Dial out the "ice-pick" in '60s RI Strat

[(egosheep)]

Looked like this, JB:

[(JakeK)]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I think the Hot Rails pickup JB linked to seems the most intriguing, and Eden's idea of wiring the bridge to a tone knob isn't bad either. I'm supposed to take it to International Vintage for a (free) neck adjustment. Steve Staples said when I brought the guitar to him in January for new strings, it was a complete mess: the neck had too much relief, it needed a cleaning, the action was off and the entire pickguard needed to be taken off so the guitar could be rewired (without a reverse-wound middle pickup and 5-way switching). So he told me next month, I can bring it in and he'll give it a free adjustment and whatever else I want done to it. Maybe with a hot-rails AND Eden's suggestion. Steve also thought it would be fun if we refinished it into George Harrison's "Rocky"...

My Strat is an incredibly great guitar and certainly has unique features that cannot be replicated in any other guitar I own, and in any other Strat I've played before or since it. One buddy of mine called it "Then best Strat [he's] ever played, bar none", and he's certainly played a lot of them.

[(jps)]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I think the Hot Rails pickup JB linked to seems the most intriguing...

A friend of mine has these in his Strat, very nice and highly recommended.

[(weemac)]

Any change you do to the treble pickup on a strat will ruin the position "2" neck and middle setting, as the matched DC ohms on the pickups is fairly important. So it depends which sound is more important to you.
I have tried many pickups in my Strat and always come back to the original ones (with the tone control added) after all it only costs about 20c worth of wire and position "2" is unharmed
In changing pickups what you gain in one area you may lose in another. And after all 62 RI strat should have well speced pickups as standard so it is just a matter of a bit of fine tuning.
A decent set of 250K pots and an orange drop capacitor can be money well spent though...

emac.

[(admin)]

I agree with Eden. Having said that, while we are on the pursuit of finding a less harsh tone, why not put in a push pull pot that will allow for the neck and bridge combination (tele-like) tone. This adds to the palette of tones and is one of my favourite pickup combinations on the Stratocaster.

[(rickboy1689)]

rolling off the tone might will dial out the icepick tone but arent you just muffling things then? wouldnt it be better to find a less harsh pickup but one that still retains clarity? dropping a duncan jb jr. in my strat made it such a versatile guitar

[(weemac)]

rolling off the tone might will dial out the icepick tone but arent you just muffling things then? wouldnt it be better to find a less harsh pickup but one that still retains clarity? dropping a duncan jb jr. in my strat made it such a versatile guitar

It works fine, trust me. It will go a bit like a P-90 without the "Ompth" You don't take all of the tone off though....

emac.