Years ago, I bought a Fender Made in Mexico Strat with the intention of creating a “stealth guitar” or “secret weapon.” The idea was, I would have this cool looking guitar that hardly cost anything and sounded great. It was an Olympic White Strat with a rosewood fretboard (one of my favorite styles) and I put a set of AY Custom Shop ‘69s in there. Indeed, it sounded good.
Well, the guitar didn’t really feel all that good to play and I started looking around for a better Strat. My black American Standard was long gone (See article: A Tale Of Six Strats). I tried a ton of them! Hard to estimate, but it was definitely over fifty and less than two hundred. I even went out to Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island where I saw the Gibson Les Paul Custom of my dreams and some stiff, expensive Custom Shop Strats, too. They sounded good but…
As luck would have it, they had about ten or fifteen 62 Reissue Strats (I wanted a rosewood board) at Matt Umanov at the time (early oughts) and I tried them all. I kept coming back to one of them, in forest green metallic. It sounded fantastic unplugged and just fine through an amp. Great neck. Trouble was, it was green, and I was trying to avoid green at the time. I love green and consequently, I had so much green stuff. But not The green stuff.
A few years before, I worked a guitar show for the shop where I was employed, and I played the genuine article, a sweet ’62 Forest Green Metallic Stratocaster in mint condition, at around $14,000. It stuck in my mind so much that I had a dream about it while I was trying all these Strats. The next day, I went straight to Matt Umanov and bought its circa 2002 descendant. You know, I’m fairly smart, but I then did a very dumb thing. I went to Carmine Street Guitars and had Rick Kelly swap out the AY Custom Shop ‘69s from the MIM and put them in the 62 RI. Dumb, because I spent so much time researching that guitar, aiming mainly for a great sound. But the Greenie sounded great! I asked Rick what he thought of the original pickups, and he said, “I wouldn’t throw ‘em away.” I held onto the original pickups, which are Original ‘57/’62s for years until the bottom dropped out of my economy and I tried to sell them. I eventually gave them to a friend.
Recently, I started thinking I might want to change the green Strat’s pickups out. I started to learn more about electronics, pedals, and other stuff, and realized that Vintage ‘69s are not quite my style. The nail in the coffin came when I got this amazing Gold Sparkle Classic Vibe Strat used for $250, and what do you know? In a small room at least, the pickups (Tonerider Surfaris) sounded better. They had more mids. I realized that I love mids, again. The green Strat still cut through better in a big room, but it didn’t have the same sweetness in simple, day to day playing with just a cable as the main effect or a little overdrive. Cutting to the chase, here’s how I finally managed to take the plunge and install a new set of Original ‘57/’62s in my Forest Green Metallic 62 RI Strat.
Backing up a little, I tried to rewire and install better pickups in a Squire 51 that I still have (and want to get rid of). I had to ask my tech (Ha Ha! My Boss!) to finish the job. So, I was a little snake bit about the new project. But I watched a lot of Seymour Duncan videos, took notes, collected the required tools, and one day recently, off I went.
All I had to work with was a small Philips screwdriver, the soldering iron, razor blades, a small wire cutter, painter’s tape, some Saki Server Aprons to protect my bedspread, scissors, solder, and my recently bought-at-the-drugstore reading glasses. The last item proved to be absolutely essential. I kept going over the various Duncan videos but finally decided to go for it and refer back to specific ones if I needed them. It turns out that two of the videos were the most relevant.
I don’t want to go painstakingly through the various stages and details of the process, because if you’re reading this, you probably know what they are. However, I do want to share some insights that I picked up and one very surprising fact.
First of all, there is the decision as to whether you’re going to cut the wires or preserve the full length. I talked to Rick briefly a few months before I took the plunge, and his advice was to use a decent soldering iron (40 watts minimum) and “cut the wires.” In the video, the instructor cuts the wires but suggests that you might not want to if you may someday consider selling the pickups. I tried to do it without cutting the wires and it was impossible to get the pickguard assembly back onto the guitar. You’re cutting the wires to fit into a Strat – Ha Ha! They’re Strat pickups, right? Forget it! CUT THE WIRES! But wait a minute… don’t cut them too short because…
After I finished, I tried the pickups out (In nifty video, they show you how to do this without any strings) and discovered that the bridge and neck pickups were reversed in relation to the pickup switch. In frustration, I was going to put the whole thing away for another day. But I was sure that my grandfather, Dan Foley, a master carpenter and stagehand, would never have done that. I opened the guitar up and easily switched the wires. The funniest part was that in the comments of the video, someone pointed out that the Seymour Duncan Instructor’s instructions were wrong! The commentator was right! I followed the instructions to the letter, and it came out wrong. No worries, there was enough wire left to get the short wire to the further post.
Another thing – reinstalling the pickup height adjustment screws is a somewhat crucial part of the job. It seems easy but you’ve got to pay attention. Make sure the lugs are flush to the internal face of the pickguard. I didn’t think about it at first and I had to uninstall at least one pickup to fix the situation. And another thing -soldering irons get really hot! Even the shaft!
One of the videos shows you how to set the pickup height. This is going to be really important later on, so you might want to take note of it before removing the pickups. If your guitar is sounding really good going in, get these measurements. I didn’t. I’ll work on the overall setup as the next part of the project, but read on…
When I fired up the guitar, it sounded great. Livelier and brighter to my ear than the Custom ‘69s. Perhaps a tiny bit less quack on positions 2 and 4, but plenty quack, no doubt. Much more than on the American Special Stratocaster (see article). The B and E strings were all weak and weird as is the case with vintage pickups where the G string pole piece is ten times higher than the E and B. This is where the setup comes in. But the outcome was clear. I started zipping all around the fretboard like I hadn’t in weeks out of sheer inspiration, joy, and a sense of accomplishment.
On day two, I fixed the pickup height problem, mostly, and the guitar sounded more balanced. I started playing the guitar most days and found it a lot of fun to play but it obviously has been played a lot, the frets are tiny, and it needs a better overall setup. But the pickups…?
I finally fired up Goldfinger and the Green Strat and did a quick A/B test. Well, Goldfinger still sounds fatter. Perhaps a little duller in positions 1 and 4. I have had several people say that the Green Strat “sounds thin.” This often seems to happen when I’m playing with people who have Fenders with humbuckers, either Teles or stacked Strat pickups.
Do Strats sound thin? One thing is certain. The bridge pickup of Goldfinger sounds more like the American Special Stratocaster (Texas Specials), ie more mids, more of a legitimate lead tone. Think “Free Ride” by The Edgar Winter Group, a solo played by the great Ronnie Montrose with Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, and Dan Hartman looking on (or was it Rick Derringer playing the solo with Jimi looking down from the Skies?). That is a burning solo and a burning sound which I totally equate with a balls to the wall Strat bridge pickup. That sound may never come out of the Green Strat. Not with vintage style pickups, at least.
In the final analysis, I’m really glad I swapped out the pickups and I’m ready for the next project, switching the hodgepodge of pickups in my ’76 Hard Tail Strat for the, you guessed it – Custom Shop ‘69s. I use the guitar exclusively for slide, and I want a more balanced tone, plus positions one and five are not that attractive to me. If it doesn’t work out, now I have the confidence and experience to re-install the hodgepodge or go for some Tex Mex pickups or whatever else tickles my fancy. And I saved myself a hundred bucks. -Christian Botta