Good day to all,


I need some advice.

i have a set of 70's reissue strat pickups that came off of a 70's strat reissue MIM. I have a MIM Strat and I was wondering will the 70's reissue pickups be an upgrade over the MIM pickups that I have in there?

Also,

I have an American Neck Pickup which I could Also plug in. will I be able to use the american Neck pickup and the 70's reissue mid and bridge?

any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Roy

Your MIM Stratocaster Standard came with basic ceramic single coils. They are nothing special. The 70's Strat pickups MAY be Alnico pups, but I am not sure. I have a Classic series 50's Strat and it comes with Alnico units, but the 70's, I am not sure. The USA Strat pickup you have is a definate improvement over the stock MIM pups.
I would yank out the stock MIM pups and install the USA pup along with the 70's pickups. It is so nice that if you don't like them, put the original units back in, no harm, no foul. Just a little quality time spent with your soldering iron.

What exactly are you expecting by "upgrading" and what don't you like about your current pickups?

Those 70's reissues "may" be a tad quieter as far as noise, but they might sound a little different too. Whether that different sound is good or bad depends on what exactly you want. I'm not familiar with the 70's resissue pickups though, but I'm sure there's somethign that distinguishes them in tone from the stock MIM's, otherwise there would be no point in making them.

And yes, of course you can use your MIA pick in combination with any of those others.

As it is now the MIM pickups seem to sound muddy in the mids and neck position. i guess i am looking for a more articulation(wow i never used this word before )

I will be plugging in the american made PU in the neck and the reissues in the mid and neck

while i am at it, i was thingking to do this myself instead of bringing it to the guitar shop. what should be on my shopping list to swap out these PUPS?

thanks

Yes the 70's reissues are ALNICO PUPS not ceramic

Soldering iron, a roll of tin, schematics and possibly band aids...

this probably sounds naive,

but can't i just follow the wires i am replacing?

Yes, make sure to write it down before you desolder of course.

Or take several good digital pics of it, so you can see exactly what was where...

Great idea on the digital pics.
would the colors of the wires be the same? does fender change colors on different pickups (single coil i mean)?

Typically black and white or black and yellow.

Use rosin core solder, do not use acid core.

Maybe not. A word of warning (though disaster won't occur):

If the magnetic polarities of the pickup sets you are mixing are different, like NSN and SNS, then you might run into phase problems by just wiring them as they were originally.

Got a compass?

Or http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/fa ... -a/401425/

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.