Guitars for Real Musicians

Craig · Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 10:05 pm Post subject: My Strat

As you can see in my signature, I have a '93 MIM, maple neck, black Strat. It is the first guitar I ever bought, got it new in summer '94. It was built as a s/s/s, and being that I was (still am to a degree) a huge Yngwie Malmsteen fan I swapped out the stock neck and bridge pickups for DiMarzio HS-3s, just like Yngwie had then. Later I scored a mongrel humbucker for dirt cheap at the guitar shop I worked at (might be a Super Distortion, not really sure, but it's beefy) and since the body was factory routed for a 'bucker in the bridge I hacked the stock pickguard and made it fit. It's ugly but it works Rolling Eyes

Then in '03 I had the brilliant idea to get the body refinished and redo the wiring, so I tore the whole thing down. I somehow never got around to doing all that and since I had my Epiphone I didn't really miss the Strat. Therefore it has sat in pieces for the past 7 years.

Now I've decided I'd like to resurrect my old warhorse, but the refin isn't really necessary. I originally wanted to go with an ocean burst finish, but after I thought about it, the current paint is virtually mint. Besides, both Clapton and David Gilmour had black Strats, and how cool are they Wink

Really, only a new 'guard and electronics are needed. The quandary, therefore, is this: revert to all single coil or stay with the h/s/s I have now?

Since I have my Black Beauty with triple 'buckers, that tonal area is covered. I also have 'buckers in my Broadway jazzbox, although that's not exactly a high gain friendly unit there. If I switch back to s/s/s on the Strat I would gain a new tone in relation to my other guitars. I'd considered one of GFS' setups with their Premium Texas Strat set in their '64 aged white guard.

The alternative is get a new guard, keep the DiMarzios, but throw in a new 'bucker in the bridge. The question is what, though. Maybe a GFS Power Rail or something similar.

Any thoughts on this? I might just end up going whatever way the majority goes on this...
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gmzanatta · Playing Club Dates Joined: 27 Dec 2009 Posts: 431

Craig,

I would suggest going with a s/s/s set-up. I have a Douglas which is h/s/s and I found that my Agile covers all the ground that the humbucker can provide. Now I wish I had picked up a SST instead, since I dont have the ability to get a single coil sound. It's all a matter of preference though.

- Gustavo
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Newest addition: RMO ES-335 Custom Build
Proud owner of: AL3000M HSB Plaintop, Douglas WR340N, Epi LP, Segovia acoustic, and 1962 classical guitar, 1965 Gibby Explorer Amp

HendrixFan85239 · Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:41 pm Post subject:

My HSS strat covers the single coil sound, well except for the bridge, but I play a lot harder music so I don't need the bridge single coil. When I want some blues I turn the tone down and use the two upper single coils and then use the humbucker for lead. The humbucker doesn't cover the LP sound IMO though, it's it's own sound due to the alder body and maple neck. So I don't think an LP would cover your humbucker tone because of that. Also, if you go the humbucker route Laughing

, you will want a tone control for the humbucker seperate so you would have two master tone controls in a sense, one for the humbucker and one for the single coils.
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Gear:
MIM Fender HSS Strat
Squier Affinity Strat
Hondo II LP Jr. Copy
80's Fender Acoustic
Kramer Bass
Line 6 Spider III Amp
Peavey Bandit 65 Amp
Gallien-Krueger Bass Amp
DigiTech Grunge Pedal
85' Harmony LP Copy
Derring Banjo