Warm Singlecoil?

[exaN]

Hey guys, I'm almost done with the silver sparkle Charvel and I'm already wondering what I'm going to put in my red one.

For the neck pickup, I'd like a singlecoil that's warm but still have good attack. Will be for blues-rock / classic rock. I was thinking a DiMarzio Area 67 or something.

Any suggestions ?

 

[-CB-]

strat pickup... neck pickup from the Texas Special set

 

[exaN]

strat pickup... neck pickup from the Texas Special set

Is it hum canceling? Cuz that'd be preferable :\

 

[rockskate4x]

texas specials don't cancel hum.

 

[tfarny]

Dimarzio series is great, great - but not warm - they sound like classic strat pickups are supposed to. The Virtual Vintage '54 pro in the neck might work if you want a warm-ish higher output neck sound. Sometime soon I'm going to post a comparo of the BL keystones vs. Dimarzio areas.

 

[NLD09]

What about the virtual vintage Blues? I haven't tried it personally, but it's supposed to be on the warmer side of strat pickups, and it's humless.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Try some of the GFS Neo-Vintage noiseless.

They have em in Strat & Tele

7k or 9k in output, nice & fat, humcancelling, but retaining the Quack or Spank.

 

[exaN]

What about the virtual vintage Blues? I haven't tried it personally, but it's supposed to be on the warmer side of strat pickups, and it's humless.

Ya that was my second option actually

Try some of the GFS Neo-Vintage noiseless.

They have em in Strat & Tele

7k or 9k in output, nice & fat, humcancelling, but retaining the Quack or Spank.

Never heard about those, might have to give it a try.

I could just buy 2-3 different pickups but I'm running short on money :\

EDIT: What about this one for the humbucker? Anyone ever tried it? : http://store.guitarfetish.com/gfsciial2viw.html

 

[tfarny]

I have to disagree about the GFS Neovin. I didn't think they were very good pickups. The VV Blues was replaced by the VV 54 pro, which is a great pickup and uses the "area" tech.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

The Classic 2 looks interesting, the price makes experimenting more affordable.

Tfarny:  Care to give a detailed review of the Neo Vins, I'd be curious to hear more detail, EQ, guitar used, amp + settings, etc...

 

[tfarny]

I had the "pure vintage" neck and middle, and whatever with the next-hottest version was for the bridge. At first they just didn't have much of anything, very low output and certainly no strat sparkle and chime. Put up right next to the strings, ridiculously, annoyingly close, and the output and tone got a bit better.
Guitar was a warmoth alder + maple neck /RW board strat with a 6 hole wilkinson trem, the good stuff. Not the most resonant, "alive" body I've had, which is one reason I sold it. Amp - at the time I had a vox ad30vt and a blackheart little giant head with a celestion V30 112 cab. I'm pretty much a straight-in guy, I am generally looking for a great version of a simple, vintagey sound with my gear. 
Eventually I swapped the tone pots for no-loads and the volume pot for a 1 meg, and that did bring back a bit of the strat magic, but still not enough. They were just lacking in character, they sounded like cheap low-output pickups, I'm not sure what else to say. In that same guitar I tried Seymour duncan Cali 50s and the Dimarzios, and the dimarzios had by far the best tone of the three, regardless of noise canceling.

I'm not against GFS in general, I've used one of their tele bridge pickups (not memorable) and the A2 "pro" strat set, those were nice. But the neovins are the worst strat pickups I've had - I haven't been through dozens of sets of pickups like some guys, but I know what I like and those are not it.

 

[exaN]

I had the "pure vintage" neck and middle, and whatever with the next-hottest version was for the bridge. At first they just didn't have much of anything, very low output and certainly no strat sparkle and chime. Put up right next to the strings, ridiculously, annoyingly close, and the output and tone got a bit better.
Guitar was a warmoth alder + maple neck /RW board strat with a 6 hole wilkinson trem, the good stuff. Not the most resonant, "alive" body I've had, which is one reason I sold it. Amp - at the time I had a vox ad30vt and a blackheart little giant head with a celestion V30 112 cab. I'm pretty much a straight-in guy, I am generally looking for a great version of a simple, vintagey sound with my gear. 
Eventually I swapped the tone pots for no-loads and the volume pot for a 1 meg, and that did bring back a bit of the strat magic, but still not enough. They were just lacking in character, they sounded like cheap low-output pickups, I'm not sure what else to say. In that same guitar I tried Seymour duncan Cali 50s and the Dimarzios, and the dimarzios had by far the best tone of the three, regardless of noise canceling.

I'm not against GFS in general, I've used one of their tele bridge pickups (not memorable) and the A2 "pro" strat set, those were nice. But the neovins are the worst strat pickups I've had - I haven't been through dozens of sets of pickups like some guys, but I know what I like and those are not it.

Thanks for the details!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Thanks for the added detail.

I'm actually considering the higher output (9k) version of the neck pickup in the Bari-Tele.

 

[-CB-]

Just a bit of a notation -

But saying a pickups "output" is 6, 7, 9, 11k is totally errant, and also meaningless.

The only reference to the DC resistance that has any validity is when the pickups are equal in all other respects.  Equal magnet type, length, and charge.  Equal coil size, equal spacing from bobbin to magnet, equal magnet spacing, equal wire insulation type and thickness, equal winding type, equal wire gauge... etc etc.

In particular, the magnetic field's strength and its shape will vary hugely from model to model.  This throws any "power" or "output" gauged from the DC resistance totally out the window. 

In general, about the only thing you can say is higher DC resistance "tends" to be more powerful, and "tends" to be darker toned... and thats giving everything a huge margin to work within, because there are higher DC resistance pickups that are less powerful (due to their magnetics or winding, or bobbin), and others that are brighter (the same reasons).

Nothing against you Tony, I just see the numbers being tossed about left and right from many folks... and it aint quite so.  One example is that Texas Special Strat bridge, which is over 9k DC, but not overly powerful, an too bright for many uses.

 

[tfarny]

CB, actually I think the pickup series in question is otherwise identical except for windings, so "hotter" = more winds = more DC resistance = higher output, pretty much. At least that's my understanding.