Stratocaster pickup plates

Fez

So are the steel plates under usually the strat bridge pick ups still a thing or have they gone out of favour/fashion?

guitargeek62

@Alegree stock them, personally I like the addition on the bridge pickup - genuinely seems to fatten it up a bit.

FelineGuitars

I order a lot of my BKP strat pickups with steel plates under the bridge unit

timmypix

Bare Knuckle and Monty's are the biggest proponents of them, I think. I'm not sure I could go back to not having one on the bridge pickup, it just thickens it up nicely.

Funkfingers

Are people only adding the plate on trios of pickups of similar DC resistance for all three positions?

… Or, to put it another way …

Is there any point adding a plate to a bridge pickup that is calibrated and overwound to compensate for reduced string excursion?

Fez

Mojo mention them on their website. I will have a look at Monty's

mo6020

I have a base plate on the Strat that I’ve put Monty’s pickups in. It’s fat sounding. 

Kittyfrisk

earlpilanz sells them on eBay. He has a very good reputation too.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115491356358?var=415511049014

Roland

Funkfingers said:  Is there any point adding a plate to a bridge pickup that is calibrated and overwound to compensate for reduced string excursion?

There isn’t a yes/no answer. It depends on what sound you want. Stick a piece of steel sheet into the pickup cavity and decide whether it works for you. 

Mr_Claw

Fez said:

So are the steel plates under usually the strat bridge pick ups still a thing or have they gone out of favour/fashion?

I have one on the bridge pu of my Mojotone 59 clones. Great sounding pickups, but a bit weak - even for me, and I like weak output pickups! So I had @FelineGuitars ;put a plate under it. Does the business. 

DrJazzTap

I have one on a bridge pickup in a set oil city stone tones. 
It does add a certain something. 

Fez

With any luck the two clips below will play OK 
The first is a newly installed Oil City Stone Tone bridge pick up (thanks Ash) in my bitsa strat into a Marshall
DSL401 Clean then crunch recorded with an SM57 into Reaper no added FX.
The second is the same set up but with a steel plate added. That's about as empirical as I can make the test. I think there is a difference and my personal preference is with the plate. The difference is small though.

Fez

normula1

I fitted one to the bridge pickup and like it on its own, I do feel it takes a little away from position 2