Strat pickup combo question

Hey there,

Bit of a background story, if you want to skip ahead, scroll down to TL;DR.

I have a '97 Squire Strat that was given to my son in 2011 by his guitar teacher. It was a total wreck at the time, it had been sitting in his garage (in the sun by the look of the yellowing) and had become inhabited by families of little spiders in just about every nook and cranny on the thing. Not to mention the rust. Here's a photo:

Attachment 20081

I spent a couple of hundred on all new hardware (nothing could be saved), pickguard, pots (originals were infested with spiders) and selector switch. The neck and bridge pickups were open circuit even though the coil wires were still intact on the solder joints. I'd recently replaced a set of pickups in a Squire Strat for a mate, so I still had those ones, which, luck would have it, the neck and bridge were still good, but the middle was cactus. So I had a set of three that I put in and my son played it for a few years. Here's a pic of how it turned out (check out the circle from the Pennywise sticker). It cleaned up pretty nicely in the end and my son loved it.

Attachment 20082

Unfortunately, because the pickups were from different sets, the middle was always softer/lower when selected on its own, and virtually undetectable when switched with the neck or bridge.

Fast forward to now, my son has moved out and hasn't played for a few years. He wanted to take it with him but I knew he was going to sell it so I told him I'd invested too much time in it to be sold for a few bucks.

TL;DR
So now I'm thinking I want to put in some decent pickups. Here's my question finally:

I'm thinking of putting in a neck and middle Entwistle ASN57M (https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...alnico-middle/) and ASN57N (https://www.pitbullguitars.com/shop/...p-alnico-neck/) coupled with a Seymour Duncan Little '59 (http://www.seymourduncan.com/pickup/...9-strat-bridge) humbucker in the bridge position.

The Entwhistles are 13.3k DCR, while the Seymour is 11.7k. I know it's not absolutely correct to say that higher resistance = higher output; so just wondering if because the bridge is a humbucker it will make up for any loss in level due to the lower resistance?

This is probably a stretch, but anyone ever tried this combo? .... *crickets*... didn't think so :)

Any comments or opinions gratefully received. Oh, in case you're wondering why I don't just put an Entwhistle in the bridge position, I wanted something a bit more ballsy than your usual Strat sound, figured this would be a reasonable compromise.

Cheers!

Throw a full set of Tonerider Classics in and you won't go wrong, there are various levels of Squier and the Classic Vibe series has Toneriders of one sort or another.

As an alternative I have a set of Strat Seymour Duncan stacked humbucker that I am going to unload for around the price of a set of TRs if you are onterested

Interested not onstereted as my phone thinks

You could even consider going with a set of three Kent Armstrong Dual Blades, I've got a set of three white ones installed in my Gold Strat and they all sound great, they are humbucking pickups in a single-coil sized package, best of all they only cost around Au$50.00 from Realtone Music, they measure around 8.3k DC Resistance, I found that I still get that Strat sound even though the tone is a bit midrangey, they will work fine in the neck,middle, and bridge positions.

http://www.realparts.com.au/pickups/...kup-white.html


They also stock them in black too:

http://www.realparts.com.au/pickups/...kup-black.html


These are all the other types of Strat pickups they have in stock:

http://www.realparts.com.au/pickups/st-replacement.html

After watching a video by Joe Walsh about how to setup a guitar I have started to use a DB meter to set my pickup heights so no matter what pickup I pick it will be the same volume as all the others. I put a set of Fender noiseless in my cheap strat and was surprised by the difference in heights on all 3 pups from the string to the top of the pickup and they are a set and are supposed to be all the same output. If you have a look at a set of Tonerider Generator humbuckers the values are 16K and 8K and while the higher value pup position is opposite from your setup I would say you would be able to adjust the height enough, as long as you have enough adjustment, to get the pickups to sound the same.

Thanks guys.

Dave - what model are the Duncans? Would like to see their specs etc, if you can tell me what model I will google for them.
DrN - thanks, I have ordered stuff from RT before, will check out the Toneriders.
Dikky - good advice, will check out the video.

Cheers,

Pete

I had the Armstrongs in a a super strat, double in the bridge (humbucker size, so 4 pick ups) and a single in the neck (2 pickups) and they kicked arse, so much so I took them out before giving the guitar to a mate. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by filthyPierre

Thanks guys.

Dave - what model are the Duncans? Would like to see their specs etc, if you can tell me what model I will google for them.
DrN - thanks, I have ordered stuff from RT before, will check out the Toneriders.
Dikky - good advice, will check out the video.

Cheers,

Pete

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Fp after getting 4 sets of toneriders.....theres no way I'd pay through the nose of SD's.

the Toneriders are faultless.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy40

Fp after getting 4 sets of toneriders.....theres no way I'd pay through the nose of SD's.

the Toneriders are faultless.

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Agreed Andy, SDs are overpriced for what they are.

@FP I'll get some detailed pics for you tomorrow when I pull the Strat down, they are stacked humbuckers the same size as SC Strat pickups

Here ya go FP, I have swapped the pickups back to the standard kit ones I need some Hank B tones that the SDs simply don't give me.

They are 4 wire though so no doubt there are a multitude of coil split options available, one pic with the cover slipped off.

Attachment 20108Attachment 20109Attachment 20110

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dave.king1

Here ya go FP, I have swapped the pickups back to the standard kit ones I need some Hank B tones that the SDs simply don't give me.

They are 4 wire though so no doubt there are a multitude of coil split options available, one pic with the cover slipped off.

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Thanks Dave, I appreciate the photos. Still not sure what to do. I am leaning towards the Toneriders now. Too many options! How much did you want for them anyway?

Cheers,

FP

I'd be happy with around $100, obviously cost quite a bit more but don't suit my style of playing or the sound I wanted when I built the STA kit.

I already have 2 HB guitars and want a Shadows / James Wilsey ( Chris Isaac ) sound from this one with the bonus wiggle stick

Knowing my phone deletes posts rather than edit.

I got these ones for a very cheap Strat clone before I started playing with the guys I'm playing with now, gave the cheapie to my brother before I fitted them and here we are today

Hey Dave,

Sorry for the delay in replying, been a busy week.

100 bucks sounds fine, how did you want to do the transaction? You could PM me your bank details and I will make the transfer, or if you prefer paypal, I can send you my paypal email via PM. Up to you!

Cheers,

Pete

Thanks Pete, I'll PM you in the morning and sort something out

PM sent. rather belatedly sorry about that

Spent the morning seeking a sound I wanted for a guitar solo and then the afternoon jammin on bass to clear the head