I recently purchased a Jeff Beck Strat. Apparently, the hot noiseless pickups on this model have a wider bandwidth than regular Strat pickups, especially in the lows and highs. I'm currently playing through a Crate V15 tube amp, and the A and D strings get lost in the mix, no matter what tone configurations I use on the amp or guitar, especially when the strings are played open in chords or arpeggios. I've tried changing strings and playing through several other amps. I've also had the guitar checked out locally, and technically there's nothing wrong with the pickups.

A friend of mine, who knows tons more than me about Strats and Fender's SCN pickups, said that I should be able to get an even balance of tone across all strings but that, with these pickups, I might need to keep the bass and treble on the amp way down. This helps a little with my Crate V15, but I might be dealing with the limits of the Crate amp's tonal range. The guitar sounds great through a small Fender Champ 600 tube amp (no tone controls) he uses for practicing, using a Boss Blues Driver to adjust the gain and tone. Perhaps this simple setup of similar solution is all I need.

When I bought the JB Strat, someone suggested trying the Marshall Vintage Marshall 2266C, but that amp picked up the tonal issues with the guitar even more because of the 2266C's enhanced body, detail, and dynamic ranges--no matter what I tried I could not get the A and D string to stand out across the range of strings. I talked to both Fender and Marshall about the issue and, after trying their suggestions, ended up taking the Marshall 2266C back. (My opinion of the 2266C is similar to the one user review of this combo amp on Harmony Central right now, who gives it a 3 out of 10.)

Is anyone familiar with this issue, how to bring out the A and D strings with the Fender hot SCN Strat pickups? Can anyone recommend an all-tube amp that complements the JB Strat so that I don't have to use pedals unless I want to? I'd prefer something fairly simple, and I really don't need the 50 watts of power that the 2266C has for the type of playing I do. I'm still open to Marshalls, although they're a little pricey. I'm not too keen on Fender amps, but maybe VOX. I've heard really good things about the new Egnater 30 combo. The specs look like it would give me more flexibility than the Marshall 2266C, but it's also getting pretty far from the "simple solution" discussed above.

Thanks to all who consider my question.

Hi girg,

I don't know whay type of playing you do or what power of amp you require but I would recommend to you with no hesitation the Fender SuperChamp XD.

This amp is said to be used by Jeff Beck himself. It is actually a "hybrid" tube amp, which basically means that it also has built in voice effects too.

I use this amp with my Strat which is also equipped with Hot Noiseless pickups and think that it sounds absolutely fantastic. There are so many different sounds and tones that you can get out of it that I've hardly used an effects pedal since I have had it.

The quality is also great. All in all, an unbelievable amp for the money and I could definately recommend it to you.

You really should give it a try!

Hope this helps,

Russ

First off the pickup is not a SCN, its a Hot Noiseless. There is also Vintage noiseless and SCN pickups. The Vintage and Hot models are related the SCN is a entirely different affair.

All these noiseless pickups lack mid's. I dont know quite what you mean about the A & D strings not standing out. Are they quieter than the other strings? If so it sounds like a setup/pickup balance issue.

Jeff Beck uses a JTM45 to get his sound, nothing sounds like them old plexi's.

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No no and no

What is your price range?

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Live guitars: 2009 LTD Truckster, 1989 Strat Plus, 2001 Am Standard Strat, 1996 MIJ Jaguar, 2007 Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, 1999 Ibanez RG7621, LTD MH-301, LTD FM400, 1999 Jackson Kelly, Mystery Les Paul, Hamer Chaparel, Fender FM 62SCE A/E Mandolin

Dude the first problem is you are playing through a Crate amp! WTF? If that's the best you can afford that's one thing, but if you are able and willing to drop serious coin on a killer guitar, why are you playing it through a less than worthy amp?

Sell the thing and buy an Egnater or a Carvin amp.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Mesa Boogie Lonestar...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiW22O914Cg

He doesn't play a strat, but it's a strat type guitar. Great tones...

Victoria also makes some outstanding "vintage" boutique amps if that's what you are looking for.

In the "bang for the buck" category I strongly believe you can't beat Carvin amps. They don't sound quite as good as the true "boutique" amps, but the boutique jobs don't sound THAT much better that I can justify the price difference.

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Definately give us your price range.The crate V series amps arent known for their stellar tones.It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.But we need to know your price range .If you are looking for versitility then you might want to check out the egnaters ,maybe start with the 20 and work your way up.

I want to thank everyone who responded to my question. I have now tried my Jeff Beck Strat with four different tube amps, my Crate V16 Palomino (a practice amp), a Fender Champ 600 with a Blues Driver pedal, a Peavey Triumph 60 (older amp I have that I pulled out of storage), and a recently returned Marshall Vintage Modern 2266C combo amp. The issue I'm having occurs in all of these amps, so while an "amplifier solution" might help, at this point I'm convinced the issue is primarily with the guitar. If anyone wants to post more comments on this thread, I appreciate it, but right now I see the issue as possibly three or four different things, aside from finding an amplifier that is better compatible with the ceramic dual-coil noiseless pickups on the Jeff Beck Strat. (Yes, I incorrectly referred to them as SCN pickups. Thanks for corrrecting me.)

