Grateful Dead Music Forum

I've been using my stock Fender Strat Pickups for about a year though my F-series Mesa boogie, I really want a whole new tone without getting a new guitar, I plan on buying a Dual Showman Reverb head with a JG-1 hardtruckers Cabinet in the near future, but I want to upgrade these Pickups, please excuse my bad knowledge with pickups but what pickups should I get to resemble Jerry, I know I can't resemble him 100% but I love that clean sound, and right now the only postion I use is my neck and middle.

Thanks! (Single Coil pickups by the way)

Depends on what Jerry sound you're going for? A Dimarzio Super 2 in the middle position, split. It's a humbucker so you'd have to modify your pickguard or buy a new one. Warmoth can cut them in about any combination you want. Depending on the cavity routing, you will probably have to make space for it by removing some wood where the middle single coil sits.

If you're going for a Europe '72 sound, I thought I read on another post that somebody had tried many different combinations in their strat and found the best tone using inexpensive GFS grey bottom 70's. (???) There are a couple of different kinds and I'm not sure if they were the staggered, extra wound, etc.

Yeah a Europe '72 tone is exactly what I want, what position would be the best for that pickup or would I just use a set of 3?

thanks!

I'd go with all three to make sure you have a balanced set. If you're looking to buy a Dual Showman and Hardtrucker's cab than a $100 set of pups shouldn't be a stretch. This is probably covered better by some of the other guys on here, but you'll also want to look into a stratoblaster. Check this thread for some good info: http://www.rukind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=4854 .

I looked up StratoBlaster, is it the pedal or the actual hardware you get installed?

Stratoblaster kits are installed in the guitar. If you use standard humbuckers you'd have to route out your guitar, if noise and hum are the reasons to change out your pickups, check out the single coil 'humbuckers"...


http://www.music123.com/DiMarzio-DP420- ... 2.Music123

http://www.music123.com/Fender-SCN-Sama ... 2.Music123

I am trying to aim for a Jerry Garcia sound so I'm getting the GFS 70's pickups, For the kit to be installed do I need noiseless pickups? I'm just changing them to change my tone.

Well I am about to buy some new pickups, I was told that I should also buy an StratoBlaster with it but I have a question .

-How long does the 9volt usually last since it's in a hard to reach spot, and I'd have to remove the strings to change it and unscrew the pick guard?

(The Alembic blaster)