Proud owner of a Fender Mexican Stratocaster...I wanted to get the most bang for my buck and I wanted to make it custom :) (thats where you come in experienced players!)
So...I'm thinking of upgrading these parts - Please add if you think more should be added:
1. Pickups 3 of them
2. Tuners ---> Locking Tuners
3. Strings (duh!)
4. Anything you think of the inside parts.
1: I'm thinking about Seymour Duncan pickups...I don't really know which would fit the sound i'm looking for. I just think that anything would sound better than the original pickups. Btw...I like the lead sound in guitars (high pitched) and clean - I also like the distortion in music like System of a down and papa roach.
2. Anything that is shiney and not rustic :)
3. Hmm.. I've heard good things about Elixirs, but I'd like to know what you would recommend for this guitar?
4. I've heard about sensors in strats, boxes, etc... Are their any upgrades you would add - throw in? Worth it?
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Thanks for your input and it is a BEAUTIFUL guitar :)
Jet.
Why is it so many people buy a new guitar and without spending any time with it want to change everything on it.
You could have bought a body and neck and started from scratch.
Spend some time with it as is, play it for a while, then decide what you don't like and go from there.
IMO you have a perfectly fine guitar already.
When and if you do make changes you will find a whole lot of opinions as everyones taste are different. I could recommend pups or strings that I like and you may hate them.
To add to Jim's post.
If you don't like the sound, how about changing the amp before anything else! :wink:
Well, if you must operate Doctor :twisted:
Man, you want some good pickups, forget Seymour Duncan,
go DiMarzio
Yeah.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
dimarzio virtual vintage blues...the only aftermarket pickups endorsed by yours truly.......
Now if only I had a real endorsement, I could own some :(
"Why is it so many people buy a new guitar and without spending any time with it want to change everything on it. "
It may sound weird but I wanted a fender guitar "look" with the sound of humbuckers.
But besides that point, Dimazio seems like a step in the right direction. Right?
Before you change the pickups, shield it.
Honestly, stock MIM pickups are not bad, but unshielded any single coil sounds like crap. Shielding is easy and cheap and really improves the sound of any single-coil guitar by removing noise from the circuit.
The next place I'd spend my money is having a quality luthier properly dress your frets. No strat, except the pro-shop models, comes with properly dressed frets, it's just too expensive to do.
If you have a vibrato, pick up a good block like the one's made by Callaham.
If tone is your goal, go find yourself some high quality .11's and re-setup the guitar to use this heavier guage. At the same time, have a new nut made specifically for the string guages you are using (it will help keep the guitar in tune to do this and improve tone).
Now worry about if you need pickups or not based on how it sounds.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Pickups...I like Carvin twinblades. I find some budget guitars sound bland with the pickups they come with. I usually just change the neck pup, sometimes also the mid but I never use the bridge.
Tuners...I like Grover tuners but don't switch to them unless I feel tuners are needed. Many guitars hold tune just fine with the tuners they come with after the initial string stretch. Maybe no need to spend here.
Shielding may also not be needed, many come shielded. I bought a cheap Johnson years ago and found it to be shielded but if you need it, the shielding is cheap and you just need an aerosol adhesive, easy to do. Just make sure you use a single ground for wiring to a single point to prevent creating a loop for noise.
I agree play with the guitar for a while to see just what changes you want to make to make to make it your own. Have fun! 8)
If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.
I hear a lot of good things about Seymour Duncan Hot Rails.
Ive got an older strat plus with Gold Lace Sensors.
this is my go to guitar. my main ax. I love the sound of those gold laces. totally quiet (no 60 cycle hum). they have the vintage sound I demand.
they would not be for you.
you need humbuckers to get that sound in your head.
and you dont need Elixers. I use them on my lap steel; nice and slidey. but I hate the feel on my fingers when I strung my tele.
not worth the extra expense.
I use Ernie Ball Super Slinly 10-46. they're good, nickel wound, and not expensive.
the fret dressing is actually a good idea. my American made Fenders are dressed and they feel great.
cheaper Fenders are just plain ragged.
It may sound weird but I wanted a fender guitar "look" with the sound of humbuckers.
But besides that point, Dimazio seems like a step in the right direction. Right?
Well, in that case, you can put a humbucker just for the bridge pickup and get the best of both worlds..They already make a "fat" strat, and sometimes i wish I had bought one of those instead of the stock MIM strat.
But, overall, I am with the others who say play it for a while before you change things. ( I did not get my strat fret-dressed, but I did get the shop to adjust the setup, and that sure helped...)
--vink
"Life is either an adventure or nothing" -- Helen Keller
Do guitars really make THAT much of a difference in sound? I've only been playing for a couple years and honestly, I dont notice much of a difference when i plug my MIM Strat into my Marshall, then when my friend plugs in his ibanez.
Why is it so many people buy a new guitar and without spending any time with it want to change everything on it.
You could have bought a body and neck and started from scratch.
Spend some time with it as is, play it for a while, then decide what you don't like and go from there.
IMO you have a perfectly fine guitar already.
When and if you do make changes you will find a whole lot of opinions as everyones taste are different. I could recommend pups or strings that I like and you may hate them.I'm with you, Missileman. I think buying something and immediately changing all kinds of stuff makes no sense, and I'd never think of buying something like a particular brand of pickups because folks on a guitar board recommended them. You need to spend enough time with it to know what you've got, and then if there are specific characteristics of the sound that you can identify and know what you'd like to be different, you can intelligently select pickups or whatever with the desired characteristics.
Rip This Joint is right, if you're playing through much distortion the guitar has a very limited effect on the sound. They all sound the same when every knob on the amp's turned up and it's run through a string of pedals.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Ok, you've all convinced me to just step up my amp that I've had for two years. Then I will try and tell you want type of sound I want to duplicate.
It just seems like their isn't enough screaming highs (lower distortion) in the sound if you know what I mean. I'll add a clip later so you can see what i'm talken about.
Jet
are you running any overdrive or distortion pedals?
they can help with your screaming licks
nope...I'm sort of in the transition from acoustics / acoustic electrics --> into the electric world.
After about three years I think it's time. I have a good budget and I'd really like the best sound possible :)
