Fender Fat 50's neck - a little too bassy?

[appar111]

I've been playing my strat with a newly installed set of Fender Fat 50's pickups. Really digging the tone, but I'm noticing that the neck pickup seems to be giving me more bass than my last setup (which was a Dimarzio Injector in the neck).

It's weird, I've had neck humbuckers before that were higher output and bassier overall, but none that gave me this weird low fartiness that the Fat 50's neck pickup does.

I can't tell if it's 1) the clean-ness of the bass that's making one of the speakers in my tweed bassman "fart" a bit (a lone smooth cone weber that's prone to distorting easier than the other speakers), or 2) if it's the fact that I have 10-52's on the guitar right now. I usually have it strung with 10-46 or 9-42.

Could the combination of this pickup and a heavier set of strings make my setup sound a little boomy?

My plan is to just swap back to a set of 9-42's on the next string change to see if that cures things, but I thought I'd check here to see if anyone else experienced this with the Fat 50's neck pickup.

If the string change works, then I'm golden. If not, is there a less bassy strat neck pickup I could use? SSL-1? CS69 neck pickup? Something else?

[STRATDELUXER97]

I adjust them to around 8/64" bass and close to that on the treble side...Try bringing that neck pickup down and away from the strings a bit...I use the Fat 50 N and M and love em!

Fat 50 Neck and Middle....SSL6 Bridge

[Funkfingers]

Stacked coil, noise-cancelling replacement pickups always seem bass light compared to the classic designs upon which they are based.

[jeremy]

lower the bass side of the neck pup and the bigger bass strings make a difference too

[STRATDELUXER97]

I normally strat with the specs for the Texas Specials and then dial by ear after that...Being a strat player(Like forever) I find I like the single coils adjusted further away from the strings...It cures "stratitis" and it gives the poles more overall area to read string vibration...This works for me..Alot of guys like them close..

[appar111]

I've got the neck pickup even with the pickguard on the bass side and about 1 mm higher on the treble side. I'm thinking the lighter strings will probably help quite a bit.

These real single coils are a bigger change in tone and response than I expected. The Injector (which is an Area design) and even the VVHB2 that I had in the bridge needed to be super close to the strings to get them to sound good (but they did when adjusted appropriately).

Weird how the bass response from a bridge or neck humbucker doesn't make that one speaker in my amp respond w/ this fartiness. I think it's because the humbuckers overdrove things more completely to where I didn't notice-- the Fat 50's neck pickup does it just enough to get it into "farting" territory, but not push it clear into overdrive.

[gibson175]

lower the bass side of the neck pup and the bigger bass strings make a difference too

10-46 is not heavy, so that wont make you sound too bassy/flabby. Perhaps the entire pickup is too high? It also might be a matter of the usual issue where its difficult to dial in a good tone for a humbucker on your amp, and still have the single coils sound good, and vice versa. Are you running humbuckers in the other positions on your axe?

[Ed Hunter]

use a 047uf cap in series with the hot wire, works like a magic trick!

[uOpt]

Is that a hardtail Strat?

The thinner strings will probably not help. They might even hurt if you play too hard for them and they become floppy.

[appar111]

10-46 is not heavy, so that wont make you sound too bassy/flabby. Perhaps the entire pickup is too high? It also might be a matter of the usual issue where its difficult to dial in a good tone for a humbucker on your amp, and still have the single coils sound good, and vice versa. Are you running humbuckers in the other positions on your axe?

I have 10-52's on there right now, but was talking about moving to 10-46's or 9-42's. I don't have humbuckers in other positions on this guitar-- I was referring to other guitars I've used w/ this amp that had humbuckers in them.

The pickup can't get much lower, as it's already even with the pickguard (see my previous post) so I'm assuming it's a combination of the heaviness of the 10-52 gauge and that smooth cone speaker...

[appar111]

use a 047uf cap in series with the hot wire, works like a magic trick!

what does that do? Does it cut bass? Would another cap value work, like a .022? I only ask because I have some spare .022 caps, but no .047.

[appar111]

Is that a hardtail Strat?

The thinner strings will probably not help. They might even hurt if you play too hard for them and they become floppy.

Nope, regular vintage strat trem this time around (I'm leaving the hardtails to the teles from now on )

If lighter strings don't work, do you all think that an SSL-1 would be less bassy than the Fat 50's neck?

[Ed Hunter]

what does that do? Does it cut bass? Would another cap value work, like a .022? I only ask because I have some spare .022 caps, but no .047.

yes it is a seymour trick to cut the bassy boomyness of the neck pups the higher the value cap the more bass reduced. so your .22 might be enough for you

[appar111]

That's cool, I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to give it a try tomorrow. Would be alot easier than getting a different pickup-- thanks for the tip man!

[uOpt]

Nope, regular vintage strat trem this time around (I'm leaving the hardtails to the teles from now on )

If lighter strings don't work, do you all think that an SSL-1 would be less bassy than the Fat 50's neck?

I never tried those but Fender markets them as having extra bass on top of a 50ties pickup, so that sounds like a safe bet.

Given that SSL-1s are cheap and easy to flip I think you might want to try that.

[appar111]

well, I took a used set of 9-42's off one of my beater guitars and slapped them on the strat. They need a little settle-in time, but so far, the lighter string gauge seems to do the trick. Apparently too much bass & output out of those heavier bottom strings on the Ernie Ball 10-52 set. I even had to raise the pickups back up a bit after putting the 9's on, and with no ill effects or stratitis.

Seems like that fixed it.. Man, I love cheap & easy solutions! I still may want to pick up an SSL-1 the next time I see a used one for cheap.

thanks for the advice guys!

J.