VBNPD

[HamishR]

Or: Very Brief New Pickup Day. I recently received my new to me 2015 Fender CS Journeyman Strat in Olympic White. It's exactly the same as one I had before, bought new in 2015, and sold to buy something else. I did like that Strat so was delighted to find another nearly identical one. It has no string trees, so the staggered machine heads take care of the break angle so it stays in tune exceptionally well. It's not very reliced but has a lot of crazing in the finish. It looks old but not beat-up.

Anyway I have had some Mojotone Quiet Coil Strat pickups for ages and have been really curious to try them out. I put them on a spare scratchplate with new CTS 500K pots and Mallory 150 caps, wired with a tone control on the bridge and neck pickups. Nothing for the middle pickup because it makes the in-between sounds too dark. So I installed them yesterday. Tuned up, tried them out, played for about 2 minutes, took 'em out and put the stock scratchplate back in. They were frankly awful! Dull, one-dimensional, no overtones, no sparkle, just dull thuddy, muddy boring sounds. Surprisingly bad.

I may have been spoilt by the stock pickups. This particular guitar came from the factory with "Josefina" hand-wound custom pickups. The bridge pickup is quite full sounding for a Strat but balances perfectly with the rest and overall the guitar has a fairly muscular sound for a Strat but still has beautiful airy overtones which make it so much fun with reverb and delay. They're probably as good as Strat pickups get. I mainly use just the bridge or the neck pickup and both sound great.

So for anyone thinking of trying the Mojotone Quiet Coils - my advice would be make sure you can get your money back! They are quiet but that's the only positive thing I have to say about them. Having had many good experiences with Mojotone I was shocked at how awful these pickups were!

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Marketing bullshit and hype aside the Josephina pickups I played in a friend's CS '59 strat were lovely. They definitely aren't worth the absolutely crazy secondhand prices people ask for them but they're great pickups.

 

[HamishR]

I wasn't aware of any hype around Josefina pickups. I don't tend to read much about Fender these days; perhaps I should. I was talking to a friend today and he mentioned that he has met the famous Josefina and Abigail Ybarra and that Josefina was all of about 5' nothing! I doubt that she had much to do with the design but whatever is going on they are really good pickups as I am slowly realising. She wound 'em good!

Anyway I think I need do nothing more to this guitar - it has everything I could want from a Strat. One thing I will never understand though: why can I never get a Strat to play as well as a Tele? My Tele has a lower action than I normally experience with a Fender and the Strat can't get close. I've never been able to get a slinky action on a Strat without buzzing everywhere. This new one isn't bad but it's still not as good as my Tele, and nothing at all like my Duo Jet.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I wasn't aware of any hype around Josefina pickups. I don't tend to read much about Fender these days; perhaps I should. I was talking to a friend today and he mentioned that he has met the famous Josefina and Abigail Ybarra and that Josefina was all of about 5' nothing! I doubt that she had much to do with the design but whatever is going on they are really good pickups as I am slowly realising. She wound 'em good!

Anyway I think I need do nothing more to this guitar - it has everything I could want from a Strat. One thing I will never understand though: why can I never get a Strat to play as well as a Tele? My Tele has a lower action than I normally experience with a Fender and the Strat can't get close. I've never been able to get a slinky action on a Strat without buzzing everywhere. This new one isn't bad but it's still not as good as my Tele, and nothing at all like my Duo Jet.

What's the radius on the strat and tele? Is it 7.25 on the strat and 9.5 on the tele? The gretsch will be a 12" I think. That could explain your setup issues?

 

[HamishR]

The Strat and Tele are both 9.5 with "narrow/tall" frets. The Gretsch is 12" which helps make it that much slicker. I'm not a low-action freak - my guitars usually have higher actions than my friends appreciate - but the Gretsch is low and buzz-free. It's an exceptional guitar. I wish all guitars were built so well. And it sounds unbelievable.

I don't do 7.25 radius guitars!

