Hello all... I'm fairly new to the forum. Good stuff! I have an '08 MIM HSS Strat. I'm taking some lessons again after not playing since high school (23 years ago..). Now that I'm moving along I am wondering about the sound from my pickups. Are they decent? I like the crunchy rock sound with distortion (ie: Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, G'nR etc..)... as opposed to a clean, bluesy sound I find myself playing on the humbucker most of the time. Should I think about some different pickups. Thanks!

Hello and welcome to the forum! I don't know what amp you are using but I believe that the amp is one of the most important components to tone, along with a few good pedals. Your 08 has some decent pups in it already! Good luck!

Thanks!... I have a Line 6 Spider III 30W. I guess I'll look at a distortion pedal.

Just switch your spider to the insane setting and turn the gain up. You honestly shouldnt ever need more distortion than that.

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"I started out with nothing, and still have most of it"

+1 -- Yeah, your lIne 6 is built for crunch.


I am not quibbling, but I am not sure I think of Slash as having a "clean, bluesy" tone...

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I hear you... I guess I threw you off with the way I worded that. I was just listing the bands and sounds I was looking for. Slash is definatley not clean and bluesy. I love his guitar work. For instance, the song "Locomotive" on Use Your Illusion II. I love that intro guitar sound.. Thats what I'm looking for. I guess the "Insane" setting on my Line 6 Spider III will be close. I just wasn't sure if it was the pickups or the amp that gives off that sound. Thanks for not quibbling!

Thank you! The Insane setting is definatley wild! So the pickups on my MIM Strat should be fine than huh?

I just edited my original post to describe what I meant. Thanks!

Yep those pickups in MIM standards are monsters. Ignore anyone who tells you 'you cant get a good sound with them'. My rhythm guitarist has a tone that makes me jealous. He uses a un modded MIM into a behringer modeling amp. Bill Lawrence says that alnico or ceramic doesnt matter, its how the circuit is designed and put together.
http://www.billlawrence.com/Pages/Pickupology/magnets.htm.

What i would suggest you do if your getting a bit tired of your sounds is.
1 lower the distortion by atleast half. Everyone uses way too much at home for good tone.
2 experiment with wild settings. Line6 model amp eq sections suprising well. They aim to mimic the way a particular amps eq interacts with its other components. So dont just think yep loads of bass, mids on half same with treble. Try and come up with new ways to get those sounds, without resorting to your usuall settings. Example for the above settings try lowering the bass to half mids to 8 and treble to 3/4. (on a jcm model thats where i'd be heading for slash tone).

Great amp great guitar. The world is your proverbial lobster.

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No no and no

Niki is giving you good advice as well as the other posters. You can also play with the height of your pickups. There are several good threads on this forum dealing with that. Just do a search for it.

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated! I will play around with some settings tonight.

No problem, man. We are all just trying to learn a thing or two here, along with enjoying each other's rig and stories.

I know where you are coming from as I am also a Line-6 iconclast using the Spider iii head (which I love btw). If your Spider has the presets, consider the "Riggs" ones as a good starting point. You will definitely need to adjust the EQ based on your own guitar. But, for my Strat (though very different than yours as mine is SSS w/ Tex Mex pups), the L6 heavy tones respond very well with a light layer of external overdrive and compression -- makes the tone actually a bit mellower and very "creamy".

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I would just like to say something about slashs tone.He can pull out a good clean tone intro to DONT CRY-PARADISE CITY .And he can also whip out that bluesy tone as he is basicaly uses outside of a wah wah pedal a straigh from guitar into amp setup.