Grateful Dead Music Forum

If I'm looking for a more Jerryish tone from a Strat going right into a silverface Twin Reverb, which is the better choice? Does anyone have experience with both pickups?
I find the stock sound nice and springy on the lows and mids, but find the B and E strings to be too thin sounding. I know all about the unity gain buffers and other mods that are discussed frequently. I'm just looking for the simplest, least invasive improvement.

Thanks,

Barry

The Voodoo '69's or Fender Custom shop '69's will do it for you. What pickups are in there now?

hippieguy1954 wrote:The Voodoo '69's or Fender Custom shop '69's will do it for you. What pickups are in there now?

Sorry, I should have clarified. The current pickups are the stock, 1995 American Standard Strat pickups. The guitar was a gift from my wife when we got engaged 20 years ago. That is mainly the reason I don't want to do more invasive modifications to it.

B

Ebearius wrote:

hippieguy1954 wrote:The Voodoo '69's or Fender Custom shop '69's will do it for you. What pickups are in there now?

Sorry, I should have clarified. The current pickups are the stock, 1995 American Standard Strat pickups. The guitar was a gift from my wife when we got engaged 20 years ago. That is mainly the reason I don't want to do more invasive modifications to it.

B

There were a couple of different pickups used in the 90's American Standards. I don't think any of them can get the same tone as the D Allen voodoo 69's or the Fender custom shop '69's.
As far as the high notes sounding thin, that can be a problem with any pickups and we have all experienced it. String height, size and volume are usually at play there.

Are you using a jbl? From my experience, switching from a fender stock speaker to a jbl was a quantum leap for fattening up the tone of the B and high E strings. Using a stratoblaster or other overdrive pedal is also important.
I switched out my stock fender pickups for voodoo 69s. I love the pick ups,but I don't think they alone are the key to elevating the thin sound on the high strings.

Either the Voodoos or CS 69s will get you there. Great pickups.

Voodoo's are great! I can't speak for the custom shop pups.

hippieguy1954 wrote:

Ebearius wrote:

hippieguy1954 wrote:The Voodoo '69's or Fender Custom shop '69's will do it for you. What pickups are in there now?

Sorry, I should have clarified. The current pickups are the stock, 1995 American Standard Strat pickups. The guitar was a gift from my wife when we got engaged 20 years ago. That is mainly the reason I don't want to do more invasive modifications to it.

B

There were a couple of different pickups used in the 90's American Standards. I don't think any of them can get the same tone as the D Allen voodoo 69's or the Fender custom shop '69's.
As far as the high notes sounding thin, that can be a problem with any pickups and we have all experienced it. String height, size and volume are usually at play there.

Gotcha. I play with .11's and a fairly high action. My background was primarily acoustic so light action feels very floppy and uninspiring to me. I can get a Jerryish early 70's sound out of the stock Strat and a Twin if I throw in a tube screamer set as a clean boost. I was just looking to improve and simplify this setup. I have another guitar with a built in pre-amp and a board full of later Jerry effects, so that stuff is covered to my satisfaction.

Yea, and as you probably know, the Twin won't get it alone unless you can have the volume close to 8. That's enormous volume and lots of folks don't have a place or venue for it.

Have you tried the half power Twin mod? I'm not sure of the exact procedure, but have heard good things about it.

Personally, if I need low or lower volume for Jerry tone, I use a Blue Junior III.

hippieguy1954 wrote:Yea, and as you probably know, the Twin won't get it alone unless you can have the volume close to 8. That's enormous volume and lots of folks don't have a place or venue for it.

Have you tried the half power Twin mod? I'm not sure of the exact procedure, but have heard good things about it.

Personally, if I need low or lower volume for Jerry tone, I use a Blue Junior III.

I'm not familiar with the Blue Junior III. I have '66 Blackface Princeton Reverb that I have tried to use for lower volume home practice. It has great tone on single note solos, but it lacks the "clang" of a Twin for more Jerry-like rhythm. I've been the Deluxe Reverb route as well. Is the Blue III more of a small, Twin circuit?

Seems it might be voiced similar to a twin. It's mentioned in this thread "scaling things down" . Interesting thread if you haven't read it.

forum/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=16681&hilit ... 60#p143970

For me, when I play thru anything other than a wide open Twin or a properly modded Twin pre thru a properly modded McIntosh at enormous volume, something is lacking in one way or another. You can get close, but....you know.

hippieguy1954 wrote:Seems it might be voiced similar to a twin. It's mentioned in this thread "scaling things down" . Interesting thread if you haven't read it.

forum/viewtopic.php?f=419&t=16681&hilit ... 60#p143970

For me, when I play thru anything other than a wide open Twin or a properly modded Twin pre thru a properly modded McIntosh at enormous volume, something is lacking in one way or another. You can get close, but....you know.

Interesting. I'll have to check those out. None of the modern Fender amps with the printed circuit board have ever hit my radar. I will take a closer look. Thanks.

I ended up ordering a pickguard loaded with the '69 Voodoos from David Allen. I'm not much of a tinkerer, so this seemed to be the simplest do-it-yourself solution. I could not be more delighted with the product and the service. Top notch across the board!

The new pickups have strong fundamentals, but have a certain depth and complexity that was lacking in the stock pups. They are very balanced high to low. The bridge pickup is a bitter hotter than the stock one. I'll be tempted to use it more often.

I don't know how much is the pickup, or the superior shielding on the new pickguard, but the guitar has WAY less single coil hum now. I hate to sound like a raving fanboy, but I really appreciate it when a blindly purchased product meets or exceeds my rather lofty expectations. I have not had consistant luck with that in the past.

Ebearius wrote:
I don't know how much is the pickup, or the superior shielding on the new pickguard, but the guitar has WAY less single coil hum now. I hate to sound like a raving fanboy, but I really appreciate it when a blindly purchased product meets or exceeds my rather lofty expectations. I have not had consistant luck with that in the past.

Its the pick ups. My Voodoos had considerably less hum than my stock strat pups when installed in the same pick guard.

I put the Voodoos in my strat and instant jerry. The JBL alone wasn't enough in my twin. I needed those pickups.