All the aged nickel/chrome hardware needed to assemble a distressed double cutaway or repair a Strat® guitar. Includes Fender brand '62 vintage.
Pickups |Choosing the right pickups for your guitar, is an often overlooked part of the whole tone search. We spend most of our budget on expensive pedals but a tone starts with the guitar and its pickups. In this feature we’ll look at different single coil models with David Gilmour’s tone in mind as well as a few tips and tricks. Simply put, a single coil pickup consists of a given length of coil, six magnet poles and mounting plates. The tone characteristics of a pickup is a combination of different types of ALNICO magnets and coil, number of wounds and the technique used during the winding process. Less turns of the coil creates a cleaner, more transparent tone with less output. The more turns, the more output with more mid range and less highs. When you pick a string, the vibration resonates between the wood (body and neck) and the strings. The vibration is picked up by the pickup magnets that pushes the magnetic field through a stationary coil. The signal is induced and in turn amplified. The type of wood, lacquer, frets, string gauge, pick etc will colour the resonance. Why new pickups? Like pedals, the pickups in your guitar are a part of your tone but perhaps more importantly, they pick up and transfer all the nuances in your playing. You could very well just use whatever pickups you want or even make a pickup yourself but choosing a model that fits and enhances the timbre of your guitar, the tone of your amp and your technique, is important to get the tones you want. In the listings below, I’ve focused on the familiar and easily available models from Fender but I recommend that you check out similar models from different brands. Everyone has their special way of winding a pickup and it’s the small nuances that makes a difference. Choosing the right pickups. Obviously, which pickups you should choose depends on your taste and purpose of use. Depending on what tones you want, a dark sounding guitar, will perhaps need brighter, low output pickups (Fender CS 5. Fender Tex/Mex, Duncan SSL5, EMG DG2. The same principles applies to combining pickups and amps. The hotter the pickup, the more you push the amp towards breakup. This can cause some difficulty in choosing the right pickup if you’re mostly playing at home. A hotter pickup will compensate for some of the tone loss caused by low volume but it can also make a smaller amp distort sooner. ![]() My best tip is to try out a couple of models or at least have some idea of how the models will work with your rig. I prefer low or moderate output pickups. These are generally more transparent sounding, allowing the pedals and your playing to sound more natural and dynamic. All of the models I’ve listed are tested with David Gilmour’s tones in mind, using the same guitar (alder body and rosewood neck) and setups for both stage and bedroom. Most of the models will be able to cover a wide range of other genres and tones as well. Fender Custom Shop 5. Recommended similar models: D Allen Tru Vintage 5. TTS ’5. 4 Proof, Di. Marzio Area 5. 8, Kinman Impersonator 5. Classic clean and transparent, bell- like Strat tones, with a bit more bite in the bridge position. A bit thin in the lower frequencies but this can be compensated by installing an even hotter bridge pickup. If you want David’s Strat Pack 2. Magnets: Alnico VResistance ohms: 5. Gilmour tones: #0. Strat. Fender Custom Shop Fat 5. Classic clean and transparent Strat tones with, compared to the 5. Ideal for neck position. Magnets: Alnico VResistance ohms: 6k to 6. Gilmour tones: Featured neck pickup of the Fender Custom Shop David Gilmour NOS/Relic Stratocaster. Fender Custom Shop 5. Classic clean and transparent, bell- like Strat tones. Very similar to the CS 5. Magnets: Alnico VResistance ohms: 5. Gilmour tones: A lower output alternative for the #0. Black Strat tones. Fender Custom Shop 6. Recommended similar models: D Allen VP ’6. Voodoo, TTS ’6. 5 Haze, Di. Marzio Area 6. 