Keystones tele tone on a Strat

[noahwayne]

Hello All and Merry Xmas,

I have two teles equiped with Keystone pickups and have recently had a strat built - 2 piece alder body, oil finished, with a 62 neck and am looking for a set of pickups that will get me a tone similar to the keystone tele sound. Having spent hours/ days on the PC doing research I am still none the wiser. Can anyone suggest a set of pickups that will get me into this tonal area. I know the sensible thing to do would be to explore some other tones but this sound works perfectly with the style i play - I just love the tone.

Any suggestions
Cheers

[Derek Kiernan]

Bill and Becky offer a Keystone Strat set, if you weren't aware.

from keystonepickups.com:

"The KS set for Strat replacement is $75.00 plus S/H in white, black,cream or ivory covers. For Tele replacement - the standard KT set(open coil neck)is $57.00 plus S/H, and the Deluxe KT set(chrome-plated housing for neck) is $64.00 plus S/H!"

[giantslayer]

If I were you, I'd try some strat keystones as Derek suggested.

Another thought for consideration: You already have two teles with keystones in the bridge. Maybe the strat would be more useful to you if you let it be a little different from your teles. My band leader has a strat and a tele (60's type strat and 50s type tele) and they sound very different from each other. I think that added versatility will be worth having.

[DaleH]

I vote for the KS strat set. Then write us up a review.

[noahwayne]

I have a set of Keystone strat pickups bought because I loved the tele's so much but they sound nothing like the tele ones which was a major disapointment. A friend of mine, who is also an avid tele and strat user did exactly the same and we both came to the same conclusion. He now has 4 teles with keystones! The strat ones dont have the bite, the woodiness of the tele stones. I think I'm going to pm Arlo as he is the Keystone guru and may be able to shed some light on this.

Many Thanks

[badmelonfarmer]

Originally Posted by noahwayne

I have a set of Keystone strat pickups bought because I loved the tele's so much but they sound nothing like the tele ones which was a major disapointment. A friend of mine, who is also an avid tele and strat user did exactly the same and we both came to the same conclusion. He now has 4 teles with keystones! The strat ones dont have the bite, the woodiness of the tele stones. I think I'm going to pm Arlo as he is the Keystone guru and may be able to shed some light on this.

Many Thanks

hmmm, I have ordered a set of strat keystone pickups, I was hoping they would be here in time for christmas, but they have been returned as "undeliverable" they did not even get to the the UK before being returned :-(

I was really looking forward to trying them in my strat, just a little worried having read this. I have read only good reviews of the pickups tele or strat and figured they were worth a shot without hearing them even given the current dollar / pound rate.

Cheers

BMF

[viking]

I have a set of Keystones in a Strat partscaster....They sound great , not like any tele at all , but like a full and great sounding Strat set.

The neck is hollow sounding , the quack in pos 2 and 4 is really noticeable. The bridge pu is really great , not thin with just the bit more ooomph you often miss in a strat pu...

They can sound a bit hi-fi , and could be sterile if you have a " boring " sounding amp , I guess.....Its said that they are very sensitive to height adjustment so please try that out if you are not satisfied....
I set mine after the " 1 dime at the treble -2 dimes at the bass side" of the bridge pu recommended by Bill Lawrence. I set the other pu´s to balance the bridges output and just left them there , they sound great to me....

I use two different set-ups , either a classic 30 with old Boss pedals , or a Vox Valvetronix modulation with all the on-board effects mostly on the Dumble Overdrive or the Fender Twin setting , never quite clean but medium to high gain.
The Keystones are very well made , have different string spacing on every pu , so you have to order them in the color you want , you cant change the covers.
Its amazing that its possible to make these pu´s in the USA for the price BL charge for them. Makes you wonder why others cost so much ?

[Derek Kiernan]

Originally Posted by viking

Its amazing that its possible to make these pu´s in the USA for the price BL charge for them. Makes you wonder why others cost so much ?

Cost of overhead and labor for the smaller operations or the usual corporate fair

[viking]

Yes , maybe....There is only so much boo-hoo reg pu´s I can take before I start to shake my head , I dont believe in a lot of the hype....
All I wanted to add , was that these are made in a shop of a true legend ,in the US , and the price is even cheaper than some of the asian alternatives.
Im not from the US , and it was still important for me

[badmelonfarmer]

man, you have made me even more impatient now!

I am not bothered about hifi sounding pickups as I have Joe Bardens in my number 1 Tele and love the guitar and pickups.

Now hopefully my keystones will get back to Becky soon and she can sort out the problem for me.

Cheers

BMF

[viking]

Well , maybe my definition of " hi-fi " is different to what people hear when they talk about Bardens . Never tried a set of Bardens , I will never pay that much for anything.