 

[PunchySunshine]

My understanding is ya gotta wrestle the Strat more than other guitars. That's why I'm a strat man. I like a good fight!
Thanks for the heads up on the Mojotone pickups. I recently went back to a 93 Strat Plus Deluxe with the Lace pickups ( I too had one new that I regrettably sold in '04 ). I was looking at getting the Mojotone PUs as an upgrade but instead just spent the money and got the whole guitar I was after. I'm so happy that I did because it's exactly what I was missing and lesson learned...this stick is staying with me.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

The Strat and Tele are both 9.5 with "narrow/tall" frets. The Gretsch is 12" which helps make it that much slicker. I'm not a low-action freak - my guitars usually have higher actions than my friends appreciate - but the Gretsch is low and buzz-free. It's an exceptional guitar. I wish all guitars were built so well. And it sounds unbelievable.

I don't do 7.25 radius guitars!

I don't mind 7.25 if they're setup properly with decent frets. I don't really like small vintage frets but narrow tall 6105 style are just fine with me. I've never had an issue getting a tele or strat to play equally well but strats definitely don't feel as slinky due to the floating bridge. I use 11s on my tele and 10.5s on my strat. They feel like they have the same tension when I use those gauges and the trem is floating.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

My understanding is ya gotta wrestle the Strat more than other guitars. That's why I'm a strat man. I like a good fight!

I find this quite funny because I've read a load of posts over the years from people saying exactly the same thing about teles or les Pauls. I always wonder if it's a setup issue if you have to fight with a guitar to get it to work.

 

[HamishR]

The impact of fretboard radius is fascinating. I currently have two Gretsches which are both outstanding guitars and some of the best I've had. The 6120 Setzer has a 9.5 radius and plays beautifully but I can't get it as slinky as the '53 VS Duo Jet. I had a '59 VS Duo Jet too, and as both Jets have 12" radius boards the actions were lower than I'm used to. I can't stand low actions usually because of buzzing but also because the strings hit the frets higher up as you play - you don't necessarily hear it as buzzing but it kills sustain and tone. I usually have to raise the action a little to get a fuller sound and let the strings ring properly. The 12" radius Gretsches can have unusually low actions (for me).

And as for fighting guitars... one thing I have discovered with this new Strat is that it likes to be played gently for a lot of the sounds I like. You play for 40 years+ and still you're learning!

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I usually have to raise the action a little to get a fuller sound and let the strings ring properly. The 12" radius Gretsches can have unusually low actions (for me).

I'm exactly the same. It's amazing the difference a small adjustment of the saddle threads can make. I used to use a ruler to set an exact string height thinking that was the best way to go but these days I use a measurement to get in the ballpark and adjust the final settings by feel and ear.

 

[HamishR]

Yeah! That little tiny raise of the bridge can make all the difference between a thuddy, thin sound with no vocal mids to a full, sustaining sound with really responsive sounds. I guess if you use a truckload of gain you might not notice but I use just enough gain to get some bite and man the height of the action is important. Of course I want it to be easy as possible but not if it sounds bad.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Yeah! That little tiny raise of the bridge can make all the difference between a thuddy, thin sound with no vocal mids to a full, sustaining sound with really responsive sounds. I guess if you use a truckload of gain you might not notice but I use just enough gain to get some bite and man the height of the action is important. Of course I want it to be easy as possible but not if it sounds bad.

Totally. A lot of people don't agree with me on this but I genuinely like to have the guitar play and sound as good as it can both acoustically and electrically. I know a few guys who keep telling me if you can't hear it through the amp it doesn't matter but I can't help thinking that anytime you've got a string rattling against a fret it shouldn't you're going to be losing energy from the string that you don't need to.

Plus I like to play my electrics unplugged a lot for a quiet noodle here and there and like them sounding as good as possible in all scenarios.

 

[HamishR]

I know a few guys who keep telling me if you can't hear it through the amp it doesn't matter

And a few guys can be wrong.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

And a few guys can be wrong.

Completely agree