[retiredff]

Hello new here.

I building a strat that I do NOT want to sound like a strat. I have a strat I built with a MIM body, Warmoth Gibson 24.75" scale neck, Fender 57/62 pickups, all new wiring CTS/Switchcraft etc. I have the single coil sound I'm happy with. The reason I building an identical strat (except for the color) is the feel. The one I built plays/feels really good to this old man and his hands so I want one just like it only with a different sound. The Mim body is routed H/S/S and I really don't want to route the body.

My amp is a Peavey Delta Blues 210, I have a few pedals; Boss DB-2, Fish and Chips Eq, HPB-1 boost, MXR dyna comp, H2O delay/chorus. ALL of these I bought USED on ebay.

The music I play is classic/Hard rock, blues and at times some country. I'm restarting my playing after a long period of not playing electric. I played acoustic more recently but the electrics are easier for me to play.

I emailed DiMarzio and they suggested;

Bridge - Air Norton S
Middle - Satch Track OR Chopper
Neck    - Pro Track

I also found pre-built pickguard that has;

Bridge Fast Track 2 OR the 36th Anniversary PAF full size?
Middle Fast Track 1
Neck Pro Track

Give me an idea with of these or more suggestion what will give me a sound I can live with. Just so it's NOT single coil sounding, and probably nothing really HOT for the music I play.

Thanks

Tony

[KH Guitar Freak]

Well, to be even more different, you could try three mini humbuckers too 

[jazzfromhell]

My choices would be:

Bridge: Pro Track
Middle: Cruiser
Neck: Satch Track

The Fast Track 2 is pretty hot, so if you dont want hot....

I'd personally go Area 67 in the middle for those Stratty 2/4 tones but if you don't want that, the Cruiser is cool.

[retiredff]

My choices would be:

Bridge: Pro Track
Middle: Cruiser
Neck: Satch Track

The Fast Track 2 is pretty hot, so if you dont want hot....

I'd personally go Area 67 in the middle for those Stratty 2/4 tones but if you don't want that, the Cruiser is cool.

Thanks I will put this on my list

[retiredff]

Well, to be even more different, you could try three mini humbuckers too 

The whole point of this build is not to be different but to have a guitar that will handle the humbucker sounds of the music I cover. I'm not a writer nor will I become a rock star and I'm not really trying to find my own sound, just something to play along with my song library.
 

[retiredff]

I found a demo on youtube Joe Santorini. He has a 2 pickup guitar with

Full size in the bridge and Satch Track in the neck. His pick for the bridge is way to hot for me so I may go with

PAF Master Bridge
Satch Track Neck

NO middle pickup and just use a 3 way switch. Doing coil splits or anything else will just give me strat sounds that I really don't want or need.

[darkbluemurder]

I had the H-S set up for a while - Virtual Hot PAF in the bridge and Area 67 in the neck, but I was looking for the classic strat neck tone. The Injector neck works also well in such a configuration. I have since returned to H-S-S for this guitar with a Virtual Vintage 54 Pro in the middle but that is - you guessed it - a strat set up.

The last pickup combo you suggested could work well if you like a brighter tone in the bridge spot. JS usually has the Mo Joe in the bridge, which is advertised as medium output.

Cheers Stephan 

[retiredff]

Thanks Stephan for the reply. Yea, I'm looking for vintage PAF sounds. The main reason is the other strat I built that sounds like a strat is super comfortable for me to play. So I'm working around comfort spec and adding pickups that fit the bill.

[retiredff]

With the above 2 humbucker pickup combo should I use 500k, 250k or 500k vol and 250k tone? My guitar will be a short scale 24.75", does that make it darker? I want to keep this vintage or close. If I go with 250k is there a way to ad a resistor to make them 500k without replacing all of the pots? I'm planning on using .022uF caps.

[darkbluemurder]

With the pots it's the other way round - you can use a 500k pot and add a 470k (or two 1 meg resistors) in parallel to make the load (close to) 250k. But you cannot increase the load of a 250k pot to 500k with resistors. That is the first reason I would choose 500k in this application.

The second reason is that the neck humbucker benefits from the higher load. A 500k volume pot would let you have the neck pickup with a 500k pot, then if it is too bright for the bridge pickup you can add the resistor(s) to bring the load on the bridge pickup down until it sounds right. For this purpose you have to solder the resistor from the tap on the switch where the hot wire of the bridge pickup is connected to ground.

Good luck,
Stephan

[retiredff]

Thanks Stephan.

[retiredff]

My guitar has  24.75" scale and 22 fret rosewood neck. Would the PAF 36th Anniversary bridge be a better choice than the PAF master bridge because of it's slightly higher output? The 36th Anniversary output is 285 vs 278 for the Master. The Satch Track neck is rated at 245. The Pro Track is 275 and the description says it has a PAF sound and is great for blues. If it's ok for blues than it should be in the ballpark for classic/hard rock.

I may go with:

36th Anniversary Bridge
Pro Track in the neck.

I would rather be a little to hot than to thin.

[Axemanv90]

I have used most of the Dimarzio S pickups, including many prototypes that never made it to production with names like "Mallard."

I strongly recommend a Pro Track in the neck if you want 60s-80s rock neck tones.  It splits nicely if you wanna get twangy.  I remember having one in a Gibson Flying V90 and it sang as sweet as any PAF clone I ever heard--especially in a V--gawd I miss that guitar (note my handle).

Middle?  I would probably go with a Fast Track 1 (to combine pickups) or a Chopper (for better solo output, close to the Pro Track).  The Chopper has shades of Strat tone, but its nice and chunky---thick sounding---and combines well with other pickups.  It also splits well and should combine well split with the Pro Track.

These are fairly hot middle and neck pickups so you need something in the bridge that will match well with them.  I think that the Super Distortion S would fit the bill here for hard rock, although it might be a little bassy.  The Fast Track 2 is way over the top and I don't recommend it for anything but metal.  I never used the Tone Zone S.  It looks like it would match up well if its not too bassy.  I never used the Air Norton S either.  The tone specs look good for your style, but the output seems a little weak to combine with the others.  Of course, you can adjust the pickup heights to balance them.

[retiredff]

Thanks for the reply AxemanV90. I'm not using a middle pickup, would the Super Distortion be too much for classic rock/blues?

[retiredff]

Found the Super Distortion S and it says; I'm new to DiMarzio and had to look for it.

"Since the Super Distortion® S will usually be installed in the slanted bridge position of a 25½” scale guitar, we’ve adjusted the specs of the original Super Distortion® humbuckers to compensate."

*****I have a Warmoth Gibson conversion neck 24.75" scale, rosewood fretboard.