[CityofBlindingLights]

For those who want a huge, hot, fat strat (fs... ring a bell) sound, the FS-1 is for you. It cuts JUST enough of the high end off of a strat bridge to keep it from sounding harsh, but is still distinctly strat like. It adds this AMAZING grind to your sound. Made famous by David Gilmour, who used the pickup from the early '70s up until the late '90s (when that random other guy made him an overwond strat pickup).

[mi2tom]

I've always wanted to try the FS1, maybe one day when I get my strat highway one, will be installing true velvet neck and middle with FS1 in the bridge

[Stiltzkin]

didn't Yngwie use that one early on(Alcatrazz early) before the HS ?

[alfaromeo90]

Dave Gilmour used EMG pickups from the mid 80's onwards.

[LuredMaul]

David Gilmour only used EMG live in the mid 80's to early 90's.

[CityofBlindingLights]

Dave Gilmour used EMG pickups from the mid 80's onwards.

David Gilmour started using EMGs for The Wall tour (iirc 1980-81, or around then), because the lighting setup and ridiculous electronics-heavy show caused interference with regular single coils. He installed the FS-1 in '74 if my memory serves me right, and then replaced it in '79 when Seymour Duncan wound his own version of the FS-1 for David (this pickup is now mass-produced as the Seymour Duncan SSL-5 Custom).

In '86, after "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" was released, David switched back to his trusty regular non-EMG strats, and continues to use standard single coils to this day.

[alfaromeo90]

ahh Nick you're better researched than me.  On his recent solo tour he is definitely using more vintage pickups in a black strat.  i assumed they were vintage fenders (and thought i heard the same info) but could be dimarzio's.   However my understanding was that his main red 57 strat is still loaded with EMG's - Gilmour signature model.   At any rate, on his live solo dvd you can definitely hear the difference between that and the EMGs from the 80's. 

[CityofBlindingLights]

ahh Nick you're better researched than me.  On his recent solo tour he is definitely using more vintage pickups in a black strat.  i assumed they were vintage fenders (and thought i heard the same info) but could be dimarzio's.   However my understanding was that his main red 57 strat is still loaded with EMG's - Gilmour signature model.   At any rate, on his live solo dvd you can definitely hear the difference between that and the EMGs from the 80's. 

Heh, I'm a Gilmour nut...

The black stratocaster you're referring to is actually known as (quite aptly named) The Black Strat (yeah, real original...). It's a '70 Strat that's been heavily modified over the years: it's got a Fender '83 Reissue '57 Neck, a black pickguard, a Callaham shortened trem arm, and a switch that will mix in the neck pickup with the bridge or middle. In the '80s, it also had a Kahler in the '80s, but it has since been removed; you can see behind the trem, there's wood that filled in where the Kahler previously was, and it's been painted black. This is the strat that the Fender custom shop recreated, if anything this could be considered the Gilmour "custom" strat. He did have his own EMG set, which has since been removed.

If you want the scoop on Gilmour's gear, gilmourish.com is great.

[alfaromeo90]

thanks.  Altho i don't try to sound like him ,David Gilmour is one of the guys i respect the most for tone.  I think that's a pretty common opinion.  So the FS-1's are the closest Dimarzio's to Gilmour's recent tones?

[CityofBlindingLights]

thanks.  Altho i don't try to sound like him ,David Gilmour is one of the guys i respect the most for tone.  I think that's a pretty common opinion.  So the FS-1's are the closest Dimarzio's to Gilmour's recent tones?

I agree, I never try to sound like Gilmour, but personally I don't see anything wrong with taking a page or two out of his book. I respect him incredibly, in the past year he has taught me to SLOW DOWN when I solo, and to take care and thought into each individual note. There's also a grind to his tone that I just love (which comes from that FS-1).

Yes, the FS-1 is what he used in the '70s before he switched to EMGs. If you want the actual pickup he's been using, check out the Duncan SSL-5 Custom, but I prefer the FS-1. The two are very similar: basically overwound strat pickups, but I find that the FS-1 tends to drive harder and better, while the SSL-5 tends to be smoother and darker.

[mi2tom]

Will be selling my RG321 away and will be getting a japanese fender strat, definitely gonna get this FS1 and true velvet middle and neck later on. I still think a strat is a more versatile workhorse if you wanna play pop songs and top 40s in a pub.

[AcousticSmash]

I got two of these pickups for the neck and middle of an Ibanez solid body, but I seem to be having some trouble getting them to work configured on a 5 way rotary switch (vintage Strat style) with a humbucker in the bridge. Would anyone have any suggestions as to how I would wire these on a 5 way switch with one 500k pot for the volume and a 250k pot for a master tone because I seem to be having issues with getting sound out of the pickups.

[AcousticSmash]

Got a pair of these wired out and they sound great, very vintage sounding even when put in front of a fuzz box. They don't sound too hot clean on my amp though, but that is to be expected from a junky little Fender Pro Junior, hopefully something better will improve that area to produce a brighter clean tone. But still, they sound pretty rockin' in my estimation and I can get a variety of sounds out of them. Actually, while I haven't played with a slide in a while, I can get that kind of tone from Uberesso by Sonny Landreth when I pick with my fingers which he does quite often. Combined with a Super Distortion in the bridge, I am amazed by the tones the combination produces even though it's wired in the wrong phasing I think.

[AcousticSmash]

So I pulled my two FS-1 pickups out of my Ibanez and loaded them into my Strat, I actually wired them up using a Telecaster wiring and man they sound amazing. Very clear, bright through a proper amp and with enough distortion you can get some of those classic Pink Floyd tones. I'd say if you are going for a guitar tone that has a nice 60's or 70's tonality to it with a fatter punch all across the board, these are well worth putting in a Stratocaster. I need to get a 3rd though and run a proper Strat wiring. These things sound really heavy in the bridge position though.

[David McGrath]

Mark Knofler used an FS1 in the neck position of his red strat on the 1st Dire Straits album.

I recommend it as either a neck or lead/bridge pickup with Velvet model pickups on maple fingerboard guitars.

It also sounds great,as a neck pickup, with a Seymour Duncan SSL4 quarter pounder in the middle position on a strat,with the Duncan wired to a separate volume control so you can add a P90ish flavour to the FS1.

My guitars are wired so that the neck & bridge or all 3 pickups are available as well as the standard sounds using a tele 3 way selector switch/master tone/2 volume controls.

I use heaps of amp distortion,and "dequack" my single coil pickups by adding a spdt tone switch which adds a .005mfd cap to the tone circuit which reduces single coil noise on distortion settings;for clean sounds you disengage this switch.(!!)