[James-T]

Any thoughts on them?

I've got a strat that I put in 2 area 58's and a sd Lil 59 on advice of my luthier about 2 years ago before finding this forum. The noiseless thing is just not working for me. The Lil 59 is pretty decent but the dimarzio 's are pretty sterile.

I like the idea of going old school vintage and really like the E72 tone.

A guy on our local CL is looking to do a straight up trade or $100. He needs noiseless pups.

Peace,

James

[DHM]

Ive got a strat with a set of them in it...they are excellent archetypical strat sounding pickups....The guitar is a MIJ 54 reissue which I purchased a half a dozen years ago from a guy who needed to fix his kitchen, and my PFD (the annual payout from the state of Alaska) was burning a hole in my pocket.....and he'd installed the 50s to replace whatever was in the guitar before...I didn't play the strat for a long time but pulled it out about 3 months ago...and its darn near become my # 1...I play in a 3 piece cover band and need to cover a whole range of stuff...Willie Nelson to Bernie Leadon to Billy Gibbons and the strat with the fat 50s seems to do most of it....

Don

[tatittle]

I havent tried the Fat 50's. I really like the SD Antiquity (Surf 60's) pups I have compared to other vintage style. Playing through a bald clean Fender rig with JBL's and single coils can really bring out the thin ice pick of colder single coils, add to that a bad venue with exposed wiring and it can suck the life out of the most passionate players sometimes. The SD Surfs are well over 6k ohms (bridge like 9), with all the shielding loaded on it is fairly beefy. Merely comparing impedance can be misleading though. I love the weaker pups for in between quack stuff, but thats about it, at least with JBL's/BF.

[James-T]

Hey thanks for those comments. The set went without a trade so I missed out but that opens up all sorts of opportunities.

I've got a second strat , an 83 Dan Smith, which has killer vintage style pups so I'm thinking about a set of SDS-1's or perhaps giving the Super Distortion S a go and having the ability to coil tap - its sounds pretty cool - like a mini Dual Sound. I may just leave the SD Lil 59 in. Its a mini humbucker and I've captured some great tones with that in the bridge.

After reading about the D Allen's on this forum, I'd probably give them a go if I didn't already have a great vintage style start.

I'm leaning towards trying out Scott Walker's boost/ buffer.

Whatever I do it will be an experiment!

Peace,

James

[tatittle]

I have wondered what type of pups Jerry had in his 1972 Strat. It seems logical that they would be hotter considering his use of SDS-1's and Dual Sound. But this is just about the time guys began rewiring pups hotter so more likely they are standard Fender pups, if a hot set, I imagine. From what I read he shielded the crap out of his guitars (even pup covers), which loads it up and cuts treble too. I hear those Dan Smiths have the best necks around. I have an 87 Std., but the neck is thin for me. MIJ wood is awesome, have a TL52 and a CIJ Strat neck.

[James-T]

The 83 Dan Smith Strat neck is like no other. Its a sharp v, really slick, not super thin but really pronounced. I've tried out many strats over the last few years and for me the Dan Smith is the nicest neck going. Mine happens to have some birds eye in it. Very tight grain.

They are highly underrated guitars. The single tone knob and weird trem give them a bad rap - if you can see past that they are great players. Mine came hard tailed so and I'm not a trem kinda guy so it was a non issue. There is no through body router on these guitars as the springs sit below the pick-ups. Totally off the wall design - I think it adds to the great tone of this guitar. Mine really sings. When you dig deep they get great reviews.

I picked mine up locally on CL 6 months ago for $600.

I also agree the MIJ guitars are also great stuff. My buddy has a 54 strat hand me down from his uncle, and plays in another Dead cover band but plays a Tokai from the 70's and swears by it. His american strat lives under his bed. There is a 70's national locally on CL for $250, and looks like a better guitar than half of the US strats sitting in the guitar shops right now in Vancouver. In 30 years folks will be killing themselves for not buying MIJ now while the market is flush with good deals.

Peace,

James

[tatittle]

Indeed the MIJ are great IMO. Thats why they arent allowed to sell in US anymore I imagine---and they were a prime influence on forcing Fender to regroup and issue the Dan Smith's and Std's in the mid 80's. Effects too- The Funky Filter is supposed to be a Mutron III in disguise, I havent tried one though. They have a long tradtion of detailed craftsmanship so its no wonder. Funny to think about how most folks ridiculed Japnese stuff when it started flooding the market, now they sell for big bucks...just another example of how majority trendiness is often based on everything but the things that are actually important. As I grow older I am coming to believe PARADOX is almost a universal truth.