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Post subject: Pickups to make Strat sound like a Les Paul?
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 1:10 pm
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Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any pickups to get more of a Les Paul tone? I love the guitar, but prefer the tone of the Les Paul. Any suggestions?

Thanks

James


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Post subject: Re: Pickups to make Strat sound like a Les Paul?
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 1:43 pm
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royals123 wrote:
Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any pickups to get more of a Les Paul tone? I love the guitar, but prefer the tone of the Les Paul. Any suggestions?

Thanks

James


A Strat will always sound like a Strat, even a humbucker Strat will sound like Van Halen, but never as a Les Paul. And vice-versa.

Built different, sound different.


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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:07 pm
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Try an MI Crunch Box pedal.

:wink:

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Post subject: Re: Pickups to make Strat sound like a Les Paul?
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:56 pm
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cuthbert wrote:
royals123 wrote:
Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any pickups to get more of a Les Paul tone? I love the guitar, but prefer the tone of the Les Paul. Any suggestions?

Thanks

James


A Strat will always sound like a Strat, even a humbucker Strat will sound like Van Halen, but never as a Les Paul. And vice-versa.

Built different, sound different.


Well said.

Or you can also get a distortion pedal like Miami Mike said.


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Post subject: Re: Pickups to make Strat sound like a Les Paul?
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:45 pm
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3-Tone wrote:

Well said.

Or you can also get a distortion pedal like Miami Mike said.


A distortion pedal doesn't make a Strat sound like a Les Paul, it just saturates the signal. Blackmore's or Malmsteen's sound is VERY distorted, but they are not Les Paul like. At all. These players plays Pauls just in reharsal (Malmy) or abandoned the Paul long time ago (Blackmore).

If you have a godo distortion pedal, that just gives the fuzz like the MXR Distortion + or the Boss DS-1, a Les Paul and a Strat you can make the experiment of running both instruments through the pedal to the same amp, and LISTEN to the difference.


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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:59 pm
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Change the pickups to splittable pickups so you can switch between humbuckers and single coils :)


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 7:08 pm
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This reminds me of an old Texas expression:

"If my grandma had wheels, she'd be a cart."

Trying to make a Strat into Les Paul makes about as much sense to me.


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:06 pm
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royals123-
If you want to have a "Les Paul" sound, your going to need a Les Paul. I don't want to be rude but you will never be able to make a Stratocaster sound like a true Les Paul or visversa. Its kind of like this, I have a red car what car wax should I buy to make my car look blue?

Hope I helped.

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Last edited by cu_jarrett on Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 8:40 am
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My Clapton Strat with the boost on sounded very Les Paul-ish. That was what Clapton had in mind when he was setting the design parameters. It can be retrofitted to any Strat.


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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 9:08 am
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Due to differences in construction, materials and design, and scale length, it is hard to get that LP sound. The best way to approximate it would be to get Gibson Burstbucker pickups. That is about the best thing to do. Apples is apples, and bananas ain't apples.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:01 pm
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The reason I'd like to keep the Strat and get more of a Les Paul sound is purly as I like the thicker sound of a Les Paul better but prefer the look and playability of a Strat. Is that so crazy?!

To those with constructive advice, many thanks. I'll look into the Clapton boost and have also tried a Strat today with some Seymour Duncan Hotrail pickups that basically give what I want.


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Post subject: Re: Pickups to make Strat sound like a Les Paul?
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:56 pm
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royals123 wrote:
Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could recommend any pickups to get more of a Les Paul tone? I love the guitar, but prefer the tone of the Les Paul. Any suggestions?

Thanks

James


Try the DiMarzio Tone Zone Humbucker. It's got a great tone to it. Your Strat isn't ever going to sound exactly like a LP, but two Tone Zones will definately get you "Paulish".

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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 3:20 pm
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Of you want a Les Paul sound from a Strat , it ain't gonna happen. But if what you mean is , you want a thicker more humbucky sound, rather than the traditional fender sound, then you have a lot of options.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 3:25 pm
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royals123 wrote:
The reason I'd like to keep the Strat and get more of a Les Paul sound is purly as I like the thicker sound of a Les Paul better but prefer the look and playability of a Strat. Is that so crazy?!

To those with constructive advice, many thanks. I'll look into the Clapton boost and have also tried a Strat today with some Seymour Duncan Hotrail pickups that basically give what I want.


A Strat with hot rails delivers a sound very Iron Maiden, but FAAAAAAAAAR away from the Les Paul area, IMO.

That's the reason why fat Strats exists, and they aren't Les Paul clones, just like a Les Paul with splittable humbuckers won't deliver a Strat sound.


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Post subject: Re: Pickups to make Strat sound like a Les Paul?
Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 3:58 pm
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[quote="royals123"]Hi all,I was wondering if anyone could recommend any pickups to get more of a Les Paul tone? I love the guitar, but prefer the tone of the Les Paul. Any suggestions?

You need to have had the experience of setting up your amp to a clean preset of volume, lows, mids, and highs, and then switching an s-s-s Strat and an LP in and out of the same line to truly understand the difficulty, in reality, of what you ask. The closest anything stock that Fender builds which comes close to equality is the Clapton neck pickup at full boost!

9.5 pounds of mahogany and a set neck behind a Burstbucker pickup is a lot to ask an alder/bolt on maple neck/ with singles coils to match.

I would sooner see the Custom Shop build an all mahogany setneck H-H Stratocaster for the comparison. :roll:

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