New pickups?

Ger the man

Hi folks,
I was thinking about upgrading the pickups in my Fender Highway 1 strat. What can you recommend for a clean crisp sound?

Cheers
Ger

Doctor J

What sort of music do you play?

Ger the man

Police, Floyd, U2 etc

fourmations

ok I'm not a stratman but..

Bill Lawrence, Kinman, joe Barden, Curtis Novak, Jason Lollar, Lindy Fralin
all make (allegedly) fantastic strat pups, these guys are enthusiasts

Bill Lawrence's 280's noiseless are the mutts (apparently again)

I have bought jazzmaster pups from Curtis Novak
and they are exccellent - he's a pleasure to deal with too,

all sites will come up when you google the names above,

on Harmony Central reviews you will get an idea
of what are the most popular (although everyone will say
that the ones they bought are the best)

you can alway go and get dimarz or SD's too
(cheaper and easier to get)

rgds

4

Doctor J

Any decent set will do, methinks. If you're looking to spend big, check out the likes of Lindy Fralin and Kinman who do top quality but pretty expensive strat sets. Also the likes of Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio should be a step up from what's in the Highway one. Fender do plenty of differnetly voiced sets of quality pickups, custom shop ones, etc which shouldn't be ruled out. Gilmour uses EMG pickups as well as stock vintage Fender pickups.

http://www.mikesguitarsite.co.uk/gear/pink_floyd/

All of those manufacturers make great pickups, so just check out their sites and read up on them. For a cleaner sound go for a set which aren't high output, a lot of the ones geared towards a 50s or vintage sound should give you what you're looking for.

Ger the man

Thanks for the info - all good stuff!

Quattroste

I recently upgraded my highway 1 with a set of Wizard pickups. They were a good price on Ebay (€100) and they're pretty good. If I was spending big money I would go for Bare Knuckle pups.

Ger the man

Will keep that in mind

gaffmaster

I also have a highway strat.

I was wondering if you are changing the pickups, is it worth upgrading all of the electronics? Pots, switch, wiring etc?

Kinman do a unique full pickguard assembly with a special wiring that means you can turn pick-up one on, and fade in the third pickup. apparently makes it sound like a tele in the middle position.

I've also heard good things about bareknuckle.

Ger the man

Hi Gaff,
Yeah i was thinking about that, getting the pickups changed and leaving the electronics might defeat the whole purpose.

punchdrunk

got bareknuckle trilogys in my strat,i love em!