On the left is my 2011 American Standard Strat with Rosewood fretboard and on the right a 2015 Mexican Standard strat with maple fretboard both with a sunburst finish.
I never really bonded with the Alnico 5 stock PuPs on the Am Std but do like the ceramic Mex PuPs. I personally found the Am PuPs to generic / modern sounding. As a result this strat has rarely been played and had thought about selling it for a while now.
Instead of selling it I thought I would give it one last a proper setup, especially focusing on the pickup heights, along with a face-lift and if this didn't do it for me then it would be up for sale or a trade in for a new guitar. A fraction of a mm in pickup height can make a massive difference. Too high (close to the magnets) and the magnets pull on the strings resulting in a 'warble sound' too far away they sounded too thin and weak, it was def a challenge to find the 'sweet spot'
I found they were set too low and after some mucking around i got it at its best but still wasn't blown away by the sound, was nice with a very clean tone but still too 'modern sounding' to my ears. Anyway I could live with this so proceeded with the face lift upgrade which involved changing the pick-guard and knobs to black....
.... WOW!!!
I absolutely love the look of the guitar now and couldn't be happier but while putting it all back together I broke the pickup by cutting the copper wire wrapped around it. I can repair but thought it a perfect chance to change the tone with a new pickup upgrade.
Also accidentally took off the neck entirely, which was totally unintended and required another full setup of the neck to get the correct angle
got there eventually.
After two weeks of research I was more confused on pickup choice than when I started until I came across this video Fender Vintage 65 Pickups
soon as i heard this it was music to my ears THIS was the sound I grew up associating with a strat so put a set of Single coils on order and picking up tomorrow. Cant wait for to install these and really hoping it goes smoothly and produces the tone I have been looking for.
The Mexican strat got a minor face lift with some Aged White pickup covers and knobs. I do like the stock neck/middle pickups on this guitar quite a bit so not touching those (at this stage anyway). The bridge pickup is ok but def can be improved as it is a little on the thin side, so back to google I went and found the best (arguably) humbucker pickup for a strat is the Seymour Duncan JB SH-4 pickup. This was first produced in the 70s by Seymour Duncan for Jeff Beck, and is one of the most popular HB PuP to be used in strats by many big players during the 70s and 80s, a very versatile PuP..
Purchased the zebra style PuP to complement the Mexican strat white/cream pick-guard / covers. This should be coming next week so I'll chuck that in when I get it and fingers crossed its what I wanted.
Here are some pics to enjoy.. the Am Std wont look any different as I am keeping the PuP covers black but the Mex Std will look a little different with the new Zebra JB PuPs, i'll post pics once that is installed.
Have pretty much given both the royal treatment in setups.. Only have the frets to file down and make a new top nut out of bone to replace the synthetic plastic bits that are there now. Question is do I fork out for file frets and nut files to do myself or take to a Luthier? hmmmm
Original Guitars
Upgraded Guitars
Kick Off
Ooops - Neck off
Seymour Duncan JB Zebra PuP
I never really bonded with the Alnico 5 stock PuPs on the Am Std but do like the ceramic Mex PuPs. I personally found the Am PuPs to generic / modern sounding. As a result this strat has rarely been played and had thought about selling it for a while now.
Instead of selling it I thought I would give it one last a proper setup, especially focusing on the pickup heights, along with a face-lift and if this didn't do it for me then it would be up for sale or a trade in for a new guitar. A fraction of a mm in pickup height can make a massive difference. Too high (close to the magnets) and the magnets pull on the strings resulting in a 'warble sound' too far away they sounded too thin and weak, it was def a challenge to find the 'sweet spot'
I found they were set too low and after some mucking around i got it at its best but still wasn't blown away by the sound, was nice with a very clean tone but still too 'modern sounding' to my ears. Anyway I could live with this so proceeded with the face lift upgrade which involved changing the pick-guard and knobs to black....
.... WOW!!!
I absolutely love the look of the guitar now and couldn't be happier but while putting it all back together I broke the pickup by cutting the copper wire wrapped around it. I can repair but thought it a perfect chance to change the tone with a new pickup upgrade.
Also accidentally took off the neck entirely, which was totally unintended and required another full setup of the neck to get the correct angle
got there eventually.After two weeks of research I was more confused on pickup choice than when I started until I came across this video Fender Vintage 65 Pickups
soon as i heard this it was music to my ears
THIS was the sound I grew up associating with a strat so put a set of Single coils on order and picking up tomorrow. Cant wait for to install these and really hoping it goes smoothly and produces the tone I have been looking for.The Mexican strat got a minor face lift with some Aged White pickup covers and knobs. I do like the stock neck/middle pickups on this guitar quite a bit so not touching those (at this stage anyway). The bridge pickup is ok but def can be improved as it is a little on the thin side, so back to google I went and found the best (arguably) humbucker pickup for a strat is the Seymour Duncan JB SH-4 pickup. This was first produced in the 70s by Seymour Duncan for Jeff Beck, and is one of the most popular HB PuP to be used in strats by many big players during the 70s and 80s, a very versatile PuP..
Purchased the zebra style PuP to complement the Mexican strat white/cream pick-guard / covers. This should be coming next week so I'll chuck that in when I get it and fingers crossed its what I wanted.
Here are some pics to enjoy.. the Am Std wont look any different as I am keeping the PuP covers black but the Mex Std will look a little different with the new Zebra JB PuPs, i'll post pics once that is installed.
Have pretty much given both the royal treatment in setups.. Only have the frets to file down and make a new top nut out of bone to replace the synthetic plastic bits that are there now. Question is do I fork out for file frets and nut files to do myself or take to a Luthier? hmmmm
Original Guitars
Upgraded Guitars
Kick Off
Ooops - Neck off
Seymour Duncan JB Zebra PuP
