Fender Fat 50s single coil PUs

[Dante]

Hello all,

I picked up a little parts caster online for $100. It was pretty crappy, but I like the neck (Lefty Pau Ferro) and the body is extra light, so I keep picking up this guitar. (old guys like light guitars and small dogs....for the same reason, they can pick them up without groaning)

Anyways - I love playing the guitar but the (SSS) pickups left me feeling frustrated, they sounded good, but were really low output. So, I bought some rewound single coils and put a humbucker in the bridge (Seymour Duncan SH-1 with a coil split on a push/pull volume pot). That seemed to satisfy me for awhile and it got played at a couple gigs. Still, when I switched from the Strat to another guitar, I got a volume boost and more bottom end.

A friend of mine has a Seafoam Green Squire that plays great but the knobs made no sense. Volume was the only one that actually worked as expected. One tone knob seemingly did nothing and the other was only affecting one pickup (neck?). When the 5-position switch was in the middle position, you got a big volume boost and a good tone. It seemed like that was turning all 3 pickups on at once.

He asked me to take a look at the wiring, so I did. The bottom tone knob was wired backwards. The middle PU was the only thing that made sense, and it was not turning on all PUs at once, as I suspected. I rewired the whole thing (cleaner than it was) and noticed wax coated cloth insulated wiring on his (SSS) pickups. He said "they're Custom Shop pickups" not knowing there are more than one type of PUs from the Custom Shop.

I asked how he wanted it wired, and after a little discussion, he decided on using the bottom tone knob for the bridge PU only, the top tone knob for the middle and neck PUs. Seemed reasonable, so that's what I did. That guitar sounded amazing - loud and proud with a Spanky Strat sound. THIS IS WHAT MY GUITAR IS MISSING, I said to myself.

After a bit of research, I decided I'd try the Fat 50s. I went in thinking I'd get the Texas Specials, but changed my mind after hearing some samples. I still don't know what my buddy has in his Strat, they didn't have the little V sticker Fender uses noways, so I think they're an older version.

Well, my partscaster has a new name; the HellaCaster. The PUs arrived yesterday, I immediately wired up the Strat. SUCCESS! It sounds worlds better (and louder) in the little headphone amp I use for testing things. So, I took her to a jam yesterday afternoon and guess what? She RIPS.

Someone gave me a pack of stickers (don't ask) and one of them said "COACHELLA". I took off the HELLA and put it on the guitar...

Long live the HellaCaster \m/

@Harley: I'm dying to hear your opinion of the Fat 50s....have you used them?

[Harley Hexxe]

Dante,

   I've never tried the Fat 50s, so I don't really know what to say about them.

   I have early Texas Specials in my Seafoam green Strat, but they do have the custom shop logo stickers on the bottom of them, and I got those in '92.

   Your friend said they were custom shop pickups, but did he say they were Fender? It seems like everyone, and their brother has a custom shop these days when it comes to pickups.

    I've heard several demos of Fat 50s, and they sound pretty good. Much better in my opinion than the stock 50s style which has too much twang for my taste.

   Now let me ask you something. How is the 60 cycle hum with those pickups? The Texas Specials have a lot of gonads to them, but they are overwound. There's a lot of hum with those on high gain settings.

[rnolan]

Hey Dante, a friend of mine was raving about Kinman PUs, I've not tried them yet but I'd like to.  They make a Blackmore 69 that I think I'd really like and they are noise free. https://kinman.com/model-products.php?pid=4&products=Stratocaster&group=Named%20Sets

[Dante]

Harley, these PUs are quiet. I have no noise problems at all.

Yes my buddies PUs were Fender, I should have looked for some colored dots (how stupid) to identify them.

