duga

so i'm thinking of grabbing some lace pickups (the red, silver, and blue ones) to replace the stock pickups in my strat (it's a mexican). anyone have any experience with these pups? i've kind of always dreamed of a strat with a gibson sound...is that what i can hope for?

SATCHMO

A stacked humbucker is going to give you the sound of a strat with humbuckers dropped into it, which in no way equates to a "Gibson sound". That is a pretty vague term in and of itself because there are many different styles, and thus tonal characteristics of Gibson guitars. Most Strat bodies are made from Alder which is a lighter and less dense wood than the solid mahogany that is used for most solid body Gibsons. If you're talking mainly about the Les Paul, which is a fair assumption, the body is significantly thicker than the Strat's thus further adding to the tonal difference between the two instruments. I'm sure GB will be by before too long to either, verify, add to, or tell me how full of **** I am.

duga

i get what your saying...i guess i was thinking more generally. strats...and most fenders for that matter...have a very bright sound. there is a distinctive twang in them. gibsons generally have a more bell like quality. the difference, to me, is distinctive enough to be able to point out whether someone is playing on a fender or a gibson (if those were your only 2 options).

i guess i just want to know how much these particular pickups blur that distinction and what qualities found in a strat are still around after the change.

SATCHMO

Again I'm assuming you're talking about a Les Paul. The tonal distinction comes from the body shape and wood type, that's just for starters. Bolt on vs. set neck are also huge contributing factors. Very little to none of the tonal distinction are a result of the pick-ups, beyond the fact that the Gibson's PAFs are gonna sound much fuller and warmer overdriven.

The strat, in my opinion has a very distinct tone, mostly due to the alder body. Beyond this, Saying "Gibson" is a little bit vague to me. you're comparing a specific Fender guitar model, the Stratocaster, with a company that produces guitars - Gibson. The tonal difference between a Gibson SG and a Gibson ES-335 is extreme. What are you really trying to accomplish?

That bell like tone you speak of is mostly a result of the mahogany as a body wood, the top wood, usually maple (strats don't have a top), and the set neck, which provides a lot of the guitar's sustain.

If you're looking for a harmonious marriage of Fender and Gibson attributes, a 72' Telecaster might suit you a lot better than dropping a set of humbuckers into a Strat, (that's almost a joke), but then again it'll be more expensive too.



If you'rereally just trying to beef up your Strat's overdriven tone, dropping a set of humbuckers like the Lace Sensors or even Seymour Duncan Hot Rails will get you closer to the tone your looking for, but you're not gonna' get the tone of a Les Paul outta the deal, which is ok. In the long run your shoulder will thank you.

GuitarBizarre

Not going to do it. YOu want gibson sound, you need a heavy guitar with humbuckers, not a light guitar with singles.

THat said - Stacked hums don't sound like hums. They sound like slightly grittier single coils, because one coil of the set is too far awway from the strings to pick anything up from them, the only reason it sounds different at all is the extra resistance from the other coils wire wraps.

You want a strat with a humbucker in it, it still wont sound like a gibson, but grabbing something like a dimarzio tone zone, or other dark humbucker, will help you on the way. Most strat bodies are routed for humbuckers underneath the pickguard anyway. Take the pickguard off and have a look. If the bridge pickup route is big and rectangular, you can just modify your pickguard or change your pickguard, and drop a humbucker straight in.

If its a triangular type of rout, then its single coil only. THe best I can advise there is the seymour duncan single coil size humbuckers, like the lil screamin demon, or the lil JB.


This is just a quick post btw, any questions, post back. I can talk all day about this stuff.

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duga

Thanks for the help, guys. It's definitely hard to describe EXACTLY the tone I'm going for...hence being very general. Lace sensors are single coils and the reason I'm asking specifically about them is because I've heard of the humbucking qualities they have despite being single coils, so I just wanted to know if anyone has experience with them. The thing is there are qualities in my strat that I want to keep (I love the bright tone while playing clean) but I want a bit more power while overdriven. I guess the best way to describe what I'm after is a Strat/SG hybrid. Do any of the pickups you mentioned come close to this? Thanks again for the responses!

SATCHMO

Another option would be to try out Seymour Duncan Hot Rails. Unlike stacked single coil size humbuckers, the coils are actually parallel to each other just like a regular humbucker, albeit they are spaced much much closer to each other. As to how that spacing affects the overall sound...I don't know, but it's worth looking into.

GuitarBizarre

It makes it brighter. Part of the reason humbuckers are bassier than singles isn't just the extra resistance, its that due to each coil sensing a slightly different freuqnecy in the string, more high order harmonics get cancelled out by the common mode rejection that gets rid of the hum.

Of course, most mini hums are made with that taken into account, and are thus wound bassier.

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