[kd_944]

Hi folks..

I have the age old problem of a 13yr old who loves Van Halen and is playing a low-cost strat that has pick ups of crud. While he drools over Kramers and Charvels, I am looking for a lower price solution.

I am thinking of a humbucker in a single coil package. Like a Hot Rail or Little 59'. The question is if a I go for a bridge p/u, does anyone have a recommendations for a hot pickup to put in? What he has is crap, but the guitar is ""ok". I realize its just a faze of his guitar playing..but a necessary one I guess. Any recommendations out there? :rockon2:

 

[Tarl]

What amp is he playing through? I,ve allways thought that an amp upgrade is much more helpful than a PU upgrade to get the tone you are looking for. A better amp will make a cheaper guitar sound way better where a better PU change will only be marginally better. On the single coil thing , I don,t know much about them , as you know Seymour Duncan makes some "hot " singles.

 

[Xanadu]

well first off, welcome to the forums. It's good to have another from Ottawa:food-smiley-004:

Personally, I like Dimarzios. Probably because they just sound so damn sweet in an Ibanez. I'd suggest maybe an HS-2 or HS-3. But I really dont know. Sorry.

 

[kd_944]

Thanks for the welcome!

I had the guitar setup locally, it plays quite well, the setup guy said the guitar has reasonable quality that it would improve with better pickups. He plays through a beringer pod II and a marshall 15 watt solid state little amp. The sound is just kinda not there. Since I see Dimarzios and others on ebat for 60-70US, it is probably a good stop gap. I'll check out there web site.

Next I'll have to give it the Eddie stripe job for him!

thanks for the tips..advice is welcome for a hack like me

well first off, welcome to the forums. It's good to have another from Ottawa:food-smiley-004:

Personally, I like Dimarzios. Probably because they just sound so damn sweet in an Ibanez. I'd suggest maybe an HS-2 or HS-3. But I really dont know. Sorry.

 

[dwagar]

When I bought my modded '60 Melody Maker, it had a HotRails in the bridge. Too hot and bright for my liking, so I picked up a lil59 off of Ebay, and that gave me closer to the vintage humbucker sound I wanted.

I think they are both good pickups, you can probably snag either one off Ebay for about $40. If he wants to be EVH, then the Hot Rails is probably the better buy.

And hey, some of those low cost Strats are pretty decent guitars. I think a pickup mod is a good idea.

I can sneak an image in here, always looking for an excuse

 

[PaulS]

I'd agree with the lil 59 for a bridge pickup, if you check out the for sale section here I think there is one for sale . Seymours seem to be the choice for stacked singles and hot rails, I have a vintage hot rail in one of my guitars at the neck position and it works out quite well.

 

[SCREEM]

I think he would like the meanest possible pup for that guitar....the hot rails :rockon2:

 

[Dirty_Frank]

Anyone have experiences with the Classic Stack pup?

I hear it's kind of like a PAF?

 

[NoTSoAgILe]

You could try http://store.guitarfetish.com, they have some pretty inexpensive pick ups.

From them I would recomend these:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/casetof3lilk.html

They sell singles aswell if you don't want to get a set of three, and they're coil tappable


I'm not sure if they ship to Canada, but they have an ebay store that does. Just look them up on http://stores.ebay.ca/.

 

[kd_944]

Anyone have any personal experience with these? at 60$US thats the cost of a single dimarzzio. I don't mind paying ~120 CDn in the stores for a good bridge pickup...although its probably 2x the cost of the guitar I got off ebay!

We are heading to Montreal this weekend, a block from steve's maybe I'll have a look at what they have there?

You could try http://store.guitarfetish.com, they have some pretty inexpensive pick ups.

From them I would recomend these:

http://store.guitarfetish.com/casetof3lilk.html

They sell singles aswell if you don't want to get a set of three, and they're coil tappable


I'm not sure if they ship to Canada, but they have an ebay store that does. Just look them up on http://stores.ebay.ca/.

 

[NoTSoAgILe]

I don't have any experience with them. I'm considering buying some pickups from them in the near future though for a fretless project I'll be doing.

Here's some reviews of those ones from Harmony Central. According to some of them there really good.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/GFS_Pickups/LiL-killer-01.html

Out of 5 reviews it got 4 10's and a 9... not bad.

 

[kd_944]

I don't have any experience with them. I'm considering buying some pickups from them in the near future though for a fretless project I'll be doing.

Here's some reviews of those ones from Harmony Central. According to some of them there really good.

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/Data2/GFS_Pickups/LiL-killer-01.html

Out of 5 reviews it got 4 10's and a 9... not bad.

Great info..thanks!!

 

[Metalmortal]

Personally, I think you should go with the lil59s. I had a pair in my old Strat and it made it sound quite a bit better. Still though, a better amp or even a nice pedal would help do the trick.