Pickups for Squire Strat

Question:

> Since I don’t have any experience there, can you guys tell > me weather the stock pickups are OK? Will I hear much difference by putting > something else in? I play through a Behringer GX110 Ultraroc.

Congrats on the rewiring project.  Strats and Teles are like erector sets…you can take them apart and reconfigure a zillion different ways. Changing pickups can make a big difference on a Strat – particularly (IMO) in the neck position.  Sometimes it’s subtle, sometimes not…the Squier pickups aren’t known for rich tone, so replacing them with high-quality pickups is likely to yield a big difference. For some indication…wander by a Guitar Center and A/B a Squire Strat, a Mexican Strat, and an American Series Strat.  The difference between the MIM and the American is subtle, but is clearly there (the Americans are smoother and richer, IMO).  The difference between the Squier and the American should be substantial. A couple of popular Strat pickups are Texas Specials and Seymore Duncan Alnico II’s.  You can also find some interesting stuff by cruising Ebay. Don’t replace with cheap pickups, though…it won’t be worth the bother. And keep your old ones…you may want to put them back someday so you can put the better pickups on a nicer guitar. Have fun…I have an old Strat-like-thing that has had everything replaced except the 5-way switch and the chord jack (including both the neck AND body).  It’s fun… > Another question, about the effect pedals. I don’t really like the sound of the > distorsion channel on my amp. If I get a Fuzz box or something similar, do I > play through the clean channel on the amp?

That’s the usual approach, although sometimes it’s fun to play with multiple layers of distortion. Cheers, — Michael Pugh

Response:

Hi everyone… I started playing electric guitar recently, and I got a nice ProTone Strat. I’m still a beginner, just staring some scales and theory. Anyway, beeing a neardy freak (you know how the kids want to know what’s inside their toys , I did The S-Tastic modification (www.guitarnuts.com) and I replaced everything except the pickups. Since I don’t have any experience there, can you guys tell me weather the stock pickups are OK? Will I hear much difference by putting something else in? I play through a Behringer GX110 Ultraroc. Another question, about the effect pedals. I don’t really like the sound of the distorsion channel on my amp. If I get a Fuzz box or something similar, do I play through the clean channel on the amp? Thanks for any help. — Biocomputing, EMBL http://www.embl-heidelberg.de/~letunic

Response:

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