Choosing the Right Pickups for My Swamp Ash Stratocaster

edwardsjethro

I am in a bit of a quandry in deciding whether the Surfers or the BKP Rory Gallagher Irish Tour set are what will suit my swamp ash stratocaster best. Ive never tried either and have only heard YT demos. The surfers quack astonishingly and the irish tours have a fair bit of clout  in their tone. Must be killer with overdrive is a must and no ice pick wanted. Anyone able to comment on how good the surfers work with overdrive? (maxon od808) clean boosting a Jam Tubedreamer in to 6L6 handwired head.

sev112

One of each ?

theatreanchor

Sounds like you want the Surfers. You never really know until they’re in your guitar and you hear it through your individual rig. Low output Strat pups are fab with overdrive. Higher output is good with high gain. 

paulmapp8306

you just cant tell until there in a guitar.  Personally I didnt like the Irish Tours when I loaded a strat with them..... just too much int eh mid range for me from a strat.   Not tried the Surfers.

What I will say, is after about 6  or 7 sets of PUs in my strat - I settled on Lollar Dirty blonds.   Just th eright mix of vintag'y neck and middle with a hotter but articulate bridge thats not too ice picky.

Funkfingers

I have SD Antiquity II Surfer pickups in my AVRI '62 - with its alder body and "slab" rosewood fingerboard.

A vintage spec Stratocaster built using a swamp ash body might benefit from a tad more midrange. Hence, I suggest the Antiquity (1) model, including the Custom/Hot bridge position pickup.

If the guitar has modern fingerboard radius, it might be better served by pickups with equal length rod magnet polepieces.

UK builders such as Alegree, Bare Knuckle, Creamery, Mojo and Oil City Pickups can probably furnish something suitable. I like the latter's Masterwound Route 66 set.

nacnudnai

Having spent time going through quite a few sets of strat pickups (some quite expensive ones)...if I had to recommend one set to anyone (even outside of this question), I'd go with the Surfers.

I genuinely don't have a criticism of them, they just work super well. Cleans, crunches, high-gain - works for all.

My set have the overwound bridge pickup (at about 9.8k) and it doesn't sound overpowering at all...but it does get rid of the ice-pick.

mudslide73

I've got Surfers in the neck and middle slots of my ash MJT Strat (maple neck). I had an SSL5 in the bridge before I got hold of a CS SSL-1C DG on here. It's a great combo imo. The neck/middle sounds great with my Marshalls.

Mr_Claw

My fave strat pickups are Mojotone '59 clones. But they're a quite low output and bit softer sounding than many. A brighter, well-priced, decent handwound set is the @Alegree Frigid Haze. 

johnhe

I have a bright sounding strat. Putting Irish Tours in that guitar was the best decision ever. Such a great sounding set of pickups imo. I cant understand how they can sound so strategy and yet so gutsy at the same time.

but variety is the spice of life, I guess. And I know that other folks love their low output pickups. For years I felt that the internet was telling me that low output was better. But I finally had to admit that I prefer pickups with at least a little punch to them.

bazxkr

No experience of the pups you mentioned but had fat50s and a set of lace sensors gold blue red in my swamp ash strat and both were brill but think the fat50s took the winning line. So much is down to preference and sort of tone you are going for. My swamp ash body was with a maple neck

Greatape

If you can find a set for a good price, the Suhr v60lps will work well in a brighter guitar.