New Parts-Stang, looking for pickup recs

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

My friend down at the shop needed to move along his parts Mustang that he'd put together for a now dead band and w/ my addiction to Mustang-like guitars I wound up taking it off his hands on Wednesday:

It's a late '70s Fender body w/ an Offset Series neck w/ stock tuners and nut, a Japanese vibrato w/ StayTrem arm, and I swapped the adjustable Mustang bridge he had on there for the 9.5" radius StayTrem that had been living on my Squier VI for the last year or so. It's got SD Hotrails w/ 3 way rotary switching at the tone pot spot, a single volume, and a Tesi momentary kill switch on the lower horn.

He let me take it home w/ me over the weekend and I really clicked w/ the feel of it. I've been a fan of the Offset Series necks and find the profile, shape and satin poly finish really comfortable and natural feeling and the whole package sets up sans shim(s) w/ a very low and slinky action w/ 10-46s. The fretboard is actually pretty nice looking too when hydrated, I just forgot to hit it up w/ conditioner while I was swapping bridges.

Somehow I hadn't wound up w/ a Mustang vibrato on any of my personal guitars and aside from missing the ability to pull up on it w/ little flutters I'm really liking it so far. The StayTrem arm is a really solid addition IMO w/ the adjustability alone making it worth the price of admission.

The body is probably one of the most massive Mustang bodies I've encountered (I seem to remember it coming in at 5.78 lbs stripped when he received it) but so far it all seems to somehow add up to a very comfortable guitar to wear in the end. It's got a nice kind of explosive unplugged sound to it and w/ the StayTrem the body and neck are nice and lively and resonant feeling.

Unfortunately I bounced off of the Hotrails pretty hard and they wound up striking me as overly compressed and one dimensional/flat sounding to me no matter what I tried them w/. I like the idea of sticking w/ rawkin, not particularly strat sounding single coil form factor pickups in here, but w/ a whole lot more dynamic feel to them, tighter low mids, and more transients. Aside from a few vintage output strat pickups I think the only straight drop in I have on hand is an SP43 neck. Anyone have any favorites that could fit the bill (particularly at the bridge)?

I was back and forth on this one a few times, mostly based on the over abundance of Mustang type things I've accumulated and partly the aforementioned disinclination toward the pickups in it. It's a pretty cool looking, great feeling, fun to play guitar though at a reasonable price IMO and I know my friend was happy to get it sold fairly quickly so it seems like a winner

Thanks for reading and any suggestions on pickup candidates!

[Mechanical Birds]

Put lipsticks in it

[Debaser]

Nice one Sid, saw this on G-T. I also like the Offset Series necks, almost grabbed a used one before my better senses took over. Pickups? I wish I could help but that kinda stuff is personal. I have Buddhas in my VM/vintage parts-stang, made to early 60s spec.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Thanks guys!

I agree re: pickups being a matter of taste. Just hoping to get get some additional ideas/opinions on some fairly hot but still dynamic ones to look into.

I got started dropping the SP43 and a Classic 50s strat bridge pick up in there last night in the meantime. Currently thinking I'll try either a split SP43 or a Blues Special wound split blade from Fralin for the bridge eventually, assuming I like the SP43 at the neck and am not surprised by the Classic Series bridge pup.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

I had pulled out my dremel last evening and cleaned up the wiring channel for the kill switch and went ahead and cut channels from the pickup cavity and end of the killswitch channel to the control cavity. Today I started out pulling the vibrato and moved the springs to the middle notch. Next was shielding the wiring channels and making sure all the shielding would be consistently connected to the string ground w/ copper tape and solder:


My luthier friend had some pull off Kent Armstrong Dual Blades sitting around and I snagged one off of him for a lark and used it at the bridge w/ the SP43 at the neck, wired it all up like so (forgot to grab a pic of it):


Swapped up some screws and the knobs and ran out of gas before I got strings back on it, looking forward to getting it strung back up and seeing what I've got. I'm liking the look so far anyway...

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

Got it strung up w/ Gibson Vintage RI 10-46s and ran it through its paces for a few hours last night through the 4210 and Z28. The SP43 sounds pretty great so far, more P-90 than strat in this guitar than the couple of strats I've tried it in previously. I'm also liking the Dual Blade pretty well. It seems to have a really nice semi trashy bite when dimed that cleans up very well w/ the volume pot. It almost struck me as a single coil-y Dirty Fingers in character w/ a bit more refined cleans. It's maybe a bit hotter than I'd go for in a lot of circumstances but seems to maintain dimension and feel nicely regardless. Balance between the 2 doesn't seem too far off and blended tones seem to work out very well.


That being said, I ran into this "NOS" Lawrence Sound Research L-250 on Reverb at what to me seemed like a reasonable price and I believe I'm going to give it a try at the bridge on this guitar once it comes in.



Been on the look out for one of these for a while and if it follows the template of the L-500 from the same era that my Gretsch Committee came to me w/, I think chances are good I'll love it in one guitar or another...

I also ran across a new Kent Armstrong closed face, cool wound (supposed to be ~8K) Dual Rail at wholesale pricing that piqued my interest. With my impression of the older hot one and the price I figured it was worth giving one a try.

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

These guys came in today but I'll probably hold off on putting them into anything until I can try the Lawrence L-250 w/ the SP43 in this guitar (it's supposed to show up tomorrow):


Edit: well I got to the shop and couldn't resist throwing one of these in the empty bridge slot of my pimped out Epi LP SL I had vacated a couple months back so I could use the bridge SP43 I had in there on my Cutlass. A bit off topic maybe, but so far color me fairly surprised and impressed. Dead silent hum-wise, and a nice smooth hifi but still pretty strat-y character to it w/ a good bit of responsiveness. Output is lower than I was expecting, seems about even A/Bing w/ the SP43 in the Cutlass, but the pickup is still ~1/16"-1/8" lower than I'd probably put it if it wasn't already maxed out on height. So far it seems like a pretty darn good $33 pickup

[Sid Nitzerglobin]

The L-250 came in today and, with some more dremelling on one of my wiring channels to allow the pickup body to clear the wires, a bit of re-shielding, and a whole lot of profanity trying to fit everything back into the cavities, I got it installed this evening.

Initial test drive through the Micro Terror stack and the product of my latest moment of GAS weakness (NAD thread incoming ) says it was entirely worth it. It seems pretty amazing dirty or clean. Super detailed and articulate w/ just enough vaseline on the lens to smooth out any shrillness. Output is nice and healthy but not crazily so and it seems to be matching up w/ the SP43 pretty darn well in volume and tone across the sweep of the blend pot. I'm thinking the only reason I'd want to swap this combo out of here is if I really wanted to use the L-250 in another guitar.

[s_mcsleazy]

rail pickups seem to really work on stangs. i have a hotrail clone in my nervstang and it's killer.