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#290697 - 16/12/11 08:23 PM
Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
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Ape09090
Old Timer
Registered: 01/12/11
Posts: 1188
Loc: South Wales
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Evening all,
I thought I'd plonk this in here after seeing Ironstone pups mentioned in Megi's new Strat build project.
Ironstone have a very nicely designed website which I've spent an hour or so looking at today and the prices appear reasonable too.
I've also seen Wilkinson WVS pups mentioned as being a good ,low price upgrade for a cheapo strat and I'd love to hear if anyone has them or anything similar fitted and if so what the upshot is.In fact I'd love to hear anyone's tuppence worth about any kind of pup upgrade really.
I've seen GFS mentioned as being a good pup upgrade before now but what with them being in America I've not actually come across any before,does anyone here use them?
Gentlemen,I thank you in advance for your ,as ever,eloquent and insightful knowledge and recommendations.
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#290705 - 16/12/11 09:12 PM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Oldjono]
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Ape09090
Old Timer
Registered: 01/12/11
Posts: 1188
Loc: South Wales
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I saw them myself,very tempting indeed. When do yours arrive?
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#290722 - 17/12/11 12:18 AM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Ape09090]
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Oldjono
Professional Forumite!
Registered: 15/09/09
Posts: 852
Loc: Dorset
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Yesterday would have been good but I expect Monday or Tuesday to be fair.
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#290723 - 17/12/11 02:16 AM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Oldjono]
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Surfsilver
Professional Forumite!
Registered: 04/12/11
Posts: 177
Loc: London
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For my 2d, reading through the Ironstone blurb, appears these are probably yingtong made as chosen by the UK seller? Doesn’t mean they’re good or bad, just why they’re not expensive. Pickups can be a bit like petrol. Some use anything at the lowest price and some only use one brand, though some vendors buy-in from various to sell from their pumps – all makes the car go.
Trev Wilkinson has an extensive branded range with considered variations. I have several types and they’re all nice. To spend a little more on something a bit more ‘exclusive’ (?), perhaps try Tesla?
http://www.teslapickups.com/?page_id=120
I tried these as I was looking for something a bit different and read ‘em up after seeing they were offered from the seller I get my Wilkinson’s from. Appeared to fit MY bill and I was not disappointed.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/twin--cam/m.ht...1.c0.m270.l1313
Considered hand-wound, and saw some silly prices. I had a particular requirement for my top project build so started talking to various. Mostly got stock replies – “we’re wonderful, you’ll love us, send us your money, blah blah blah” – but did receive one very lengthy, detailed and consider reply from a man on the other side of the world saying we could continue to talk but nothing would be made for the next 6 weeks as he’d be drinking wine and catching a few rays. My kind of hombre.
Shelled out £70 on a ‘me’ spec which is now in the UK to be with me shortly. Do I expect it to make me sound like Albert Lee meets Buddy Cage? Not really, but I’m looking forward to my indulgence.
_________________________
~~~~~~~~~~ "I've suffered for my music, now it's your turn" ~ 
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#290724 - 17/12/11 02:34 AM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Surfsilver]
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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I did start a thread on the Ironstones once, though I've not actually got round to trying them in a guitar. But they still look like a good bet to me for not much money! The Wilkinson WVS I am fitting to my latest strat build - unfortunately that guitar is not finished yet, or I could tell you what I think re the sound. But I must say the build quality looks as good as anything I've seen - Axesrus sell them at a very good price BTW.
Other than what people have already said, I would add that I like the look of Axesrus's own brand single coils. Again, I haven't tried them (I'm assuming made in the far east to their spec.) but I have had luck with some of their humbuckers in another guitar (the "Bourbon City" PAF set - in fact I now think these are really great) so they could well be worth a punt: Axesrus strat single coils
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290730 - 17/12/11 09:02 AM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Megi]
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Oldjono
Professional Forumite!
Registered: 15/09/09
Posts: 852
Loc: Dorset
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I went for the ironstone pickups after several weeks of looking at everything under £50 and it came down to several things.
Tony, the man from from ironstone answered my questions quickly and asked questions about my playing style and stuff.
The pickups use alnico 5 magnets and the windings are not too hot or too low output either. At £19.99 (£3.25 delivery) they are worth the punt and will give me the option to change each pick up in turn.
I am putting the bridge in first in isolation to the other two original ceramic pickups to test out my sound. Then I will change the neck pick up and if necessary, the middle pick up. I have the half-baked idea that the middle pickup with the ceramic magnet bar will help keep some of the brightness when in positions 2 and 4.
