Members burton4snow Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 Not digging the pickups these came with. This is my first strat so maybe this is what strats sound like. Are the pickups in this representative of what strat pickups sound like? The bridge sounds awful for distorted stuff and the middle pickup gets all kinds of noise comming through it. I like playing Blues Rock. Is there a better upgrade of strat pickups for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vintage clubber Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 The CV '50's strat should have pretty decent pickups. Have you tried adjusting the heights at all? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdsmithtx Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 The CV 50s Strat has the OEM equivalent of the Tonerider Surfari pickups in it, a very nice set. Before you start slapping new pups in there, you should take Vintage Clubber's advice and try adjusting the pickup heights first: that can often result in some impressive sound chages (i.e. from "Man, that sounds ok but not just quite right" to " Holy fuck socks! That sounds so sweet I wanna cry!") I have a CV 60s Strat, which comes with the Tonerider Classic Blues set. I LOVED the neck and middle pups after adjusting the heights a bit, but the bridge was far too thin and ice-picky. I bought a Lindy Fralin metal baseplate off of ebay for like $10, and while mounting it I switched the bottom tone knob from the middle to the bridge pickup (a 15-minute operation total). Once I was done the bridge pup sounded a lot fatter, with much more mid- and lower-range punch, and I was happy as a pig in shit. One other option I considered was swapping out just the bridge pup for a Seymour Duncan SSL5, which is the commercial version of the custom Duncan pickup that David Gilmour uses in the bridge of his Strats. No one has ever accused DG of having thin Strat bridge pickup tones. As far as the noise on the middle pup goes ... well it's a Strat, it's gonna have some noise in positions 1, 3 and 5. But almost everything Robin Trower ever recorded was on the middle of a Strat. The CV Strats' cavities are pretty well shielded with non-conductive paint, but you could get some Stewmac Copper Shielding Tape and install it properly (with proper grounding) which could help. The 2 (neck+middle) and 4 (middle+bridge) positions are hum cancelling, so noise won't be a big problem with them, plus you'll get the famous Strat 'notch position quack' that some people (like me) really like. An inexpensive noise gate pedal could also help some. The thing is, some noise is kind of part-and-parcel to the whole Strat vibe; just learn to turn your volume off between songs and when you're not playing. Another option, if you're really having problems with the noise, is Dimarzio's Area pickups, which are Strat-sized noiseless pickups that sound really good. An Area 58/Area 58/Area 61 (neck/middle/bridge) combo would sound really, really good and be quiet as a mouse fart. Area 61/Area 61/Area 68 would be a 'hotter' option. These options for you range from least- to most-expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members thecornman Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 The pickups that came with the guitar are a good representation of what single coils sound like! Adjusting the height as stated may help them sound better to you, but maybe you just are not a single coil person. If that is the case you could look at some of the many single coil sized humbuckers that Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan and others have out there to replace them with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 I'll add another 'try to adjust them and adjust TO them' vote. Having said that, yeah... if you are used to humbuckers, single coils can take a lot of getting used to... esp with substantial gain. The recommendation of the Duncan SSL5 in the bridge is a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twotimingpete Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 strat pickups can sound great iwth distortion you just have to know how to dial em in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members svejkist Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 I recently bought a set of strat vintage wounds from Bryn Gunsher. Sweet Karl Marx on a stick! They sound fantastic! And only $99. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members twotimingpete Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 I recently bought a set of strat vintage wounds from Bryn Gunsher. Sweet Karl Marx on a stick! They sound fantastic! And only $99. I like bryan and I like BG pups but the 2 month wait make it a hard sell for me. I've done it a few times but generally I don't think any pickup is worth that long of a wait if I want it now, and usually when I'm buyin' it's because I want it now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DaleH Posted February 17, 2012 Members Share Posted February 17, 2012 SD Everything Axe set Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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