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Post subject: Custom Shop Pickup Upgrade
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:18 pm
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Recently I took my run of the mill Fender mass produced in Corona guitar - a Highway One - and turned it into something unbelievable. Out of the box, it was good. The Alnico III p'ups are not vintage but they had a kind of excellent glassy tone expecially in the bridge with a Blues Junior at 11 1/2 with the fat switch in. I'm recycling them into a Squier to keep that tone, which I love, but I wanted to take the Highway One to another level. My first choice, Fat 50s, came in broken with a dead neck pickup. I flowed with it and got the very popular Texas Specials, installed by the wizard at Wild West Guitars who also adjusted the bridge saddles to match better the 9.5 radius and allow us to lower the action to where I wanted it (noticeably lower than Fender spec).

So, how are the Texas Specials? Wow. All I can say is wow. It's night and day. This guitar is now the sweetest sounding little Strat I ever imagined in dreams of a Strat. The Texas Specials are not overpowering at all. Basically, they're vintage just a little bit hotter I think than 54s. They are not nearly as hot as the Highway One Alnico IIIs. Forget what you hear about they're too middy, hot, bombastic whatever. These aren't stacked humbuckers or humbuckers at all. They are the sweetest pickups on earth with the volume at 11 1/2 and the fat switch in. They've got a little of the SRV tone when he's getting bendy because that's how I play, but mainly they have just got a sweet classic Strat tone, good for everything from surf to rock to blues. I cannot believe there's not an absolute stampede for these fantastic pickups.

The key seems to be the setup. I'm a little challenged so I got help. I notice the p'ups are well away from the strings, even volume, but the bridge can fool you because it's a thinner tone. The sustain is excellent, and it was fine before. I'm checking my reverb to make sure it's turned down I mean the sustain is unreal. The clean tone will break your heart. Chords ring out - open, barred doesn't matter. Just beautiful pickups.

Forget the Kinmans, the Dimarzios this stuff. These Texas Specials have almost no hum. Only with the volume maxed can you hear any. It'll fool you into thinking the hum cancelling doesn't work but it works perfectly in positions 2 and 4. There's just so little hum that you never hear it unless you're really going ape with the gain, which is fun let's face it.

Another thing is I'm not sure how but I'm not playing much cleaner. The Highways old groooong from the g string is gone. It's the pickups, the set up, or both, but this guitar is just a magic tone machine now. I mean, it's gorgeous.

This isn't a humbucker or anything near it. It's notably less hot than the oem Highway One single coils. For that humbucker thing you need to get one. These Texas Specials just in my humble Highway One with the standard tuners and what not are just pure, vintage Strat tone with a badass twist.


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Post subject:
Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:21 pm
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"I'm not playing much cleaner"

That's supposed to say I am playing much cleaner. Oops. I think that was the fourth month of Dacarbazine (old chemo scars) oozing out of my remaining brain cell.


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:13 am
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Location: British Columbia
Hi Strat58cat,

You sold me! that was a great review. I have been debating about putting some Texas Specials in my Strat Pro you helped me make up my mind.

I will post a review when I get those babys in, can't wait :)

Thanks.

Regards.

_________________
2006 Custom Shop Stratocaster Pro CC
2007 Parker NiteFly M
2008 Art & Lutherie Ami Cedar
2010 Seagull Entourage Rustic CW QI
2008 Blues Jr. Texas Red Ltd edition


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 9:41 am
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I've noticed a really excellent tone out of the Texas Specials with the gain at 11 1/2, fat switch in, eq on the Blues Junior set at 7 across the board, and - very important - the tone knobs rolled back to 3. That's just a killer combo, very responsive, and with a real SRV vibe like when he's playing bendy on his Blues At Sunrise compilation CD. It's killer using the neck pickup, or neck-mid for hum cancelling. Another way is to go with the tone all up at 10 with the gain/volume at 11/12 with the fat switch in. That gets some wild Hendrix kind of vibe going.

If you back off the volume/gain to like 5 or even 7 without the fat switch to play a more clean tone, the tone is excellent and there's basically no hum from any pickup. If you get aggressive with the volume/gain though, then you appreciate the hum cancelling in neck-mid.


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:07 pm
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:51 pm
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Location: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA
Hello Strat58cat,

Sounds like those texas specials are real
tone monsters, congrats on getting it done.

Cheers.


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 5:46 pm
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I love them. I also play a lot of cleaner music, including the blues clean which can sound very cool, and so I was really into getting the Fat50s, which is why I was so dissapointed with the broken neck pickup. I've never directly compared the TX Specials with the Fat 50s and I suspect the Fat 50s have somewhat more chime and a kind of chorus sound that's very cool. Still, the Texas Specials sound very good and have tons of chime clean, with different voices through each setting. Things turned out well for me with the versatile Texas Specials though and I'll leave any other pickup sounds for another guitar. In truth, Fender offers a lot of variety in tone with the Highway Ones for example being very, very different from the Texas Specials.


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