Educate me- Buying pickups

Synchrony Pedalworks

Synchrony Pedalworks

Well-known member
I have a Charvel San Dimas. The neck and body are fantastic. The clean sound for the pickups are great, but pair the pickups with some dirt or fuzz, and you can get some muddy sounds. I can clean up some of the muddiness with my Equilux pedal. However, it is still not to my liking. The pickups are single coil for the neck and middle spot and a humbucker for the bridge.

I have a 1995 Fender Strat (American- all single coil) and Fender Telecaster Deluxe pro II (humbuckers). Both are fantastic. I am thinking of exchanging the pickups on the the Charvel, but I don’t want a clone of the Strat or Telecaster Deluxe. I am looking for a different sound that mixes well with the dirt. Any suggestions or advice in choosing pickups? I have never bought pickups and it is hard to test drive pickups at a store.
 
Synchrony Pedalworks said:
I have a Charvel San Dimas. The neck and body are fantastic. The clean sound for the pickups are great, but pair the pickups with some dirt or fuzz, and you can get some muddy sounds. I can clean up some of the muddiness with my Equilux pedal. However, it is still not to my liking. The pickups are single coil for the neck and middle spot and a humbucker for the bridge.

I have a 1995 Fender Strat (American- all single coil) and Fender Telecaster Deluxe pro II (humbuckers). Both are fantastic. I am thinking of exchanging the pickups on the the Charvel, but I don’t want a clone of the Strat or Telecaster Deluxe. I am looking for a different sound that mixes well with the dirt. Any suggestions or advice in choosing pickups? I have never bought pickups and it is hard to test drive pickups at a store.
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Can you measure the output on those, I think they are a bit higher than standard strat & tele pickups???
 
music6000 said:
Can you measure the output on those, I think they are a bit higher than standard strat & tele pickups???
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I got this from Seymour Duncan. I hope this info is what is needed. 😁. Thanks.

Bridge- Seymour Duncan® JB™ TB-4 : 16.6K

Middle- Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 Single coil: 13.3 K

Bridge- Seymour Duncan Custom Flat Strat SSL-6 Single coil: 13.3 K
 
music6000 said:
There is the issue, that is double what Strat & Tele pickups are!
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So, I need to look at pickups much lower output! Do you all find that YouTube demos helpful? I worry that the demos can be embellished.

Also, any favorite brands to recommend?

It seems like pickups can be a leap of faith. You can never fully know the sound until purchased and installed.
 
I have had great luck with guitarfetish.com for strat pickups. They are cheap and I bought 2 extra sets just to do extra pickup swapping and choose the ones that sounded best. But ya, I agree with music6000, lower output pickups will solve all the muddies. I grew up thinking high output pickups was where it’s at but have since switched to lower output. I have a Bareknuckle Warpig that is super woofy and lollar DM? I think? Super high output humbucker that is woofy as well. I recently purchased the Seymour Duncan joe duplantier set (low output PAF types) and I love them. I play mostly high gain stuff but the cleans with the PAFs is gorgeously articulate and that translates well into the high gain stuff without getting barky and clubby in the low end. So ya maybe lower output might be what u are looking for but you can’t beat guitarfetish for price. I think I spent $60 for 3 sets of strat pickups
 
This is a common problem for HSS guitars. HBs typically have way more output than single coils, so I suspect that Charvel put huge output SC pickups in to balance with the output of the bridge pickup. Even then 16.6K for the bridge pickup sounds REALLY HIGH!!

I would suggest staying away from vintage output SCs and still use some stout SCs - maybe around 7-8K. You may even want to try a lower output HB pickup to help match with them, maybe more about 8-9K. It really depends on what sound you want. I find lower output HBs have a more versatile sound, being brighter and clearer and generally having a more colourful sound. A Seymour Duncan '59 is actually a pretty usable pickup, and will be available in the right size for your guitar. Some HBs are spaced wider for the wider Fender-style bridges - you may need to check the spacing on your guitar's bridge.

You may also want to see what impedance your guitar's volume pots are. I suspect that they might be 500K, which is standard for HBs. A 1Meg pot might help brighten your overall sound. It's a cheap thing to try and may even make the pickups you have more usable.
 
