Members Les Paul Lover Posted March 31, 2010 Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 The situation: Been wanting a strat for a long long time now. From the strat offering, my pick would be the standard because of its pick ups/tone. I was quite happy with that until I tried a guitar (alder body + maple neck) with those: Di Marzio Virtual Vintage 54 (Alnico 5) Bridge: Output 137mV, DC Resistance 7.86K Neck & Middle: Output 130mV, DC Resistance 7.64K That guitar made the USA standard strat bland, thin, very substandard and irremarkable in direct comparison (tone wise). I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Norcal_GIT_r Posted March 31, 2010 Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 What makes a great strat like pick up? To me it's forbon fiber bobbins made with A5 or A2 magnets wound with heavy formvar. They should read between 5.7-7k. Much hotter than that and you loose that classic strat tone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted March 31, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 So that guitar i tried with those Di Marzio virtual vintage would be out of the normal strat realm? They didn't sound overly hot , though i assume they are as hot as a low output humbucker? Is it the the high DC resistance they gave them warmth and & richness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted March 31, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 And please, what are forbon fiber bobbins? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Elias Graves Posted March 31, 2010 Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 And please, what are forbon fiber bobbins? Well, when you go fishing, a forbin fiber bobber will attract more fish. EG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Norcal_GIT_r Posted March 31, 2010 Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 And please, what are forbon fiber bobbins? Forbon fiber is a compressed paper type material used to make the tops and bottoms of the original strat pickups by Fender. This is opposed to the plastic that is used on many modern pickups. This way of making a bobbin has the magnet poles right up against the magnet wire. Where plastic bobbins have a plastic barrier between the poles and the coil wire. I believe this takes away from the vintage tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Les Paul Lover Posted March 31, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 31, 2010 I have not tried the Dimarzios you are speaking of, but typically pickups in that range lack that true vintage tone.Forbon fiber is a compressed paper type material used to make the tops and bottoms of the original strat pickups by Fender. This is opposed to the plastic that is used on many modern pickups. This way of making a bobbin has the magnet poles right up against the magnet wire. Where plastic bobbins have a plastic barrier between the poles and the coil wire. I believe this takes away from the vintage tones. Ah. That's better!!!! And what are your favorite strat/single coil pick ups? What makes them so? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.