Replacement pickups for Strat

Some other Fender 'vintage' options are the recent AV '59s and AV '65s.

I have an AV 59 from 2014 and I love the pickups, prefer them to the Fat 50's in my last Strat. And I have read good things about the sound of the '65. These pickups are in the American Original 50's and 60's Strats, respectively. Maybe a local store has one for you to try before buying.

 

I always proffes Lace alumatones and or the Lace sensor rainbow pack ( Hot gold 13K bridge, Silver in the middle and Blue in the neck) I Like both of these sets and they are dead quiet no noise at all,




I put a set of lace aumatone buckers in my Peavey Preditor EXP that are quiet, jazzy, and ballsy

 

Pics please.

If it's the guitar that i think it is, standard size Strat pickups won't fit.

Those are decent guitars for learning on, but I humbly submit that investing anything more than the parts already floating around in your parts drawer, and you run a serious risk of turd polishing...

Done it many times myself.

If you see me winding up to make a similar mistake, please warn me and we'll call it even.

 

Yeah hard to say what the complaint sounds like, but if doesn't say the pickups are muddy/ bassy/ dull toned/ dark, I assume the desire is for a warmer fatter less bright pickup.

You might try a used Robert Cray Strat bridge pickup @ IIRC around $40 from Stratosphere.
I bought one and it actually sounds a bit too warm for me where it replaced a rewound '73 Strat pickup.
I also plan to swap in a Tex Mex bridge pickup in the same guitar where I'm trying to really nail a bridge tone, because I only use the bridge pickup but almost never a Strat bridge pickup.
The R Cray is supposed to be a CS pickup and one of the few Strat bridge pups that everyone seems to like.

I actually forgot the RC set you can get from Stratosphere for $100 and are very good.

These days I'm happy with a Jazzmaster pickup in the bridge position of a hardtail Strat!

 

Bootstrap has all 3 pickups for <$50. Been wanting to try a set; just need to get something for them to go in! I was given a set of Fender MIM Strat pickups that are perfect for my Peavey Predator.

 

These are great pickups and don't cost a lot: https://www.rosepickups.com/

 

https://www.deneb-tone.com/

Awesome tone using neodymium magnets on steel poles.

 

I installed a pair of FAT50 in my (heavily modded) 2005 Squier Std Strat :



These pickups are very satisfactory sounding - less funky but more vintage-ey than the nonetheless excellent genuine Squier AlNiCo Std Strat set, that I put in my 3-PU "Cyclone" Harley-Benton project :



But it's me, OK ?

-tbln

 

+1 on the Tex Mex

 

Bootstraps are the cheapest I think of anything mentioned and are also handmade in the US. $50 a set is a good price to feel comfortable experimenting with. Sun city would be a set I'd recommend just looking through as it's pretty standard alnico 5 and 42 awg and output within a normal range. If you want something more vintage output range, the 54 set looks really quiet. Some of the other sets have some features I'm sure sound really good, but I can't speak of without experience of those materials in a strat.

The thing I really like about the fralin vintage hots is that they have none of the bridge issues mentioned above. I believe it has a metal plate and sounds very tele-like. I think just the single bridge of fralin set is almost the price of two full bootstraps sets though so there's that. If you ask Ryan of bootstraps, he may very well be willing to make a stat bridge with metal plate for like $10 extra.

Tex mex are a really good set, my buddy just installed a set in his partscaster. They are noticeably hot to my ear, but not overly so. I think they still retain good chime and sparkle if you have the height set right so can't really go wrong there either.

 

Confirmed.

Regular sized Strat pickups will not fit in that.

Someone gave me one of those once. I used it as a loaner guitar for several years and finally gave it to a student who needed it.

I believe they were made in Korea in 2004-2005. Little brother/sister to the KPP (Korean Predator Plus).

The KPP pickups are better quality, but still ceramic. I bought a few from Peavey a while ago. Not sure if I still have them in a drawer somewhere... LOL The Raptor pickups don't even use copper wire, they use copper film... The KPP pickups use actual pickup wire.

 

Toneriders

Best value around.

 

When one buys a guitar, one must know enough of their needs in the sound and play-ability of a guitar. Changing pickups in a guitar is not an automatic fix-it. It's not about a popular pickup making mojo in your guitar, it's about picking and finding a set that enhances the sound of your guitar's body. Which is easier said than done.

If the guitar did not turn you on when you bought it, how can you expect that it will change (without some difficulty in trial and error and expense) by slapping in other pickups?

Not sure what your options were, but if it were me, I would try a number of that model and if none excited you, you could've passed on it and rethought your plans.

If availing of a pickup guru, he would serve you best if he had your guitar in his hands to custom wind something for your guitar, if he deemed it worth it rather than just pick things off a shelf list.

I bought an SX Thinline. Was blown away as to how it sounded and played. I like it better than my Fender MIA 1980's custom factory color paint Tele. Luck of the draw. stock pickups, pots, everything. Hence a $150 guitar is not a dead end, specially the way guitars are made with machines. I heard SX had an American luthier advising them.

But it is about that one in a million build that sends you.

Played the SX Tele in the store before plunking down the cash. Another customer was listening. She wanted to know if it was the amp or guitar that was getting the great tone.

It was the guitar!


Keep in mind the SX pickups are not even the same standard size as Fender Tele pickups. Rather than kill the mojo, I'm leaving it stock.

Sum of its parts, is key. Consider the guitar, not just the pickups.

 

Larry, I like the looks of the guitar and I like Peavey. As an aside, looks like there is a lot more string space on the bass side than the treble side of the neck. If so, just loosen the neck a little and give the headstock a tug towards the bass side to even out the string spacing on the neck. As for the pickups, if they are too edgy as you describe them, I'd lower the pickups and turn up the volume on the amp till you find what you are looking for. And if I had to recommend a pickup change, I'd check out Rob Distefano's Cavalier pickups as many have mentioned above.

 

The 2008-2012 American Standard pickups are a crazy good modern-voiced set with vintage flavours for the used price.

 

What you mean like these ones



These pickups provide big tone out of a little Strat. Mine are a set of prototypes from a few years ago but I think the newer ones are even better. Vlad’s got some demos of them on this page: https://www.deneb-tone.com/proekt-02

EDIT: @Zepfan, I see your talking about Vlad’s pickups with the steel poles and neodymium magnets on each pole. I haven’t tried those ones.

EDIT 2: @JayFreddy made a point about the Peavey pickups on this particular strat-like guitar not fitting correctly... I’m not sure any of our recommendations are going to be helpful unless Larry decides to modify the pickguard or swap in a fender guard (if it fits the pickup and controls routings.