the more recent models) take some of the top-end edge off that I just can't seem to live without, so I'll pass on those. 

I am definitely interested in our brother TroubledTreble's offerings - we're already in communication about exactly this subject.

Here's how I got to this point:
I picked up a Gibson Faded Les Paul Special loaded with P90s about 2 years ago because it was really cheap at my neighborhood Guitar Center, and I absolutely fell in love with the P90 sound - through a clean amp they were fat and snappy, and through a distorted channel, they were wonderfully responsive to variations in how hard I hit the strings.  There was a muscular mid-rangey bark to them that I had not experienced in standard Strat-type single coils.  My own lifetime of playing 25.5" bolt-necks spelled the end for my new Gibby, though - the neck angle and the shorter scale length had me hitting clams all over the place, and I couldn't trust my muscle memory any more with it.  Alas, and alack - it was off to eBay for my LPS.  I reckon the ultimate solution will have to be something like this:  Buy a rear-routed mahogany Warmoth body, and a mahogany Warmoth neck, finish the whole mess in heritage cherry and load the beast with real P90s - with a geometry and a control layout that I've already got burned into my genetic code.  Of course the greater string tension will yield differences in overall tone, but I can work around it.

At this point I think I've fantasized about ten different builds to gratify various auditory and visual hankerings - I seem to have come to the right place to get my "customize" on.

Peace

Ian

 

[tfarny]

I'm coming around to CB's idea that you can't get X tone from Y shaped pickup, really, because the bobbin size and shape affect the frequency response. Notice that the more reputable people like Fralin and Lollar don't ever claim they get a P90 sound from a strat size, but rather 'approaches P90 tone'.
Here's an article in that vein from Jason Lollar, who also winds the best P90s ever heard. http://blog.lollarguitars.com/technical/jazzmaster-pickups-part-1/
I'm pretty sure that P90s in a strat would both look and sound fantastic, you'd have an original axe that would do just what you want and we're all waiting to see it.

 

[Phrygian]

How about P90s in a rear routed mahogany Tele with body contours and a Strat style control layout?  I've been wanting to build something like that myself, though I was thinking Korina.  If I did it, I think I'd want to drill the the holes for the volume and tone myself to move them a little further away from the bridge pickup.

 

[bagman67]

I like the rear-routed Tele idea, with Strat-style controls (although in my case it would just be master volume, master tone, rather than multiple tone controls).  I love the Tele body shape but the control layout is not what I'd prefer - I'm very used to and comfortable with the volume knob within pinky range while playing, and I have to admit I've got a nasty habit of attempting volume-swell violin impersonations. 

I'm also in general agreement with the proposition that a strat form-factor pickup will never smell quite like a P90, and in honesty I'm thinking my desires will result in two separate builds - spread out over a long time due to cost, of course.  One will be a traditional strat style, with the conventional layout - and then whatever I end up doing to get a P90-based axe, as discussed above.  Maybe an LPS with a 25.5" scale length?  That might be pretty rad...

Thanks for your input, and for the link to the Lollar article as well.