One thing I do on all my strats is wire the bridge pu to the middle tone pot , takes a bit of highs from the bridge pu. Real easy to do , diagram on the SD site.
To balance the pu´s on a strat , theres sometimes the problem that you set the amp to the bridge pu , and the neck pu suddenly sounds too dark. I never use the tone pot(s) on my guitars anyway , so I just take the neck pu away from the tone pot , which makes it quite a bit louder and brighter.

Low tech , but it works !

[badmelonfarmer]

Originally Posted by viking

Well , maybe my definition of " hi-fi " is different to what people hear when they talk about Bardens . Never tried a set of Bardens , I will never pay that much for anything.

One thing I do on all my strats is wire the bridge pu to the middle tone pot , takes a bit of highs from the bridge pu. Real easy to do , diagram on the SD site.
To balance the pu´s on a strat , theres sometimes the problem that you set the amp to the bridge pu , and the neck pu suddenly sounds too dark. I never use the tone pot(s) on my guitars anyway , so I just take the neck pu away from the tone pot , which makes it quite a bit louder and brighter.

Low tech , but it works !

LOL, I know what you mean about Bardens being expensive... but I bought them from the US when the exchange rate was REALLY in my favour and I managed to ret them at well below list price as I haggled with the seller.

I could not have justified the expense with out getting a really good deal.

that said they are really great pickups.

I used to be a "never touch the tone" kinda player, but on the bardens the tone pot makes such a difference and really works well with the pickups I have changed my habits of 20 plus years!

I saw the tone mod you are talking about and was consideriing doing it, good feedback thanks, I will try it out if the keystones ever get to me.

Cheers

BMF

[Arlo]

I spoke to Bill yesterday about this. It is going to be very hard to get a "Tele" sound from a "Strat" for obvious reasons. However you should not underestimate the capacitor and it's part in fine tuning the sound of a guitar.

I often wondered what it would sound like to make a Strat with 3 Tele Keystones in it. You could do all bridge or all neck or a combination of them. I am making a Texacaster guitar as Ron Kirn is done painting it for me. This will have a Tele bridge pup "Keystone" and two Strat style pups.



It is extremely hard to describe this as Bill has told me many times. He is planning to do a written explanation but again it is frustrating to try and put it in terms that we all can understand. There are many ways to achieve tone with simple cap replacements and wiring experimentations. Bill said that he thinks that he can come very close to a Tele sound with a Strat by rewiring the tone controls as well.

I am looking forward to his article on the subject.



It would be cool if he wrote a monthly "Bill Lawrence Pickupology Report" for the TDPRI. Not in a forum or blog but simply an article of interest. I think Paul has asked him about this before but it would be difficult for Bill because I think the readers would swamp him with questions. Maybe if we all agreed to listen and not ask he would consider it?

[badmelonfarmer]

Hi Arlo,

Cool looking texacaster! interested to find out how it sounds.

Would be cool if Bill would post some info, I guess Paul could but it as a locked thread or sticky then that would stop us bombarding him.

Cheers

BMF

[Jimo]

EVERYONE likes the Keystone TELE pups but when you ask about the STRAT pups -----you just hear the sounds of crickets chirping in the background------I am about to get scared off the strat ones.......am I wrong?.........cheers!---------JIMO

[giantslayer]

Well, this is the TELECASTER discussion page, so you see a lot more telecaster pickups being discussed in general around here. Usually, when I hear someone mention strat keystones, it's something like "I have keystones on 12 of my teles. I also have a set in my strat and they sound good."

[badmelonfarmer]

got my strat keystones yesterday and spent the evening soldering them in, got the guitar strings on today.

and the verdict....

I really like them, they really work well with tone pots. the bridge is very bright and I am glad I wired the bridge to the middle pickups tone pot.

they seem hotter then the standard fender set they replaced.

so far so good, now I need to sort out the correct height ajustment and give the guitar a once over as some of the strings are buzzing a little too much.

But I am very glad I decided to get the keystones.

I'll post a picture when I have finished setting her up.

Cheers

BMF

[Jimo]

They were definately on my short list! Are they more vintage or leaning toward overwound sound? (when you get time to sort them out)........thanks for posting!--------------JIMO

[badmelonfarmer]

to my ears they are definately vintage voiced, but they alose fell hotter that the ones that came off my 97 MIA strat.

they are not too OTT, hot wise, they break up just nicely. Only had time to try them on my practice amp, a Line 6 Spider Jam.

the make me want to play blues, for some reason! it's weird if I pick up my les paul it makes me want ot play heavy rock, well these keystones make me want to play blues!

Cheers

BMF

[badmelonfarmer]

ok, here is the picture of the finished guitar.

Whilst I have not tried the Tele Keystones, these strat keystones do not have a tele twang, they are strat sounding as others have said.

Cheers

BMF