pickups suggestion

[Mack_Again]

I now have this one cheap Squire stratcaster. Affinity one and you may think it sucks balls, though it doesn't! i know it could but i never find it terrible in terms of feel and all that. but only things terrible about Squire are the bridge/set-up or electronics. yeah, necks and frets kinda suck as well, but lets ignore it here.

So i kinda considering replacing pups. but i want my pups to be more powerful than the current ones. this one is very quiet; even if i use some models for Mesa Caliber 22 and crank the volume on the guitar, it still sounds crunch/clean. I expect to get some more distortion without using pedals all the time.

SO i kinda want pups that is vintage-y enough to have decent midrange but hot enough to be used in somewhat heavy rock/metal sounding thing. I kinda considered some Dimarzio and some Bare Knuckle, but if you guys have some suggestions for pups for me, please let me know.

 

[Muad'zin]

Changing pickups is easily the best upgrade you can do to a cheap guitar to get a good tone. Electronics also. Another thing to explore is upgrading your tremelo block, as a bigger heavier tremelo block tends to give you more sustain and depending on the material (Steel or brass) more warmth.

As for choice of pickups, these days I really dig Bareknuckle. I had some Fender Texas Specials in one my Teles and liked that sound too. Drove my dirt pedals really good too. Based on that I got a set for my latest guitar build but I got a faulty bridge pickup in my set. The bridge sounded thin, lacking all bass and had lower volume then the other pickups. Upon closer inspection I noticed that some of the copper strands had broken. Poor quality control at Fender nowadays?

 

[Mack_Again]

i know that Cobra from BK looks sweet and i know there is a Cobra pre-loaded pickguard nowadays. but it's true that their pups are bloody expensive outside of UK

 

[the tourist]

I'd look into Fralins. Have you tried adjusting the height of your pickups? I've had good results making crappy-sounding pickups sound good with just a little height adjustment.

 

[Mack_Again]

I did adjust the height; my neck and bridge pups are quite high, and it kinda boosted the volume a bit but tone isn't really improving.

 

[the tourist]

Huh, when I raise the pickups, usually it changes the tone slightly. Any idea what the pot values are for your volume and tone controls? I know you said you don't wanna get distortion from pedals all the time, but strat are inherently cleaner guitars, so a clean boost would make your pickups seem hotter and push you into a lot more drive. My tele with single coils is a lot hotter than my strat with single coils for whatever reason. Maybe check out Fralin Split Blades and go for the super high output?

Welcome to Lindy Fralin Pickups: Fralin Strat® Split-Blades - the Finest Guitar Pickups Available Today!

 

[Mack_Again]

Welcome to Lindy Fralin Pickups: Fralin Strat® Split-Blades - the Finest Guitar Pickups Available Today!

Wow those looks amazing......

I was only looking at blade pups from Dimarzio, which seems to be how rock people are going for nowadays.
I actually wanna see Edge with guitars equipped with high-power Dimarzios.

 

[Mack_Again]

yes I think I lowered the middle pups just because i didnt want too much magnets influencing strings.
Over this summer, I wanted G&L guitars but realized that they're quite expensive in Japan.

 

[Edge_Orchestra]

Wow those looks amazing......

I was only looking at blade pups from Dimarzio, which seems to be how rock people are going for nowadays.
I actually wanna see Edge with guitars equipped with high-power Dimarzios.

Doubtful Edge would go to high-powered/high-gain pickups or active pickups.

He experimented with the Danvel-Nelson S-style (Joshua Tree tour) and the Clapton Strats. In the end, neither he nor Dallas were happy with the tone and they've gone away.

Hi-Gain = less tonal spectrum. That doesn't seem to suit Edge's playing style.

 

[Mack_Again]

as much as I know that high gain pups have generally compressed sounds which I hate (*cough* Zakk Wylde *cough*), i just cant help expecting pups to have more power from them. I think it doesn't have to be SD Invader type of hot but around the hotness of typical PAF or at least mid-gain type of output.

 

[the tourist]

What did you wind up with?