I'm thinking of replacing my strat pickups.

[Left_Hand_Strat]

I'm not sure if i discussed this recently or not so ignore me if i did.

anyway as you know I modded my Squier strat with great success and i used pickups supplied to me by my good forum friend, Funkfingers.

the pickups themselves are great and provide a fantastic tone but it isn't what I am looking for on this occasion. I will still keep these pickups for a future project i have in mind.

what I require is a set of pickups which provide the traditional stratocaster sound but have enough b*ll***s or balls about them to to make their stand when I am using the dirt channel.

I am thinking about the Fender Samarium Cobalt Stratocaster Pickup Set which i found online the other day on ebay, I looked into these more and quite like the sound they give reference clips are here and here the second one is very long but is split into different songs and settings and such, I am very impressed with the tone.

alternatively I have thought about the california 50's set but I am still trying to compare the two different sets.

the other option I had is to buy the everything axe set of pickups, as they are all round quite powerful but I feel that I will lose the single coil element in my sound as they are humbuckers. I am also concerned about the wiring of the latter set due to my phase switching and bridge on option.

[jeremy]

i do not like those samarium cobalt pups. ive given away every set i ended up with. flat sounding and lifeless.

part of the trick to getting great dirt sounds with single coils can be rolling back the tone control a little to smooth out the top end.

wiring shouldnt be an issue with any pups as long as you do it carefully

[Funkfingers]

Bruce. Beg, borrow or steal a DVD of Rory Gallagher performing live. You will be mostly hearing a set of three regular Fender Stratocaster single coil pickups through an overdriven valve amplifier. If that isn't enough "round objects" for you, what is?

EDIT - If you speak to me VERY nicely, I would sell you the Fender Tex-Mex, Tex-Mex, SD Ant 1 set off my 1996 Fender MIM Tex-Mex Stratocaster. Problem is, the pickups are ... right handed.

[Left_Hand_Strat]

i do not like those samarium cobalt pups. ive given away every set i ended up with. flat sounding and lifeless.

part of the trick to getting great dirt sounds with single coils can be rolling back the tone control a little to smooth out the top end.

wiring shouldnt be an issue with any pups as long as you do it carefully

the wiring has been done carefully, we checked it 5 times before trying it! LOL

yeah I should be more aware of the tone pot thing.

I also need to get the tone pot to turn on for just the bridge or do middle and bridge otherwise the bridge is full on PHWAOR mode cause it hasn't got a tone pot yet.

perhaps it is just my ears then, I like the sound of the cobolt ones, strange....

[appar111]

what I require is a set of pickups which provide the traditional stratocaster sound but have enough b*ll***s or balls about them to to make their stand when I am using the dirt channel.

I'm in the same boat with my strat. I just pulled the trigger on a Duncan Distortion for the bridge position

[jeremy]

the samarium cobalt pups arent bad, they just dont sound like real single coils.

first thing is flip the tone to the bridge. makes a big difference

[Mr 9finger]

Look up the Bill Lawrence Keystone Singles then come back to this thread

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Bruce. Beg, borrow or steal a DVD of Rory Gallagher performing live. You will be mostly hearing a set of three regular Fender Stratocaster single coil pickups through an overdriven valve amplifier. If that isn't enough "round objects" for you, what is?

EDIT - If you speak to me VERY nicely, I would sell you the Fender Tex-Mex, Tex-Mex, SD Ant 1 set off my 1996 Fender MIM Tex-Mex Stratocaster. Problem is, the pickups are ... right handed.

I prefer right handed ones on a lefty lol

[JeffB]

Tone control on the bridge is a must.

Ive got a high gain clip on soundcloud with the KWS strat set. As well as a fralin.blues special, and CS 69 set on ky soundclick.

With strats its all about the players technique. If youll notice, all the great old single coil strat players were agressive heavy handed SOBs.

[Left_Hand_Strat]

Tone control on the bridge is a must.

Ive got a high gain clip on soundcloud with the KWS strat set. As well as a fralin.blues special, and CS 69 set on ky soundclick.

With strats its all about the players technique. If youll notice, all the great old single coil strat players were agressive heavy handed SOBs.

this is a fair point. lol

[DeanSweden]

Bruce. Beg, borrow or steal a DVD of Rory Gallagher performing live. You will be mostly hearing a set of three regular Fender Stratocaster single coil pickups through an overdriven valve amplifier.

Rory actually had his bridge pickup replaced.
By what and by whom, I don't know, but that strat
of his has gone through hell and back. He even believed
it to be maple