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What are the best pickups for a Fender Stratocastor to get a jazz sound?
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06-16-2010 11:44 AM
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I suggest (in descending order of expense):
(1) the EMG S set, with the EXG and SPC controls added — dead quiet, and with a lot of control for tones (needs space for a 9v battery);
(2) a single Lollar Charlie Christian pickup (needs a P90 rout) with one volume and tone control;
(3) a full set of GFS "vintage wound" (i.e. not hot) Alnico pickups.
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I have a Bolt Carvin guitar myself (two..one with the tremolo bar) it was the kit Bolt Carvin (you save and it's fun to build). I'm left-handed. I use the stoptail piece Bolt for jazz. I sold my ES355 way back wish I still had it.
It has the AP11 pickups by Carvin it stock and it has a nice warm jazzy tone, that is, the neck pickup is great especially with tone knob turn down and using flatwound strings (Thomastics are great).
Tom Wheeler who was editor of Guitar Player Mag. did an article on it in the late '90s built one from the kit and liked the pickups. He said the pickups had nice jazzy lows. I don't know what more you would want from a single coil pickup.
You are there, man, just buy from Carvin a AP11 from them and put it in the neck position.
Telecasters were known, believe or not, for their neck pickup jazzy tone and fingerboard being very articulate & even notes to play. Jazz guitarists Howard Roberts, Joe Pass, Ed Bickert, Mike Stern, Duke Robillard have played telecasters for jazz at one time.
I would go for the Carvin AP11 neck pickup but Seymour Duncan do have single coil humbucking sounding pickups...how they sound? ...I don't know. How does a pickup stop working unless the coil broke...?Last edited by cisco kid; 06-23-2010 at 08:46 AM.
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They may be out of fashion these days and there is controversial opinion about them out there but personally I like Bill Lawrence "noise free singles" a lot. You can order them inexpensively at wwwDOTwildepickupsDOTcom. L280's would be my recommendation, they go for about 40 bucks each plus shipping. I recently put 2 of their twin blades single coil form factor PUPs in my Guild S-60D replacing the factory DiMarzios and I'm quite happy with the result. However for a jazz sound I believe the NF singles to be a better choice. Their website is not too well made and slow so that the ordering process can be a little frustrating. That said I've always been quite happy with their products and continue to own 3 guitars that are equipped with BL PUPs.
Please note that Bill's former business partner owns the brand "Bill Lawrence USA". I cannot speak for their products but noticed that that there are a number of loyal customers over there too although more rock and metal players who tend buy the high output humbuckers.
Good Luck.
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Hmm. Via frogeye's link, here's Bill himself getting a jazz tone from his Strat set:
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Thanks fivebells, Bill is playing a guitar that is equipped with twin blade pickups. The model name is L-45S .I had referred to them in my post above. I need to admit that I never have tried them in a strat and the Guild is a very different sounding guitar. I probably shouldn't have made a recommendation in respect to using the L-280S over the L-45S. Both pickups are great with the L-280S being a little more Single Coil sounding than the L-45S at least to my ear.
Originally Posted by fivebells
All the Best.
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I also like to raise everybody's attention to the amp Bill is using in the video. Just in case that anybody ever tries to tell you that one can't get a great jazz tone out of a good old 212 tube combo at low volume levels ......
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Klein pickups sells some jazzy strat pickups. I believe you have to buy the whole set. I never heard them tho. Most pickups use Alnico II or V magnets or ceramic. These use a ... supposedly rare IV Alnico pickup to give it a sweeter mellow sound
The Alnico and Ceramic magntics do not give any sound it's how they are constructed that makes the difference.
Klein pickups have a website to look into. They also make a neck and bridge jazz set for the Telecaster guitar, but they sell those individually.
I was curious why the Telecaster is popular with jazz guitarists when Leo Fender originally as I understood it wanted the guitar to sound like a pedal steel guitar. Since in those days there were many country guitar pickers around...lots of country music in those days here in the L.A. area and Orange County....plenty of country and Irish salons/bars not to mention jazz clubs in those days.
Peace
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By jazz, I mean traditional jazz tone. Not fusion, Wayne Krantz kind of tone. For that, stock pickups would do just fine.
I prefer single coils as I already have an archtop with Classic 57's.
The ideal candidate would still have that jingly/glassy strat tone when tone knob is all open. But will give that full,
warm tone without losing all the clarity when the tone knob is rolled off a bit.
I haven't fully ruled out humbuckers. I think my strat has routing for humbuckers as well, but single coil size humbuckers also an option. I just like to retain the clarity of the single coils though.
Please try to keep the "Why not just get a Tele" type of contributions to a minimum
Last edited by Tal_175; 05-04-2018 at 12:29 PM.
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I regret that I can not help you with this.
Because I will be watching this thread ( and, thank you for it ) I'd like to ask
is your intended Strat a hard-tail or conventional whammy?
Soon I'll enter treatment for my pathological desire to experiment with a Dynasonic in
anything but I doubt this is even possible (much less appropriate to your request) in a Strat.
Thanks again & good luck in your pursuit.
