New to guitars, what pickups to get??

[famreun]

Hi, seems like you guys really know your stuff. I have a cheapo guitar that a friend gave to me its a strat copy, it says Lotus on it, not sure if fender makes it or what. Anyways I am rebuilding it. I am not sure what are some good pickups, i hear that some good names are duncan, GFS and EMG. I play all different kinds of music, mostly rock though. I just want something that sounds really good all around. What kind of combo would you recomend? I was thinking of a GFS Vintage Alnico Tele pickup for the neck and a Seymour Duncan SPH90-1n Phat Cat pickup for the bridge. Any suggestions? dont have to worry about how they will fit into the body, any shape or size I can make fit. THanks!

[wesman]

If you've never tried modifying a guitar it would be easier to get pickups that are a direct replacement.

The GFS stuff has good bang for the buck, Try sticking with one pickup manufacturer, to avoid polarity/
phasing issues.

Good luck with your project,
Wesman

[dunkelfalke]

if it is really a strat copy it might be that a tele pickup won't fit. anyway, you might as well stick with gfs, they also sell humbucker size p90s (dream90)

[vonFrenchie]

I must say GFS does have a fairly impressive selection. But a neck telecaster pickup should fit in any position in a strat style guitar. Also (since its a strat) you can rout out a "pool" cavity, which is a rectangle the width of the pickups that stretches from the bridge pickup to the neck pickup. You could put almost any pickup in a rout like that.

[sumgai]

vF,

Actually, your description of routing out a giant area around all three pickups is properly called "universal". "Pool", or "swimming pool", refers to a route that encompasses only the Neck and Mid pups, the Bridge pup route being left in a stock state. (Don't ask me why they'd do that, but there you have it.)

For reference, I've quoted a couple of images (and their captions) from the USA Custom Guitars website.......


Universal pickup routing available for top routed guitars.


'Swimming-pool' routs available for universal pickup configurations.


Warmoth has almost the exact same thing, nearly verbatim.

HTH!


sumgai

[vonFrenchie]

From all the pool pictures I saw it looked like the neck pickup was included. Obviously its not.

[ChrisK]

In a pool route, the neck pickup IS included. On a Tele pool route, the bridge is not "in the water". I actually use my MIM Nash Power Tele as a pickup tester w/ 1" x 1" x 2" foam blocks for positioning.

The TeleToggleCaster

But a neck telecaster pickup should fit in any position in a Strat style guitar.

A Tele neck pickup will fit into the physical space of a Strat pickup, but the pickguard hole and the mounting screw spacing are smaller.

I AM NOT a fan of pool routes on a vibrato (sorry Leo) equipped guitar since most of the "beef" in the middle isn't (anymore).

Many (as in both of mine) Am Strats are routed HSH anyway.

[ChrisK]

Oh, as far as to which pickups to get, I ended up getting most of them!