I'm loving these PUs, my guitar sounds like a Strat with more clarity and a bit more heat. If I had to come up with a description,  I'd say it sounds exactly like Jimi playing Little Wing

Richard, I will keep an eye out for those Kinmans 

[Harley Hexxe]

Dante,

I can relate to that. The Texas Specials can sound like a total Strat on steroids. It can also go the other way and sound super fat like it does with my MP-2 rig. I used that a lot playing with Toxxsick, and we covered a lot of guitar territory. I used that guitar playing Fairies Wear Boots, and it sounded pretty damned good. I think I also used it to cover Bigfoot by Chickenfoot too. They're surprisingly versatile pickups.

[Dante]

That's what I saw online - Texas specials are like a fender on 'roids. Sounds perfect :)

So, I looked at those, the Fat 50s, the Fat 60s and some Bill Lawrence. I liked the Fat 50s best from the YouTube vids I found....which is still a bit dicey sometimes.

These PUs are worth EVERY penny. They are awesome, they make me play more

[Harley Hexxe]

Any guitar that makes you want to play more is a great guitar. 'Nuff said.

[rnolan]

Any guitar that makes you want to play more is a great guitar. 'Nuff said.

Absolutely .

So the Ultrasonics (Reference series, HSS shapes, Ref 6, Ref3 & Ref3) in my Anderson (which I love) were designed by Bill Lawrence and made in Germany IIRC.  They are all dual coil.  Each has a 3 way micro switch, middle = off, down series, up parallel, there's also what Anderson call the blower switch, basically bridge PU in series.  They are very flat freq response, no mid hump etc. and came in Ref 4, 5 & 6 (humbucker sized), Ref 1, 2 & 3 (single coil sized).

[Dante]

@Harley - Amen

With the light weight and the hot pickups, this gal's gonna get a lot of use...Got a U2 show in a couple weeks, she'll get some new strings this weekend so she's stabilized by then ;)

In summary - anybody on the fence about a set of Fender Custom Shop PUs, I say find the ones you like and get 'em.

I am not endorsed by Fender, but I will gladly accept any and all sponsorship gifts they wanna send me. 

[Harley Hexxe]

Dante,

If I may recommend strings for a good sounding Strat to sound even better, I would say try DR High Voltage.

P.S. I've been eyeballing a set of custom shop '69s but I've only had YT demos for a reference, and that's not a very good platform.

   On the off chance, has anyone tried those?

[Dante]

Youtube was all I had for a reference too - it was scary

So, I just listened to everything and took the best sounding of the bunch (to my ears) - Thankfully, it worked out this time. Many times...it has not. Too many

[Harley Hexxe]

Dante,

   There's another thing about the YT demos. For the pickups I mentioned and probably most Strat pickups in general, the players are usually playing something lame and too laid back. They're not pushing those pickups.

   I play my Strats like I want to blow up my amp and melt your ears.

  It's a little harder to use demos like that to see if the pickups will respond to an amp that can peel the siding off the neighbor's house and still retain the clarity through the chaos.

[rnolan]

Hey Dante, while I haven't tried the DR High Voltage strings, I've been using DR Tight Wounds (now called Tight Fit) for many years.  They are IMHO the best strings available.  They settle really quickly, not too bright when new and then hang in there consistently for ages.

[Harley Hexxe]

    I used the Tite Fit strings for a while, and they are good strings, especially if you play blues. They do thicken up a Strat's tone. In fact, those were the first DR strings I tried based on a recommendation from Kevin Ryan, (former Pat Travers bass player), who told me about how Pat Travers would dial in his guitar tones.

   The High Voltage strings are brighter, but they also retain that thickened low-end too. You wouldn't think brighter strings on a Strat would sound good, or it might be too shrill, but that's not the case. My 1980 "STRAT" has the brightest tone of all my Strats, yet these strings really opened up the guitar across the whole bandwidth. It was like a more dimensional sound. I was surprised at that.

   Anyway, your ears are the gauge for your guitar tone, so go with what works for you.

[Dante]

Get some DR tight wounds, CHECK

it's on my list. I've been using Ernie Ball forever. The last few years, running .09s, after decades of using 0.10s. I can bend for days now

Played the Hellacaster for another couple hours yesterday....can't stop picking her up