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This would be my suggestion
S90 Strat(R) Pickup - Porter Custom Wound Guitar Pickups
I'm a big fan of Porter's stuff. I have porter pups in both of my Teles. If it sounds anywhere near the 9-T (the Tele version of the same pickup), then it should give you what you want. It's higher output than most single coils - meant to mimic a P-90. The form factor only allows them to get so close. The 9-T isn't that far off the tone of the stock Tele neck pickup, it's just a little beefier.
Also, some people get a decent jazz tone out of a strat with Lace Sensors. I don't know much about those.
That said, I'm a little skeptical of being able to get all of the strattiness out of a strat. I think the tone is to an appreciable degree affected by the large routs and vibrato springs.
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Originally Posted by rabbit
My strat is hard-tail-ish. I disabled the tremolo by adding extra springs and screwing the claw all the way. Theoretically that should give me hard-tail sound + subtle natural reverby sound from the springs. I don't know if I am hearing the springs at all though.
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I had Dimarzio Cruiser Neck DP186 on my headless guitar.
With flat wound and tone knob low, it is a pretty convincing traditional jazz tone.
With round wound is still ok.
Another one came to my mind was the Seymour Duncan Little 59 but I do not have experience with it.
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That's true. I don't expect it to become the ultimate jazz machine Originally Posted by Boston Joe
I'm looking for more an upgrade over the stock pickups. Something that would get me closer. I don't think there is a reason for hardtail strats not to get close to Jazz tone if Tele can.
I think I can control the amount of strattiness by adjusting my touch. It's actually fun to bring strattiness in and out by the way you're picking.
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Pete Biltoft makes strat single coil blades that are really nice.
I picked up a set, 2nd hand, and really like them. Very powerful but quiet....none of the Strat "thin-ness" that people sometimes complain about. No individual adjustment polepieces obviously.
I would say the sound leans a little more toward humbucker range than a classic single coil strat.
I have several sets of Biltoft pu's and they are all good.
PS: These pu's are in a partscaster I put together....big, fat neck, and a hard tail, in effect, and the strat boing-I-ness is gone. I think I have 10's on it, but thicker strings might be interesting, too.
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You are not going to like what I am going too say. Just about any nice straty neck pickup (I love SD SSL2s )
BUT: I change my tone and volume controls to the Bill Lawrence/G&L circuit.
Volume is volume (like normal)
Middle tone is treble cut (like normal)
Lower Tone is Bass cut
Neck pickup by itself .. roll the tone back to taste and then roll off a bit of bass to take out the woofiness and get a bit more clarity.
Not a very common circuit but I cant play a strat without this setup anymore (and I wish I could do it on my tele without adding another knob)
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Fender Original 57/62s, no question imo.
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Interesting. How are they different than the modern stock pickups? I'm wondering in what way they get closer to the jazz sound? Originally Posted by p1p
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They are made for a wound third and are way 'warmer" than a modern Strat PUP. I had two 62 RI Strats with these PUPs and with flats these PUPS produced a great jazz tone. Originally Posted by Tal_175
p1p has given you great advice IMO.
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I've been reading about them, they might fit the bill for me. What I have on my strat is 54's. Which are designed to be bright and cutting. Not the jazziest. Looks like 62's are warmer and have more mids. They are also much higher output according to the Fender site. Not that expensive either. I'll probably get them. Originally Posted by Stringswinger
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My approach was a Lil 59 in the neck position and the stock single coil in the middle.
I'd use the neck for jazz and the middle for single coil sounds.
A single coil in the middle position doesn't sound exactly like a single coil in the neck position, but it was in the general ballpark.
Same argument for the neck pickup, although I came to like the neck pickup sound a lot -- and seldom used the middle.
I never used the bridge pickup. At one point I disconnected it so I couldn't accidentally throw the switch and not realize that I had done it. Basically, it became an off switch.
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I’ll add a second vote for Pete Biltoft, but I’m going to recommend a different pickup. Pete makes a P90 style Strat pickup. I have these in the neck and middle position of a Warmoth Strat I built. I think they would fit what you’re looking for.
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Thanks. I checked his site. I like that the pickups include easily swappable different type of magnets to try out. Originally Posted by ThatRhythmMan
I'm intrigued by the Fender 57/62's at this point but I might order a single P90 style neck pickup from Pete Biltoft as well if I am not happy with the Fenders.
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A HUGE second to Pete Biltoft's pickups! Originally Posted by goldenwave77
I have a solidbody guitar that has a CCRider, Biltoft's Charlie Christian pickup in the neck position. It sounds rich, no "Stratty" thinness, but definitely leaner than your common humbucker.
Kind of werid, because I do have a "Frankenstrat" I built from a Washburn Strat copy and a $30. Ebay neck. It has a Seymour Duncan Cool Rails in the neck position, it gets a very full tone but not the bottom heavy sound of humbuckers. I like the tone from this one too. Not wanting to wrestle a huge hollowbody, the tone of either of these solidbodies will hold their own.
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I find these pretty thin and I’ve been thinking about what to replace them with. Originally Posted by p1p
DiMarzio makes a Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 pickup. It’s a noiseless Strat pickup with Alnico 2 magnets. Lower the height a bit. I’ve got a VVHB, with A5s, in my Strat and am liking it for an acoustic-y archtop sound.
In single coil-sized humbuckers, the DiMarzio ProTrack might warrant a look.
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