Better pickups for Squier Strat?

[Rhodesplyr]

After guitar players I play with starting asking me to work on their amps for them, I realized I needed an electric guitar of my own for testing purposes, so I bought a second-hand Chinese Squier Strat. I play enough to tell if an amp sounds right, but not much more. The guitar's previous owner was a wannabe-tech who seemed to suffer from Blind Urge to Mod Syndrome and had installed a pre-wired $55 pickguard assembly from Stewart-MacDonald. He included the original Squier pickguard and pickups with the guitar, but I've never swapped it back in; thus, I've never heard the guitar with its stock pickups. I'm not sure if the Stew-Mac assembly was really an "upgrade" or not.

The other day, a client picked up his amp and tested it out to his satisfaction with his Gibson. He also plays a Strat and picked up mine to test the amp's sound with a Strat. He wasn't that happy with the result, but then he noticed what he was playing and said, "Oh, it's just the guitar."

It started me thinking that I should probably get a decent set of "real" Strat pickups for the purpose of having a good point of reference for voicing. Another good guitar player who's played the Squier also told me that it was basically a good guitar, but needed better pickups.

On the other hand, I'm a keyboard player, not a guitar player and won't be performing on it. So, I'm wondering if there are recommendations for a set of aftermarket pickups that will get me a middle-of-the-road Strat sound without spending a ton of money. I'm not that cheap, but, realistically, I'll never be good enough as a guitar player to realize the potential of top-of-the-line units. (I will, of course, install better pots, wiring, and switching along with new pickups.)

There are so many Strat single-coil pickup makers out there that I hardly know where to begin.

[Steve Conner]

What do the Squier/Stewmac pickups look like? Are they the kind with ceramic magnets glued on the back?

What about the DC resistance of each pickup, how does it compare with what it should be for a vintage Strat?

If the DCR isn't that far off, maybe you can improve the tone a bit by replacing the ceramic bar magnets with alnico ones. In "Real" Strat pickups, the pole pieces are alnico rods, but you can't change the actual pole pieces without wrecking the pickup. Cheap pickups never use alnico magnets because it's about 10 times the price of ceramic.

Or maybe you can find on Ebay a set of pickups that someone took out of a Fender American Series reissue, to put something boutique in. Those have the proper alnico rod magnets, and if they don't give a "Middle of the road Strat sound", I don't know what will. Just watch out for the "Noiseless" ones that supposedly sound nothing like Strat pickups.

I apologize to the real pickup guys if I'm talking complete ****, but at least it should stimulate some discussion

[JoeM]

After guitar players I play with starting asking me to work on their amps for them, I realized I needed an electric guitar of my own for testing purposes, so I bought a second-hand Chinese Squier Strat. I play enough to tell if an amp sounds right, but not much more. The guitar's previous owner was a wannabe-tech who seemed to suffer from Blind Urge to Mod Syndrome and had installed a pre-wired $55 pickguard assembly from Stewart-MacDonald. He included the original Squier pickguard and pickups with the guitar, but I've never swapped it back in; thus, I've never heard the guitar with its stock pickups. I'm not sure if the Stew-Mac assembly was really an "upgrade" or not.
...

I'd try the original PG and pickups first, might surprise you.

[Rhodesplyr]

I'd try the original PG and pickups first, might surprise you.

Joe, Interesting suggestion--one that resulted in more than one surprise. I think I figured out why the previous owner replaced the pickguard assembly. I examined the original pickguard and quickly noticed that it had been factory miswired. The ground terminal of the volume pot was pristine; it had never had anything soldered to it.

The originals are a distinct step up from the replacements--better clarity. It's hard to describe, but the Stew-Mac replacements had a muddy sound, especially if you strummed a full chord. Then again, what would one expect for $55 for a pickguard, three pickups, switches and pots, and labor to wire it up?

The original pickguard also has better shielding.

Thanks for the suggestion!

David

[thendrix]

I play strats and my favorite single coils are the Suhr Vintage 60's. They are not cheap but I love the sound and they don't seem to make as much "noise" as some others. They are also a little more bassy then stock Fender or Squire single coils, which I like. I have a set of Fender Noiseless singles in a Squire and they are ok but they have a little to much treble for me.

[jrfrond]

For testing amps with guitars, I always want to hear it with a humbucker as well as single-coils. In our shop, we have a Yamaha Pacifica 112 in which I swapped out the humbucker for a SD Pearly Gates I had layin' around, and two Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups, because I don't want extraneous noise either.

[Rob DiStefano]

imho, 99% of *everything* about guitars is subjective (as with most things in life) and pickup tone is far and away too subjective to purchase/try/use a pickup(s) based solely on the hearsay opinions of others. wish there was another way around that, but alas, there ain't. anything else is a krap shoot of sorts ... who, in this wild game of all-things-guitar, hasn't at least been there before?

[dragonbat13]

I just installed some texas specials in my strat. Sounds like a high output version of my original 74 strat pickups.