suggestions on new pickups for my strat

[dk1ben]

Hey everyone. I am starting to research upgrading my pickups or maybe even the entire setup on my strat clone. I built this guitar many many years ago and for the life of me can not remember what pickups I got. I opened her up the other night before I changed the strings and there is no markings. I do remember I bought it from the pick guard and pickups as a set from Warmoth for around $80 to $100 bucks back in 1999. The luither that really walked me through this build has sent past so I have no way of knowing what they are. However I can not get rid of the hum. I checked all the connections. All wires are soldered well. So I have come to the conclusion just to replace the pickups or maybe the entire setup. Any thoughts? Here is a picture so you can see what I am working with. Thanks...

[dg]

What tone are you looking for? Traditional strat? Something more cutting-edge? High gain? There are endless possibilities. Pretty axe, btw!

[dk1ben]

Thanks for the compliment. Took a long time to build. Still not perfect. I plan to work the shape over this summer some time. You can see where the horns are not cut correct.

Yea I guess it would help if I indicated the tone. Ops. I want to keep this as my blues guitar. Something in the area of Kenny Wayne Shepherd. I like his sound a lot.

Thanks again.

[kelly user]

vintage..... hmmmmmmm. cool rails, they have a nice overdrive sound to them.

[toejam]

However I can not get rid of the hum.

If they're regular single coil pickups, they'll hum. You'll need stacked single coils or humbuckers that are single coil size if you don't like the 60-cycle hum inherent in single coils.

[dk1ben]

thanks for the help. I took another look at the guts of the guitar. Appears there was a issue with the grounding on one of the pods. I redid the solder and it is much better now. Not sure how I over looked it but I did. Thanks again.

[GodWentPUNK]

I have those Vintage Noiseless Pickups on my strat and I LOVE them. The bridge is a little weak, but the neck/middle pickup ROCK.

joe...

[j2379]

yeah ive had a cool rail since they first came out, i love it. & it sounds great tapped too. tho its more like a PAF tonewise than a single coil when untapped.

[GTarman68]

Fender Texas Specials all the way...Blues Tone!

[Dreamland_Rebel]

JB jr.

by far the best sounding start pup i've ever heard. the jr is made with a ceramic magnet instead of the A5 of its full sized brother.

[kelly user]

yeah ive had a cool rail since they first came out, i love it. & it sounds great tapped too. tho its more like a PAF tonewise than a single coil when untapped.

i didn't you could tap a single coil pick-up.......

[toejam]

i didn't you could tap a single coil pick-up.......

Didn't think?
The Cool Rails is not a single coil pickup. It's a single coil-sized but more like a PAF humbucker sound.

[shreddermon]

Dimarzio Virtual Vintage Blues. The Texas Specials are cool, too.

The Duncan Cool Rails is a good pickup, but nothing like a bluesy tone you're describing. Not a good fit, IMHO. Not even in the ballpark.

[kelly user]

Didn't think?
The Cool Rails is not a single coil pickup. It's a single coil-sized but more like a PAF humbucker sound.

i was too busy thinks about tapping a single coil....... i was bewilderd

[neptoess]

Bill Lawrence Keystones would be ideal. E-mail [email protected] about them(they run about 80 for a full set). They're voiced like a vintage strat with a tad more output(can your say SRV!), you can order a RWRP middle for noise cancelling in pos 2 & 4, and the other pos's have insanely low noise, almost unnoticeable, I actaully recommend these over noise cancellings if you want a strat tone. But if hum-cancelling in all positions is a must, Bill sells some strat voiced noiseless single coils called L-200s. They're more around 150 for a set. You buy them from www.billlawrence.com