Stupid question, but have you tried lowering your pickups away from the strings? When I swapped the covers out on mine I was getting distortion. I guess I made them too hot. Pickups are basically microphones so just back off on them. A simple screwdriver fix cleared that up.
 
drgonzo1969 said:
I have had great luck with guitarfetish.com for strat pickups. They are cheap and I bought 2 extra sets just to do extra pickup swapping and choose the ones that sounded best. But ya, I agree with music6000, lower output pickups will solve all the muddies. I grew up thinking high output pickups was where it’s at but have since switched to lower output. I have a Bareknuckle Warpig that is super woofy and lollar DM? I think? Super high output humbucker that is woofy as well. I recently purchased the Seymour Duncan joe duplantier set (low output PAF types) and I love them. I play mostly high gain stuff but the cleans with the PAFs is gorgeously articulate and that translates well into the high gain stuff without getting barky and clubby in the low end. So ya maybe lower output might be what u are looking for but you can’t beat guitarfetish for price. I think I spent $60 for 3 sets of strat pickups
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Great source. I will have to give this a look! Thanks.
HamishR said:
This is a common problem for HSS guitars. HBs typically have way more output than single coils, so I suspect that Charvel put huge output SC pickups in to balance with the output of the bridge pickup. Even then 16.6K for the bridge pickup sounds REALLY HIGH!!

I would suggest staying away from vintage output SCs and still use some stout SCs - maybe around 7-8K. You may even want to try a lower output HB pickup to help match with them, maybe more about 8-9K. It really depends on what sound you want. I find lower output HBs have a more versatile sound, being brighter and clearer and generally having a more colourful sound. A Seymour Duncan '59 is actually a pretty usable pickup, and will be available in the right size for your guitar. Some HBs are spaced wider for the wider Fender-style bridges - you may need to check the spacing on your guitar's bridge.

You may also want to see what impedance your guitar's volume pots are. I suspect that they might be 500K, which is standard for HBs. A 1Meg pot might help brighten your overall sound. It's a cheap thing to try and may even make the pickups you have more usable.
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This perfect direction. I like the idea of lowering the output, but not going to the depths of a Strat. I would like for it to be different. I will also look at the pot. I might try that change first.
BuddytheReow said:
Stupid question, but have you tried lowering your pickups away from the strings? When I swapped the covers out on mine I was getting distortion. I guess I made them too hot. Pickups are basically microphones so just back off on them. A simple screwdriver fix cleared that up.
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🤦🏻‍♂️ I forgot about the pickup height option. Thanks for the reminder. That and a lot change might get me in business. Thanks!
 
Setting your guitar volume to 5 might clear up some of the mud.

I've been disappointed when changing pickups expecting a night-and-day difference, when the difference was quite subtle. But then again, I was swapping low-output pickups for better low-output pickups, so your experience may be more drastic.
 
Is it unwise to replace the neck +/- the middle pickup with a more Strat output (5-7K) and leave the hot bridge pickup?

I like the bridge pickup. It seems to work well with my Tonebender. 😎
 
Fender sells a 500k/250k dual gang pot for their HSS stuff. Charvel is under the Fender umbrella, so they may do this as well.

Whatever they put in the Player Plus Strats sounds great / balanced without falling into the vintage output category. IMHO, YMMV, ET AL.
 
Synchrony Pedalworks said:
Is it unwise to replace the neck +/- the middle pickup with a more Strat output (5-7K) and leave the hot bridge pickup?

I like the bridge pickup. It seems to work well with my Tonebender. 😎
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If you don't mind a wide gap in output between the bridge pickup and the others.

One other thing to bear in mind is that single coil Strat-type pickups don't like being too close to the strings. The pole pieces are the magnets and they pull on the strings if they are too close. HBs have the magnet as a bar underneath the coils so don't pull so much on the strings, so can be closer to the strings. Kinda the opposite of what you want!

But it's your guitar. Use whichever pickups suit you.

Xefned makes a good point - replacing pickups is often not the fix-everything you might hope. Be prepared to find the differences less mind-blowing than you expect! But FWIW a lot of guys these days are moving towards lower output pickups because in general they can be more toneful and balanced. High output pickups can be a bit of a blunt tool. Great with loads of dirt because they have little high end to generate all the fizz that lots of clipping can result in. But as soon as you lower the gain high output pickups can be a bit dull and toneless.
 
HamishR said:
If you don't mind a wide gap in output between the bridge pickup and the others.

One other thing to bear in mind is that single coil Strat-type pickups don't like being too close to the strings. The pole pieces are the magnets and they pull on the strings if they are too close. HBs have the magnet as a bar underneath the coils so don't pull so much on the strings, so can be closer to the strings. Kinda the opposite of what you want!

But it's your guitar. Use whichever pickups suit you.

Xefned makes a good point - replacing pickups is often not the fix-everything you might hope. Be prepared to find the differences less mind-blowing than you expect! But FWIW a lot of guys these days are moving towards lower output pickups because in general they can be more toneful and balanced. High output pickups can be a bit of a blunt tool. Great with loads of dirt because they have little high end to generate all the fizz that lots of clipping can result in. But as soon as you lower the gain high output pickups can be a bit dull and toneless.
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Those are some really good points. You have me thinking….The output difference between mismatched pickups may be less wise. I really appreciate the advice.
 
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