Have any of you put lipstick pickups in your strat?

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Wed Jun 17, 2009 10:24 pm

I'm looking into getting a set of GFS lipstick pups to put into my MIM. It's cheaper than getting a mid boost. Have any of you tried lipstick pickups?

nikininja · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 2:44 am

Alain laFrance does. I can honestly say there is nothing cheaper about the guitar.

http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?t=22958&start=0

A very pretty look, but how will it do what a midboost does. Lipsticks are generaly weaker than regular singlecoils, and have a thinner sound. Those pickups in Alains guitar are as custom as the rest of the guitar.

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:57 am

nikininja wrote:

A very pretty look, but how will it do what a midboost does. Lipsticks are generaly weaker than regular singlecoils, and have a thinner sound. Those pickups in Alains guitar are as custom as the rest of the guitar.

I thought about it some more and decided that I really didn't want to mess with a battery, even if it was in the spring cavity. Plus I can't really spare that extra $50 right now and if I want a guitar that sounds like it has humbuckers in it, I can pick up my any of my three guitars with humbuckers.

Then I was going to go for something more along the lines of Texas Specials. But that was when I found the lipstick pickups and I thought that that would be a good contrast to them. I still want to find out more about them though. Because I may still go with the overwound thing instead.

Martian · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:19 am

I've installed a few outright lipstick Duncan sets in a few Strats. These are the type which mimic the old Danelectro pickups. They do achieve their purpose, making a Strat sound like a Danelectro for whatever that's worth. However, the ones you've cited appear to be regular dimensioned Strat pickups with metal covers. I shall premise that these are the ones you are concerned with.

Although premium covers are supposed to be acoustically invisible like those on a Tele neck pickup or a full sized humbucker, there are other things going on when you cover a pickup. Yes, the covers do aid in shielding the pickup but because of the increased capacitance imposed by them, high end frequencies are slightly diminished. In addition to this, as a whole, the entire pickup's output and tonality will be 'mellowed out' a bit by the pole pieces of the pickup not being able to get as close to the strings since they are underneath the cover, distanced from the strings by whatever the thickness the cover happens to be which in turn, is distanced from the strings.

If I catch your drift, you want to crank up the midrange in your Strat and at the same time, suppress some of the increased, inherent 60 cycle noise which goes along with it, by using covers. Consider the results being similar to having three Tele neck pickups in your guitar, covered of course. IMO, you are a candidate for stacked humuckers.

Ceri · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:25 am

texasguitarslinger wrote:

But that was when I found the lipstick pickups and I thought that that would be a good contrast to them. I still want to find out more about them though. Because I may still go with the overwound thing instead.

Hi Tex: I notice that WD Music sell a Kent Armstrong pup called a Tele Hot Front, which they list as giving 7.2K output.

OK, that's nowhere near modern humbuckers, but it's hotter than vintage Strat pickups, and a shade hotter than Texas Specials, which run from 7.1 at the bridge to 6.2 at the neck (say Fender).

If it's especially the look of lipsticks you are after then those could do it for you - though if it's simply a question of output then I'd be looking around amongst ordinary single-coils...

Cheers - C

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:00 am

Thanks for the info Martian, I didn't know that covers effected the sound so much.

Quote:

If it's especially the look of lipsticks you are after then those could do it for you - though if it's simply a question of output then I'd be looking around amongst ordinary single-coils...

I'm mostly after output and tone, looks not as much. I do like the look of lipstick pickups, not very many people have them in their Strats. But they actually may not look so good on the guitar I want to use them on.

This (in the middle), http://api.ning.com/files/Fq6PSNKAS8-mu ... 0_2445.JPG
is what it looks like. It's kind of hard to imagine what lipstick pickups would look like in it.

There are other pickups I'm considering too. Several single coil sets for GFS seem like they'd be good. The Boston Blues set, Texas wound looks good but the neck and middle pups are "Vintage Wound" with slightly less output than Texas Specials. I'm also looking into the 60s-70s Greybottom set and the reverse stagger pickups they have too.

Price is an issue. $80-$100 is the resale value of Vintage Noiseless pups, so that's my budget.[/url]

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:11 am

Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier. I was thinking of using a middle one of those GFS lipstick pickups for the neck too. That way the neck would have an output more similar to my Texas Specials. The only thing is that the middle pickup is reverse wound. So is having two reverse wound pickups, one in the neck and one in the middle really a good idea? Would it cause problems?

Martian · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:42 am

texasguitarslinger wrote:

Oh, I forgot to mention this earlier. I was thinking of using a middle one of those GFS lipstick pickups for the neck too. That way the neck would have an output more similar to my Texas Specials. The only thing is that the middle pickup is reverse wound. So is having two reverse wound pickups, one in the neck and one in the middle really a good idea? Would it cause problems?

Actually, two RW/RPs in the same guitar aren't the reverse wounds any more. Rather, it is the 'regular' wound/polarity one which is now the RW/RP in relation to the other two.

With your proposed setup, the only time the circuit would be humbucking is when the bridge pickup is used with either of the other two.

It wouldn't cause problems. Rather, and speaking for myself, I find any guitar which is (loosely speaking) half humbucking and half not a real annoyance.

texasguitarslinger · **Posted:** Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:49 am

Oh, I get it. So it's not going to fry or explode or anything if I did that.

I don't really use the in between sounds that much anyway, and humming isn't a big issue with me if the pickups sound good. If the rest of the band has to suffer listening to my guitar hum for me to get the tone I like, then so be it.

(Actually, when I'm not playing I turn it down and no one notices the humming.)

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Have any of you put lipstick pickups in your strat?

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