bluesy pickups for a strat?

[brian_ok]

Well lately I have been obsessing over John Mayer, mainly because of his chops on TRY!, as well as his awesome bluesy tone on that CD. I was wondering what type of pickups he is using, and what types of pickups create that bluesy tone?

I currently have vintage Fenders dipped in parafin wax, and they just don't cut it. I am considering Chubtone '69 Customs or Kinman AVn's, but I wanted to hear some other input. Thanks.

[gumbomadness]

hey man, first tell me, what kind of pedals are you using? i can give you some good insight on creating the blues tone--

[brian_ok]

These are the only pedals I have, but I use them quite often
-Ernie Ball volume pedal
-DD-3 delay
-DOD Overdrive
-Ibanez Tube Screamer
-Digiverb (reverb)

The only amp I have is the Mesa Boogie Lonestar (Classic). Which by the way is kick.

[bassman462]

what kind of strat do you have?

[brian_ok]

[Wife Soup]

I think Mayer uses Big Dipper Pickups. For a good bluesy tone, try Texas Specials. That's what SRV used.

[Beauford33]

Yea, Big Dippers are based off Texas Speacial...but just wound a littler tighter. But for my strat I put a TS in the neck and then a vintage '69 in the middle and that does pretty well.


But he also has a ES-335 that he uses on TRY for songs like Out of my mind and Try that you arent going to get out of a strat so keep that in mind.

But a Tube Screamer pedal and tube amp are definitly needed as well as Blues Driver and fuzz pedal.

[jeffro]

Good advice from BK, thats almost exactly what I would have said.

Also, I believe mayer has a modded BD-2, but it shouldn't be that far removed from the stock model (which is great IMO).

[bassman462]

part of why u might not get the done is that exact reason, my old youth pastor put like 100 dollar pick ups into a peavey once thinking he could get it to sound good, but it still sucked crap afterwords.

[brian_ok]

Yeah, but Mexican Strats are still damn good guitars. It's just that the stock pickups are horrible. Thanks everyone for your replies!

[6_strings_for_life]

i have a mexican powerhouse strat and I like how it plays, but I have the tone. I was thinking about getting some decent pickups for it as well. I dont really know anything about pickups, so keep this going.. Ill look into those bid dippers and texas specials

[gumbomadness]

b-fost-- the tube screamer will work good. Tell me this, have you tried keeping your amp LOW and putting the power up on your ts-9? When i do that ALL OF A SUDDEN the ts9 becomes amazing. It will really help your tone. I had the ts9 for months before i realized what it can really do. Oh, and turn the drive up a good bit too. It should help with the tone. I always thought the vintage pickups were good but i dont really know--- john mayer uses a blues driver that really helps his tone (boss pedal) but the ts-9 i think can make it too! Try the amp trick. (low amp, high pedal power) and tell me how it goes.

[Beauford33]

I love to crank the amp, just keep it low on the guitar. Exactly what SRV did. That way you can just get full tone and get natrual distortion when you turn the volume up.


And about the Big Dippers, you're not going to be able to buy them seperately. They have yet to sell them as their own seperate product. But if you look on ebay some people are selling them with the pickguard off a JM strat for around 400$ just depends what you are looking for. IMO, Id would just go for the TS and Vintage.

[Thomas]

lol! that was the funniest response i've seen in a long time...


about what was said about mexican strats though, i've been doing a lot of research on the subject and the only big differences between Mexican and American strats are the necks, pickups, and wiring.

the wiring and pickups can be replaced, and well the neck can too, but it's not really that big of a deal if you can live with it.

but they are both made out of the same kind of wood so once the pickups are replaced you'll have a very good guitar.