i have a question for texasguitarslinger. how are you liking you texas specials? could you give a quick pros/cons review? thanks

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Fender Standard Stratocaster
Maton ER90C

I know it's not directed at me but I have TS's in two of my Strats and love them.

They have a good amount of mids, dirty with the guitar volume turned up, clean when backed off. I'm not a fan of the bridge pickup, it's just too thin and bright for me, but then again I generally don't like (or use) the bridge pickup. The neck pickup is very warm and fat and the middle is just a tad brighter. With the neck + middle pickup you get a beautiful tone nice for slow clean stuff (Wind Cries Mary). The neck is great for screaming blues and rock.

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Tune Low, Play Hard & Floor it!

Yup, same for me, well put, just think there a grate pick up, and same reasons on the bridge so I asked about the emgs on the tail end, but Iam stickin with the texas sp's and going with the wire up suggested here on the forum, cuase I can,t stop thinking there the best and they are outperfourmers comparitively to anything else that I've known and used. jees I might not have spelt it right but I,am putin some awful big words togerther here today, peace.

That's about how I would describe them too. One of the things you can do to tame the bridge pickup is wire the tone pot which is usually used for the middle pickup to it, so that you can roll off on the tone a bit and take off some of the bite. Because the bridge pickup without the tone control would be extremely bright and twangy. I have the other tone pot wired to both the neck and middle pickup, although you could go with the Jimmie Vaughan set up and leave the middle pickup wide open. I just like having the option of rolling off the tone on all three pickups if I want to. I honestly never used the bridge pickup until after I discovered the thing about wiring it to a tone pot. Now I use it regularly enough that it doesn't feel like a wasted pickup anymore.

Texas Specials are definitely warmer and have higher output than a regular Strat pickup. They're excellent for blues or any type of music which you want a little breakup and overdrive on. For anyone who's coming from liking humbuckers and P-90s Texas Specials have that extra warmth which but in single coil form which is why I think they appeal to a wide range of people. They're also very responsive to pick attack and volume changes. In other words, it's easy to play with dynamics with them whereas cheaper pickups tend to sound flat. They have some depth to them. But if you're after pristine clean, traditional, bright Strat tone, they can do that well enough but you'd probably be better off looking at something else (Custom Shop '69s for instance). I have a Highway One Strat (pre-upgrade, 2003 model) and even though I didn't like the pickups at first they sort of grew on me. They have a cleaner, lower output more traditional Strat tone and I actually like them better for some things which are more suited to that. Of course, it's kind of hard to compare since the Texas Specials are in a Squier. I played an SRV signature Strat which also have Texas Specials but it sounded better than my Squier. In fact, it was probably my favorite sounding Strat I've ever played. Which should be what you'd expect considering there's a $1900 price difference. lol

Hope that helps.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
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thanks man, by the way i play texas blues, do you?

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Fender Standard Stratocaster
Maton ER90C

Very cool, how's the blues scene down under? (I see your location is Australia)

I play a ton of blues, it's my favorite kind of music. I guess it could be considered Texas blues, since many of my favorite blues musicians are from here. But I like Chicago blues, Delta blues, British blues and really any kind of blues too. Plus Jazz, Rock, Funk or any type of music where a blues influence is detectable. If there's blues somewhere in it, I like it.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccalairdmusic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckslaird
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blues is not popular with the younger generations, but there are plenty of old fans still kicking around.

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Fender Standard Stratocaster
Maton ER90C

Ah another aussie!

as i live in a town with little population, and in the middle of victoria, blues/country is still common around the older generations, and a couple of youth. the rest are all just death metal bands

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riley