I've aready sorted out the lower tone pot to reduce the high end tone on the bridge and neck pick ups which gives you that extra little option and is so easy to do it's worthwhile keeping it.
My next job is to refit a new tremolo bridge because the twang bar 'broke'  off (don't ask  ) leaving the stub end in the hole which can't be drilled out. I will probably go with a Trev Wilkinson model but would like to get a better quality string block as this, apparenty, is what the professionals do. Hmm, we'll see.
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#290735 - 17/12/11 11:44 AM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Ape09090]
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Megi
Old Timer
Registered: 08/07/11
Posts: 1271
Loc: Lincolnshire
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Hi again Ape, 2 quid as you say is not a lot for a pickup - I'm going to say this is probably not unlike the pickups already fitted to a lot of lower-cost strats i.e. I doubt there is anything to be gained soundwise! The thing with pickups (this is just my own feeling on the matter) is that sound quality is entirely subjective as to what constitutes good, or indeed bad. So pickup makers can (and do) make all sorts of subjective sound descriptions telling you how wonderful their pickups sound. So you buy the pickups - perhaps you are underwhelmed once you try them... can you say they were wrong to give such a glowing account? No, because of course it's all subjective, and they can just say that they weren't to your taste. Of course you might love the pickups in case all is well and good, but finding the right ones can be a bit difficult I reckon.
IMHO, I wouldn't go for the cheap ceramics (even if only £2) because I doubt they will sound very different to the stock pickups you want to replace. I am quite a fan of some of the cheaper options out there though - if you read up on the details, you can find some that are quite high spec for your £50 or so. Others will tell you that serious pickups don't come in for much less than £150 a set or thereabouts, and of course I can't say they are wrong, but nor can they say I am either... 
As to the blender pot, I do wonder (being the suspicious type) if it is just a standard pot with one lug cut off, plus a wiring diagram that tells you how to use it in a particular circuit (there is quite a lot of stuff like that on Ebay I find e.g. "special" treble bleed ceramic caps for £2 each...). Can I link you to the GuitarNuts 2 website? Here you will find no end of very interesting circuits for wiring strats and other Guitars, to expand the capability of the guitar (look in the "guitar wiring" section). Almost all of them use cheap and easily available parts, often they allow you to keep the guitar's stock appearence. You can even post a question if unsure about something, and get advice. All that is needed is a bit of experience with a soldering iron and some time and care to get it right. I'm using the "Strat SP circuit" in the strat project I'm working on at the moment.  GuitarNuts 2 forum
_________________________
Graham, jazz guitar nut!
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#290737 - 17/12/11 01:05 PM
Re: Replacement pick-ups for cheapo Squier or mexican Strats.
[Re: Megi]
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Ape09090
Old Timer
Registered: 01/12/11
Posts: 1188
Loc: South Wales
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Hi Megi,
yes mate,I found my way to the guitar Nuts site after reading the post you made prior to undertaking your new strat build (neck looks pukka btw),spent a good while reading there last night and there's a lot of very useful stuff on there for sure.
I will ask on there as soon as I have a clearer idea of exactly what it is I want.
You're right,of course, a 2 quid pup is a 2 quid pup and is probably the same as is supplied on low end strat type instruments the world over.
I'm inclined to agree with you that a 'blender' pot is just a pot by another name and I found a link to a forum last night where 2 guys were talking about modding a standard pot into a blender pot but no details were posted as to what mods are made and I appear to have closed that link now,if I find it again I'll add it in here.
I was thinking of using a separate volume for the bridge and then another separate volume for the middle and neck pups but I think if I leave the bridge pup connected to the 5-way switch then I could encounter problems using that set up and that's why I asked about using blender pots instead.
I'm a bit unsure as to pot values for that kind of set up as well. As I have a 500k for my volume at present and a hum-bucker in the bridge and I'll be using a TBX for master tone too,it's all needing some more research before I'm going to be happy enough to go ahead and do the job.
Added to this I'm considering upgrading the middle and neck pups to something better or even a complete new set and also buying a MIM strat and all of it being good enough to go onto that if I ever find a good one at a good price.
To be honest after reading how you fella's have built your own Guitars I'm now seriously considering spending £100 on a 1 piece ash body and then completing a new build of my own as opposed to spending £250 on a second hand MIM and upgrading it.
One thing is sure,I'll be taking my time about it as I can't afford to throw too much cash at it.
I just registered on the GuitarNuts forum anyway so they can expect to be bombarded by half-formed idea's now as well.
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