I have had a standard strat since 2004 and i have had trouble getting a good guitar solo tone out of it i need help should i get new pickups i already just bought a new amp its a fender 65 fm dsp

What style(s) of music do you play?
Rock Like ACDC LYNYRD SKYNRD
- What you do like about your current pickups? It Can Play Chords for a good rock sound
- What don't you like about your current pickups? Cant get the tone i want for solos
- Can you give us an example of whom you think has the tone you require? Randy Rhodes Solo From Crazy Train
- What is your effects chain (if any)? I have a boss metal zone pedal that i rarely use

Granted, the pickups in your Strat aren't the greatest things since sliced bread but many players find them satisfactory. You say you just bought the amp. I presume you've spent adequate time with it trying to coax what you require and still can't deal with the pickups. So, to better advise you, please enlighten us first:

- What style(s) of music do you play?
- What you do like about your current pickups?
- What don't you like about your current pickups?
- Can you give us an example of whom you think has the tone you require?
- What is your effects chain (if any)?

Be forewarned though, you will get many varied opinions.

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You dig?

get used to your amp before you consider spending anymore money mate.

My tips for a lead tone are keep all effects off including gain whilst you set your basic eq. Add gain, compressor and retune you eq slightly. Then add any modulation effects. In my experience its better to keep them to a minimum for lead tones to sound strong. Then add reverb or delay, and fine tune your eq some more.

Last tip, dont be affraid to set those knobs to settings you dont usualy use.

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No no and no

No, the last tip is to Lower Your Pickups. Get them away from the strings!

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

You're gonna find it more difficult to mimic Randy Rhoads if you are using single-coil pickups cuz he didn't use them. I'm using vertical humbuckers myself which I feel are just about the best of all the pickups. They are not as thick and muddy sounding as some full size humbuckers but they have more thickness and chunk than a single-coils. All the Area series pickups are great along with the Virtual Vintage series.

I bought my 2005 American Strat brand new, and I loved the tone on all the clean tone stuff, but I couldn't get a good metal sound no matter what I did. I went to GC and they recommended the Hot Rails in the bridge. I still get great clean tone and light distortion tones out of the mid and neck positions, but now I get metal tone in the bridge. The hot rails gets a sweet lead tone as well.

You can also wire the Hot Rails with an ON/OFF switch so that you can change it from acting like a humbucker to a single coil. The pickup is $75 and it'll cost about $25-$35 to get it professionally installed.

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2005 Fender American Stratocaster W/Seymour Duncan Hot Rails in bridge and Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in neck.
1995 Fender American Standard Stratocaster
Line 6 Spider II 150 watt head W/Ampeg 4x12 Cab
Laney Pro-Linebacker PL65R

+1

Also, too much distortion will make any potentially good lead tone sound muddy. It may seem counterintuitive, but some players who have amazing tone in the hard rock field -- say, for example, Angus Young -- don't use very much distortion at all; in fact, Angus uses nothing but really loud Marshall JCM-800 set just past breakup. Your best bet, after lowering your pickups, might be ditching the distortion....