Fender American Deluxe Strat owners...need help/advice with pickups replacement

[Johansolo]

so ive had my Fender 2005 American Deluxe S/S/S strat for around a year now. This is my first "good" strat and i spent ages looking for it and knew this was the one the minute i had hte neck in my hands.,,

 

i still love it...but the SCN pickups are something that im not quite sure is holding back the guitar from trully being a good strat.

they almost have a noise gate quality to them...whcih i cant stand.

i also have no use for the s1 switch, nor do i care for having a rats nest of wires in my guitar.

 

is its worth selling the whole pickguard/pups/S1 as a whole...and getting a replacement pups and pots etc.

 

Or replacing the pickups and rewiring the current pots without the S1 switch (if possible?)

 

either way i think im in for a bit of work rewiring + some $$$ into it.

 

i mainly use the neck pup on its own...but wouldnt mind trying out a lil screamin demon in the bridge for some chunkier higher gain rhythms.

 

would love to get my hands on a richie kotzen dimarzio spec pickups...

 

thoughts on other pickup recommendations?

i want this to be my ultimate strat...and i dont care about noise/hum associated with single coils. i also have other guitars for my humbucker needs.

[Johansolo]

I want just a plain but fully on committed "strat" neck pickup sound. Not fussed about the middle and I wouldn

[Alecto]

If you don't mind paying the $$$, the Kinman Woodstocks have a gutsy Strat sound without the hum. I have a set in my Strat and I love it; a bit more midrange kick than your typical Strat pickup and it handles clean and distortion beautifully.

 

I haven't tried the other models but I've heard great things about them.

[Johansolo]

after reading this

http://www.kinman.com/image/install_tmp/S1-pickup-exchange.pdf

 

it seems the S1 switching is whats gonna be the deciding factor in terms of ease of getting new pickups in.

 

ie...

 

i could

 

- Keep the s1 switch and replace pups

 

- Sell the whole pickguard and buy a whole new one

 

- Ditch the s1 switch and rewire everything with new pickups (ie rebuild a whole new pickguard setup from scratch.)

[pixelchemist]

dimarzio area series is what I recommend.... can't praise them enough...

[cratz2]

I've owned and played a lot of nice strats and if I were to get down to only having one guitar and it was to be a strat set up for S/S/S with a single coil-sized HB in the bridge, I'd go for either Duncan Antiquities or Fender CS54s in the neck and middle and Dimarzio Chopper for the bridge. I'd skip all the S1 stuff and just go with a master volume, a master tone, and a blend pot and I'd do the blend pot as a push pull pot to split the bridge HB.

 

I personally don't like how any of the rails pickups look, but the Chopper sounds the best to me. I'd also like to check out a Pro Track, but I've never knowingly played one.

[DaleH]

is its worth selling the whole pickguard/pups/S1 as a whole...and getting a replacement pups and pots etc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I would not sell the pickup assembly. Store it in a siplock bags in a safe place. You may want it later on.

 

If you get a pickguard and all the parts you can have it all solderd up for about $60 if you don't do it yourself.

 

Like cratz2 said- Duncan Antiquities or Fender CS54s. Very nice pickups.

[TerjeW]

I have a 2005 deluxe strat with Texas specials, otherwise stock. Works fine with the s-1 switch, wich I by the way uses quite often.Great guitar with a great sound !

[stewiesguitar]

BG for sure. thank me later

[Johansolo]

since im in aus...i think i may check out hte kinmans...im really after the easiest solution to replacing pickups (damn S1 switch)

 

so i may just replace the neck pickup with a kinman...

[Les Paul Lover]

Absolutely love the virtual vintage pick ups in my Vigier Expert (strat like guitar).

 

Lovely. And noiseless too.

 

I do love them I do!!! Perhaps have a little more meat to them than a USA standard, but fantastic depth of tone, woody, warm and has all the bell like qualities you'd want on the high strings.

[Misha]

I love the Fender Custom Shop Fat 50's!

 

I think I will put them in my CP 60's...

[jonPhillips]

Tell you what mate, I wouldn't change a bloody thing on that Strat. I've got a 2005 Deluxe S/S/S and it's the best of all 7 of my Strats - even better than the Custom Shop '69 I've got. Keep it stock and look after it - I reckon in another 10 years, these will be almost as highly regarded as the early Corona models.

[newbuilder]

Keep the pickguard ziplocked in case you sell the guitar one day. I really like the V60s from BG that are in my Mason...perfect strat tone. All of the other suggestions would be really good too. I also really liked what ever stock pickups were in a buddy of mines stock MIA ash strat.

[Elias Graves]

Keep all the original parts.

 

EG

[nighthawk15]

I agree with everybody that said keep all the original parts if you modify it. If you are after the vintage strat sort of sound definitely check out the BG Pups V60s. I have had some in the neck and middle positions of my strat (tapped BG Dark Bucker in the bridge) for about two years now. Never have I had even a tiny desire to try anything else in it. IMO they make a strat sound just exactly like it should. Bryan (owner of bg pups) actually has pre-wired pickguards for a pretty good deal that may be of interest to you if you don't want to mess with wiring more than you have to.

 

http://www.norcalguitars.com/prewired.html

[wallywanker]

i have a 2005 american deluxe and i feel the same about the pickups...haven't done anything yet but here's my feelings - i have always been happy with lollars, wolftones, and rio grandes. i seem to be one of the few folks that like the s-1 switching system. i have two american standards that i prefer over the deluxe, one outfitted with lollars, the other with the fender noiseless with their diamondback humbucker (surprisingly good, still not thinking of changing it out). if you find something that `brings it to life' let me know...