OP
I've put humbuckers in this guitar starting around maybe 1998, when I crudely hand-routed the bridge pickup cavity with a 3/8" drill and a burr.
I've probably had at least 10 different pickup combinations in this guitar (just my personal ones) since then and I've used it just to test pickguards that I've put together for other people.
However, nothing ever grabbed me. The Stratocaster sat around and was played by students and banged on by visiting kids. Most of its lifetime, it was used in Mom's recording studio with DiMarzio Stacked Single Coils.
This most recent set of modificationd are totally different.
First of all, reconfiguring the fretboard to a 12" radius was a huge plus in terms of feel, playing comfort and dexterity. The tiny vintage fretwire was cut down and crowned to about .035" off the board. The neck feels almost fruitless, which was how it felt after 29 years and multiple fret levels, so after changing the radius, I went back and recreated this "worn out" feel.
The tone rivals both my Gibson's in terms of presence and bite and it actually has a bigger, fuller tone than even my Gibson Les Paul.
Other than the wire harness, which I made by hand from scratch, the pickups are pure junk. Two broken Gibson humbuckers I got off reverb that needed new leads, broken solder connections, stripped pole pieces and a section of copper strand severed by an errant screwdriver tip.
When I contacted the seller and told him/shared photos of what I encountered, he was super supportive. We worked out a nice deal and on top of making an online friend, he sent me a full set of 50 year old Ken-Rad T12AX7 tubes.
So, stripping off some damaged copper strand and rejoining the ends of the tiny conductors, was tedious, but gave me unbalanced coils. Soldering the base plate holes up and tapping them fixed the pole piece issues. Magnets were swapped, new 2 conductor leads were soldered in, some wax potting (light not submerged around the soldered repairs) was done and the coils were wrapped first with paper tape and then with the correct fluted fabric.
Something about these pickups is somewhat magical in nature. Ive never had a tone quite like this. Converting a 3 ceramic magnet Gibson 500T to a single Alnico 4 with wood spacers, really did give this a very unique voicing. The 496R also blends very well.
Both pickups have pole pieces set to the 12" string radius and both pickup heights are set to 4/32" and their output is perfectly matched.
The CTS TAOT pots feel really firm and smooth and measured out at 550/560k. The unglamorous .022uf Orange Drops seem to be doing the job, but my thoughts are a future switch to .015uf bridge and 0.01uf neck for more fine tone control.
The guitar just has a worn in pair of shoes feel.
Walk into a Guitar Center and plug straight into an amp and everyone will ask what effects you are running!!! Pull any Gibson off the wall and the Stratocaster sounds bigger. It's that unique.
I know there are Strat purists who would balk, but I've been able to blend two guitars together, something I have long been told wasn't possible. Even I am baffled that the scale length tonal signature has been effectively Gibson-ized.
Probably the best part of this is I play this thing flat out. I'm not apprehensive of someone wanting to pick it up or knock it over.
Its ugly, but its an amazing tool...
I've probably had at least 10 different pickup combinations in this guitar (just my personal ones) since then and I've used it just to test pickguards that I've put together for other people.
However, nothing ever grabbed me. The Stratocaster sat around and was played by students and banged on by visiting kids. Most of its lifetime, it was used in Mom's recording studio with DiMarzio Stacked Single Coils.
This most recent set of modificationd are totally different.
First of all, reconfiguring the fretboard to a 12" radius was a huge plus in terms of feel, playing comfort and dexterity. The tiny vintage fretwire was cut down and crowned to about .035" off the board. The neck feels almost fruitless, which was how it felt after 29 years and multiple fret levels, so after changing the radius, I went back and recreated this "worn out" feel.
The tone rivals both my Gibson's in terms of presence and bite and it actually has a bigger, fuller tone than even my Gibson Les Paul.
Other than the wire harness, which I made by hand from scratch, the pickups are pure junk. Two broken Gibson humbuckers I got off reverb that needed new leads, broken solder connections, stripped pole pieces and a section of copper strand severed by an errant screwdriver tip.
When I contacted the seller and told him/shared photos of what I encountered, he was super supportive. We worked out a nice deal and on top of making an online friend, he sent me a full set of 50 year old Ken-Rad T12AX7 tubes.
So, stripping off some damaged copper strand and rejoining the ends of the tiny conductors, was tedious, but gave me unbalanced coils. Soldering the base plate holes up and tapping them fixed the pole piece issues. Magnets were swapped, new 2 conductor leads were soldered in, some wax potting (light not submerged around the soldered repairs) was done and the coils were wrapped first with paper tape and then with the correct fluted fabric.
Something about these pickups is somewhat magical in nature. Ive never had a tone quite like this. Converting a 3 ceramic magnet Gibson 500T to a single Alnico 4 with wood spacers, really did give this a very unique voicing. The 496R also blends very well.
Both pickups have pole pieces set to the 12" string radius and both pickup heights are set to 4/32" and their output is perfectly matched.
The CTS TAOT pots feel really firm and smooth and measured out at 550/560k. The unglamorous .022uf Orange Drops seem to be doing the job, but my thoughts are a future switch to .015uf bridge and 0.01uf neck for more fine tone control.
The guitar just has a worn in pair of shoes feel.
Walk into a Guitar Center and plug straight into an amp and everyone will ask what effects you are running!!! Pull any Gibson off the wall and the Stratocaster sounds bigger. It's that unique.
I know there are Strat purists who would balk, but I've been able to blend two guitars together, something I have long been told wasn't possible. Even I am baffled that the scale length tonal signature has been effectively Gibson-ized.
Probably the best part of this is I play this thing flat out. I'm not apprehensive of someone wanting to pick it up or knock it over.
Its ugly, but its an amazing tool...