7, Kinman Woodstock. Classic clean and transparent Strat tones, with glassy highs, mids scoop and thumbing lows. A full set is spot on Gilmour’s Atom Heart Mother- WYWH tones. Replace the stock bridge with a Duncan SSL- 5 pickup for Animals- present Black Strat tones. Magnets: Alnico V Resistance ohms: 5. Gilmour tones: Black Strat all eras. Fender Custom Shop Texas Specials Recommended similar models: D Allen Austin Blues, Kinman Blues Based on the CS6. Great alternative if you want that classic late 6. Magnets: Alnico VResistance ohms: 6. Gilmour tones: Slightly warmer alternative for Black Strat tones. Fender Custom Shop Tex/Mex. Classic, vintage Strat tones with, compared to the CS6. Great alternative for brighter sounding guitars and amps and bedroom, low volume level setups. Magnets: Alnico V Resistance ohms: bridge 7. Gilmour tones: Warmer and darker sounding alternative for Black Strat tones. Seymour Duncan SSL- 5. Recommended similar models: Di. Marzio FS- 1. Based on the late 6. SSL- 5 was conceived in 1. David Gilmour’s Black Strat. The pickup has a classic, vintage Strat tone with considerably higher output and mid range, compared to the CS6. Great bridge pickup for more sustain and bite. Magnets: Alnico V Resistance ohms: 1. Gilmour tones: Black Strat bridge pickup (Animals – present). Fender CS 6. 9 and S Duncan SSL- 5 combo This combination is as close as you’ll get to David’s Black Strat setup from Animals to present. The moderate output, transparent sounding 6. SSL- 5 bridge. Ideal for warm and smooth rhythms, bluesy solos and full- blown Big Muff mayhem. The Fender Custom Shop David Gilmour NOS/Relic Stratocaster sports a slightly different setup than the original Black Strat, as requested by David: Fender CS Fat 5. Fender Custom Wound middle (CS6. Seymour Duncan SSL- bridge. D Allen Voodoo Blues set. The Voodoo Blues set feature a combination of the Voodoo 6. Lovely open sounding and dynamic pickups, ideal for Hendrix, Blackmoore, Gilmour and all your favourite late 6. See my full review of the Voodoo Blues set here. D Allen Echoes set. Utilizing a push/push mechanism (the set feature a custom tone pot that you need to swap with your old) you can switch between two “modes” on the bridge pickup – a slightly overwound 6. Voodoo Blues set) and the even hotter SSL5- ish at 1. The neck and middle pickups are Voodoo 6. This is a versatile set covering most of David Gilmour’s tones as well as just about everything else. See my full review of the Echoes set here. TTS Crazy Diamond set. The Crazy Diamond set is based on that late 6. Well balanced and dynamic pickups ideal for those early Black Strat tones. See my full review of the Crazy Diamond set here. EMG DG- 2. 0 set. This is a custom set featuring EMGs legendary SA single coils, similar to the Fender CS6. EXG treble and bass booster and SPC mid range booster. The set was featured on Gilmour’s 1. Fender ’5. 7 reissues, notably the Candy Apple Red Strat – David’s main guitar between 1. See my full review of the EMG DG- 2. Active VS passive pickups. Single coils are by the nature of their design, quite noisy. Some manufacturers has tried to tackle this issue by designing different kinds of hum canceling systems for single coils. EMG, among others, started to offer active pickups in the late 7. The advantage of the active pickups was that they shielded the guitar from the huge stadium light rigs and they could also drive the guitar signal through long cables and big effect racks. The down side, and what made many go back to the passive, vintage style single coils, was that the active pickups didn’t sound Straty enough and lacked some of the dynamics of the vintage models. Others, like Kinman, has succeeded in making noiseless pickups with a twist on the basic, vintage design using iron and differential winding techniques in the noise sensing coils. The tone and dynamics are intact and you get a very silent signal. If you simply can’t stand noisy single coil pickups, you might want to look into a humbucker. It won’t sound exactly like a Strat but choosing the right model will take you very close. I prefer the old PAF or a mid 5. Set them slightly lower than usual and you’ll have a warm, transparent Straty tone. It’s also worth checking out the humbucker sized Seymour Duncan Phat Cat P9. Pickup height. There’s no right way of setting up the pickups but keep the following in mind: low string action will create a strong magnetic pull, which can kill the sustain and create distortion and bad pitch. A high string action will create less magnetic pull but the pickup will also sound weaker and loose some of its characteristics.
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