I bought one of these last week:
A MIM Standard Stratocaster in Lake Placid Blue.
Since then I've been getting to know it now & must say it plays beautifully- it's effortless.
There is an issue though- it sounds rather "quiet, thin & brittle" compared to my other guitar (a Partscaster Esquire with a single Oil City Alligator 90 pickup since you're asking)
I LIKE single coils so it's not like I'm looking for a LP tone. I just want to add some warmth & thickness.
I've never encountered this issue before- I've always bought guitars that sounded good & then set them up to play how I like.
So what can be done?
I've tried adjusting my amp settings with some success.
What's next? Is the following plan reasonable?
1. Pickup height adjustment?
2. Heavier strings?
3. New trem block?
4. Tone on the bridge pickup?
5. EQ pedal?
6. New pickups/harness?
7. Accept that Stratocasters may play great but sound rubbish & buy another Telecaster?
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If it's a MIM Standard you will also get excellent results from replacing the pickups, but you can get a useable sound from the stock ones if you don't want to spend the extra cash.
Heavier strings and upgrading the bridge block will help a little, but it’s fairly subtle.
A tone control on the bridge pickup will take a little shrillness off (in that position only) but won’t fix the thinness or lack of volume.
An EQ pedal will work, but is treating the symptom and not the disease... although it could be even more effective than replacing the pickups, and will be a bit cheaper.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
fitting a baseplate to a strat pickup is very cheap and simple to do. The guitar will still sound like a strat, but a bit fuller. I think they are the best bang for the buck mod for a thin sounding strat.
Similarly, moving or adding a wire to a pot is not an expensive mod. Changing a block will start to push the price up but they can be had relatively cheap.
Obviously changing Pickups starts to become pricey, but you can do a lot to a strat for little money before that point
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Seriously though, don't those MIM standards have rather harsh pickups as standard?
Unless we are talking more about nuances than quite blatant difference here?
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/103232/strat-pick-up-question#latest
I found the solution for me was a new amp. I don't know if this is a common issue or not and if Strats are quite demanding of an amp in terms of getting a nice tone, but mine now sounds glorious and just like a Strat should.
I certainly think how you've built up your rig is a big part of it. I've always used a Strat as my main guitar so my amp and pedals reflect this and as such I get a big fat tone out of a Strat but struggle with Gibson's as they sound muddy in comparison.
So, my two pennies - I would start by working with what you've got. Rewiring the tone controls is an absolute must in my opinion, and always helps a bit, and check you have a 47nF tone cap (or even larger) not a 22nF, and 250k pots. Try and work with the pickup heights - I always found those pickups to be quite hot so I'm surprised you think they sound weak.
After that I'd budget for a change of block AND pickups. I think the block is absolutely fundamental to the sound of a Strat, and whilst most will say steel, I think brass is worth considering if you want to thicken the sound of a Strat, especially if you spend time on the bridge pickup - brass holds back the treble frequencies a little bit, and works brilliantly on my maple neck Strat. In rosewood neck Strats steel is usually better, so it's about knowing the instrument, how bright/dark it is, and matching the block too it. So, steel is a safe bet, but in some circumstances brass will work a little better - either will be massively better than zinc. Equally I've tried lots of pickups and whilst steel plates help a bit (I've got a Duncan Twangbanger and a Dimarzio Red Velvet in front of me) they don't go far enough for me. I've ended up with a Dimarzio SDS-1 which sounds great (P90-ish), but it's physically a very deep pickup - fine in modern HSS routed Strat's where the pickup cavities are about 22-23mm deep, but a nuisance (routing required!) in a vintage style Strat where the cavities are about 16-17mm deep. I've yet to try a BK Trilogy but would like to as they are also P90-ish. Also, the Dimarzio FS-1 is pretty good (sits between the SDS-1 and more vintage pickups like the Twangbanger/ Red Velvet) and so is the Duncan SSL-6 or SSL-5. I've found that a steel baseplate on the neck and middle pickups helps when combining with a hotter bridge pickup. The main dilemma is which to change first - pickups or block? You need a decent block to be able to make an objective judgement of the pickups. But you need to know the true character of the guitar to choose the right block. I honestly LOVE brass in a couple of my guitars, but I'd say that 80% of the time steel is the best choice, so get a decent cold rolled steel block and then change the pickups. And buy pickups secondhand, especially the bridge pickup - if the first one ain't right you can sell it on without loss and try something else.
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
But smaller, lighter and cheaper solutions are also available...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
If it's a Mesa in the UK, then getting Howard Dumble to build you an amp might be cheaper.
I also run a decent cleanish boost in the form of a clone of an Alembic Stratoblaster preamp from Fuzzdog. Any time anything sounds a bit thin or quiet, I just kick that on and everything is intatantly more better-er.
That works extremely well for most guitars, but especially so for strats.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/89942/caspercaster#latest
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein