Need Strat neck pickup advice

[David Schwab]

I have a nondescript Strat single coil that's abut 5.5K, and it sounds really nice at the neck. It gets that perfect hollow neck tone, especially up near the 12th fret.

[63superreverb]

If my memory is correct and it may not be, it seems Jason told me the one pole might be stronger than the rest causing the boom on the low E.....please let me know what you think about the 5.82 that would be interesting to me for later pickup choices...I know taste, ears and style of music makes us all different in what we like...but one thing for me I have learned is you can loose out on a lot of sweet tone with the really hot pickups.....it seems for me the amp can be dialed in better and is more flexable with the lower wind...and before it was hard to get the amp to make up for the stronger pickup tone wise...I dont use them, but I wonder if pedals would sound better?.....take care and keep me posted...

[GlennW]

The 5.82K is in the neck position now, and I like it. It has a more airy quality to it than the hotter one, and does what I was hoping for with the tone turned down.

I've been trying to avoid pedals as well, in fact messing around with an amp is what took me so long to getting back to the pickup. I like the old Ibanez/Maxon Super Tube Screamers. I haven't tried a lot of fuzzes, but these have four knobs and you can dial out the usual fizziness and play Chuck Berry 2-note stuff without it sounding obnoxious. The Ibby STL and Maxon ST-01 Super Tube Screamers are pretty much the same thing in different boxes.

http://filters.muziq.be/model/ibanez/master/stl

[Possum]

....

Strat magnets are usually always stronger on the end poles, the magnets all act as one big magnet when put together in a bobbin and field strength is always strongest at the ends of the magnet. You could change this by using a small ceramic magnet and repelling it against the bass E magnet a couple times.