El Strat De Mexico

Feelgood

Hi guys hope some of you might be able to guide me on this one,

Basically the first axe that I bought was a second hand Mexican Strat which
I have held onto for almost 10 years now but dont really play as I managed to get hold of a Lesbian Paul shortly after that...

Anyways it been sitting there for a long time now and rather than flog it on, I was thinking about giving it a wee upgrade and turning it into a half decent axe.I was never really into strats, in fact I pretty much despise them so I have no idea of what pickups / tones are good with them.

Its a standard mex, rosewood neck etc..
There are four sets of pickups I've been looking at

a) Fender Custom Shop 69's
b) Fender Custom Shop 54's
c) Fender Original 57/62's
d) Fender Vintage Noiseless

Can anyone point me in the right direction here?. I play a lot of rock and blues, but also appreciate a nice melodic clean tone...

Would it be worthwhile changing the neck also?

Thanks in advance for any info!

NoQuarter

hey mate, im pretty much doin the same thing as yourself, pimpin an old strat thats just been lying here, cant help on the pickups as of yet as im tryin to get the body and neck sorted first, actually wait im building a whole new guitar! anyways have a look here: http://www.warmoth.com/ its too expensive to buy stuff off them but they explain everything technical about the guitar,

out of interest what colour body is on your strat?

theres no major need to change the neck unless like me you have a thing for a maple one, there is the option of scalloping it, i know it seems crazy but theres plenty of guides around showing how to do it!

Alanstrainor

It seems, from the selection of pickups you have in your post you're looking for vintage tone. I got a set of seymour duncan antiquity II pickups for my strat, hand wound by the man himself, and they're nothing short of amazing. They're lovely and warm and give a gorgeous strat "quack" in the bridge mid position, and the neck mid position is warm and sweet! They are pricey i got mine off ebay from the US and got stung for customs so it came to around €230ish. I would definitely recommend them.

Alan

Feelgood

king-stew wrote: »

they explain everything technical about the guitar, out of interest what colour body is on your strat?

theres no major need to change the neck unless like me you have a thing for a maple one, there is the option of scalloping it, i know it seems crazy but theres plenty of guides around showing how to do it!

Thanks for the info, good website too. Much appreciated!. Strat is a terrible purple colour, was thinking about just spraying it myself.

You can buy a strat custom shop neck for about $130. The one thats on it is fine though I was just thinking that you could turn a mex strat into a semi-usa custom one for around $300 including pickups which isn't bad really.

Feelgood

Alanstrainor wrote: »

It seems, from the selection of pickups you have in your post you're looking for vintage tone. I got a set of seymour duncan antiquity II pickups for my strat, hand wound by the man himself, and they're nothing short of amazing. They're lovely and warm and give a gorgeous strat "quack" in the bridge mid position, and the neck mid position is warm and sweet! They are pricey i got mine off ebay from the US and got stung for customs so it came to around €230ish. I would definitely recommend them.

Alan

Ahh customs hate that, I am going for a vintage tone alright. The mind boggles with the selection of pickups that are out there though. Can I ask what type of music you play?. Do you use any digital effects units and what does the seymour duncans sound like through effects?

BarryCreed

i had the custom shop 69 pups in a mex strat. sounded really nice, they were what i was looking for...

lev

CS 69's all the way for me! I have a Classic Player 60's strat, which is a Mexican made strat but designed by the Fender Custom Shop, it comes loaded with CS 69's which sound killer for traditional strat sounds (Hendrix, SRV etc). Might be worth trying out one of these guitars to get an idea of the sound of the 69's.

http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0141100372

Feelgood

Dead on lads, thanks for that....

Anyone have any experience with the noiseless pickups??

Alanstrainor

Feelgood wrote: »

Ahh customs hate that, I am going for a vintage tone alright. The mind boggles with the selection of pickups that are out there though. Can I ask what type of music you play?. Do you use any digital effects units and what does the seymour duncans sound like through effects?

Generally i dont use effects except for my ts9 tube screamer and possibly a wah pedal. These are by no means a stevie ray esque set of pickups ie. overwound. They are just gorgeous clean, and with light to moderate overdrive from the tubescreamer they sound kick ass. I would recommend them for more of a clean/slightly overdriven sound.
Alan.

NoQuarter

if your goin for the vintage sound you could also have a look at vintage tinted maple necks and you can buy the strat knobs with a vintage feel, sort of an "off white" colour to get a vintage look too!

punchdrunk

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/products.html

Feelgood

punchdrunk wrote: »

http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/products.html

Cheers punch, good info....

punchdrunk

no worries mate,i've got the trilogy set in my mij...excellent pickups !