oil city pickup stonetones

als427

Hi all , used oil city before , very nice. Considering a set of stone tones for my strat. hendrix , woodstock , what Im after , not too thin or bright but pure hendrix strat. anyone used these and can shed some light? or recommend these or another oil city p/up for my purpose , thanks all.

Funkfingers

I have a Route 66 trio with equal length polepieces. I tried the neck and middle ones in a elderly Ibanez RG200 together with a Scrapyard Dog Plus humbucker. Very nice. 

Then, when somebody local threatened to buy the Ibanez, I reinstated the stock pickups. 

If you are a right-handed guitarist, chasing authentic Hendrix sounds, you need the "vintage stagger" magnet lengths, reversed for left-handed. 

Obviously, if your guitar has a modern fingerboard radius, the "stagger" and handedness are pretty much irrelevant. 

HAL9000

Don't know if this helps but I've got a set of StoneTones in my MIM Std Strat. The original ceramic items were somewhat on the bright side and the bridge pickup was a little quiet and thin sounding (apparently a common issue with Strats since the strings vibration is less over the bridge pickup than the other two).

Ash at Oil City suggested that fitting a baseplate to the bridge pickup might help. This is supposed to boost the magnetic field so basically it’s a way of getting a bit more oomph which is exactly what I wanted.

In my opinion the StoneTones are still Stratty but give a noticeably fuller and richer sound than the originals. I tend to play fairly clean but do like a little bit of grit for fills and solos and these give me exactly that.

als427

chasing hendrix tone , but not to the nth degree.also like robert cray , rory gallagher ( I have irish tours already) and of course stevie ray. I don't want too bright , glassy and shrill - hendrix at woodstock , villanova junction is my dream tone

Whistler

My Mesa Boogie can do more to change the colour of my sound  that my guitar itself can, so whilst not wanting to put you off new pickups - not even a little, have you experimented with finding an amp that suits your guitar?

als427

hey HAL9000 - when you say the original ceramic items do you mean other pickups or are you referring to the stone tones , as the original ceramic ones? i cant see on the website whether the stonetones are ceramic or alnico...

johnl

I suspect @OilCityPickups might have some useful input here

HAL9000

als427 said:

chasing hendrix tone , but not to the nth degree.also like robert cray , rory gallagher ( I have irish tours already) and of course stevie ray. I don't want too bright , glassy and shrill - hendrix at woodstock , villanova junction is my dream tone

To my ears these are all quite different tones. SRV's is noticeably warmer and looser than, say, Robert Cray's which is much more tight and defined.

As @Whistler has already alluded to, the pickups are only one part of what produces your total sound. If you're after specific sounds you'll need to consider your amplification too.

als427 said:

hey HAL9000 - when you say the original ceramic items do you mean other pickups or are you referring to the stone tones , as the original ceramic ones? i cant see on the website whether the stonetones are ceramic or alnico...

The original pickups on my Strat were the ceramics. I'm not sure but I'd guess that the StoneTones are alnico v.

Lestratcaster

I've got 2 Stonetones in my Strat, in the neck and middle position - I love them. Chimey Stratty-like cleans a real nice shimmer (might help I changed my trem block too). Can't comment on the bridge as I didn't get one - I went for a HSS configuration with a JB humbucker.

But they are great single coils, and make a Strat sound like a Strat. So good for those Eric Clapton bluesy tones.

als427

hi , I've got a mesa , marshall , v50 and few others so Im good on amps. Appreciate they make a massive difference.
The guitar I'll put them in has  bare knuckle slow hands , seem punchy but also a bit middy to me.
Trem block recommendations?

OilCityPickups

als427 said:

hey HAL9000 - when you say the original ceramic items do you mean other pickups or are you referring to the stone tones , as the original ceramic ones? i cant see on the website whether the stonetones are ceramic or alnico...

StoneTones are alnico 5 :-)

HAL9000

als427 said:

Trem block recommendations?

The alloy block in my MIM Std Strat got swapped for a Callahan steel item. TBH the difference is fairly subtle but there's definitely a little more sustain and a bit more 'zing'. If your Strat is American you almost certainly already have a steel block. Also, be aware that not all Strats have the same string spacing so you'll need to make sure your new sustain block matches up. 

Fez

I have a strat with neck and middle stone tones and they are brilliant. I have another Strat with an oil city pickup in the bridge it's wound to 9k and has a steel plate under it and it is well meaty.