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On Wed, 8 May 2002, urbansurfkings wrote:
> What kind of pickups do you have in your strats? I'm thinking of
> changing my Gold Lace Sensors to something with a bit more sparkle.
> Any suggestions?
Quite honestly, my favorite pickups are the stock '62 reissue Strat
pickups. I have those in a late '80s '62 reissue that's my current
favorite - love that guitar. I have a mid-'90s '62 reissue into which I
stuck Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pros, and they are beautiful pickups, but
maybe a bit too soft. They definitely smooth out some of the harshness
of Fender amps played at full volume. My fiesta red Strat Plus used to
have Gold Lace Sensors, but I swapped those out a few years ago with
Fender's Texas Specials, as (I think) Brian rightly pointed out. The
improvement was huge! However, I find that Texas Specials are a bit too
dark for many uses, though I got great results with them in many
situation. On Tsar Wars, several songs were recorded with the Strat with
the Texas Specials: Escape From Gulag 17, The Crusher, Cossack Rocket
Patrol, Space Race, Tradewinds, and Departure. In addition, all of the
stuff I recorded for the New World Relampagos was with that same Strat
(but exclusively through Vox amps, no Fenders). Hopefully, you can get
some idea of what those pickups sound like. I think you can't go wrong
with any of these three, but I've really learned to appreciate just the
stock reissue pickups - they're fantastic! Disclaimer: other people that
hear me play say that the Strat with Alnico II Pros sounds the best, and
I think those pickups definitely get the most respect. And they are
fantastic, but maybe just not as powerful as the stock ones. Hope that
helps.
Ivan