The issue I'm having is that the A and D strings are non-distinct, or "buried," and the G string is overpronounced in the tonal mix across the range of strings, especially when these strings are played open. I use a set of medium gauge D'Addarios (11 - 49), which has a .018 plain G string and a .028 D string. I generally play directly to the amp and I'm only trying to get a decent, overall clean tone before adding anything else. I generally play pretty quiet when I’m practicing and rarely play “call the cops” loud. When I do want to add effects, I generally like a little overdrive and compression, enough to make the guitar sound distinctly different than pure clean tones, which is good for classic rock or blues.

The action, intonation, and pickup height on the guitar are set up to Fender's recommended specs (I've attempted tweaking these with no success, so I re-adjusted everything back to Fender's specs). A local guitar repair shop did two things to check the polarity of the pickups and did not detect anything wrong with the poles in the ceramic dual-coil noiseless pickups.

For comparison, I tried my other guitar, a Hamer semi-hollow with two single-wound P90-style Seymore Duncan pickups, which I used to think had similar issues. I have the same gauge of D'Addario strings on the Hamer guitar. In comparing the Hamer semi-hollow to the Jeff Beck Strat, the tonality issues in the D and G strings on the Jeff Beck Strat are substantially greater, making the tonality of the Hamer semi-hollow seem almost perfect.

The issue I'm having with the Jeff Beck Strat is particularly noticeable when flat picking arpeggios or specific notes within chords. Adjusting tone controls from the guitar or the amp, or trying to adjust my pick attack, makes little difference. Of the A, D, and G strings, the worst is the D string, which sounds almost silent (un-amped) when played open, although it is more prominent when played fretted. The A string is similar, but not as bad. The G string completely stands out in relation to all six strings, and of course the G string is regularly played in sequence to the D string.

The fact that this issue is particularly noticeable when the strings are played open raises a possible issue with the LSR roller nut. I'm familiar with how regular bone nuts can affect a string's tone if the slots aren't cut properly. But the strings appear to fit properly in the LSR roller nut, and I'm not sure what type of adjustment can be made to it aside from adjusting the height, which is not an issue. Any information about how to adjust the LSR roller nut to accommodate specific string gauges would be appreciated, but there's little on Fender's web site or the internet about this.

The D'Addario strings on the Strat are about three weeks old, so they’re fairly new. There's a chance it could be the strings, or a specific string, that might make the difference. Since there's so many string options, I haven't tried anything yet. If anyone is familiar with the issue I'm having and how to resolve it with different strings, I'd appreciate any information.

There could be other "non-amplifier" solutions that I haven't considered yet. I'd appreciate any feedback on other things I should check. Otherwise, aside from trying to find another amplifier, I can only think that the issue I am having is with the ceramic dual-coil noiseless pickups on the Jeff Beck Strat, even though the polarity of the poles appears to be fine. I'd appreciate any feedback if anyone is familiar with these pickups and what I can do, if anything, to bring out the A and D strings more or minimize the G string.

Of course, if the ceramic dual-coil noiseless pickups are the issue and nothing can be done about it, then I'll probably start looking into a different set of pickups.

I have not given up on an amplifier solution yet, and have pretty much decided to try out an Egnater Rebel 30 212. I'm mainly interested in the features of this amp for my needs, but honestly do not expect it to resolve the issue I'm having. Of the four amps I've tried, the Fender Champ 600 (no tone controls; using a Blues Driver pedal) gave the best results. The Marshall Vintage Modern 2266C was probably the best of the four I've used for overall warmth and tone, but had it's own issues that either didn't sound good or didn't suit my needs right now. Several people wanted to know what my price range is on an amp. The Marshall 2266C retails for about $1800 and the Egnater Rebel 30 212 for about $1100. That’s generally my price range, although I’d be willing to spend more if an amplifier was THE solution.

I know I started this thread seeking an amplifier solution to the issue I'm having with the Jeff Beck Strat. I now see that the issue I'm having could be a number of things. I'd appreciate any suggestions or recommendations anyone might have. At the same time, it might be more appropriate for me to start separate threads for each of these issues, which I might do later.

Thanks again to all who offer suggestions.

It sounds like the problem you are describing is maybe due to the stagger of the pole pieces of the pickups themselves.Not being familiar with the JB pickups I can only speculate, but maybe someone with more knowledge of them can chime in.Fender is notorious for putting vintage staggered pickups which were designed for wound G string sets because back in the day that was the norm.Problem is with the modern string sets , the G string is unwound.This causes the Gstring to ring louder than the other strings.If you look at the poles, the G pole is higher than the others.Since you use 11s , you might try subsituting a wound G string and see what happens.I feel your pain because my SRV has the same problem. Since I use 10s I have learned to live with it.

Plain and simple, those pickups are not for you. You do not like the basic tonality, the string balance nor the string separation no matter what you've tried.

It's time to go shopping!

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You dig?

I've been exploring the possibility of the issue being, at least in part, due to the design limits of the LSR roller nut. I've read other forum threads where people have had to deal with string buzzing from the nut by changing string brands or sizes. I was about to post a thread on a related issue, but saw the last two responses to this thread.

The first response is to try a wound G. I will probably try this, as well as a thinner gauge plain G.

The second response says to switch out the pickups. This response appears to be from someone way more experienced than me, and I will probably end up getting a different pickup set. I'm curious about two things in this response. First, by "string separation" do you mean separation in tone, or separation in distance? I have to assume you mean tone since I've never said anything about the distance between the strings (although there is a slight issue for me with this on this guitar, I haven't mentioned it). But if, by chance, you mean separation in distance, please clarify.

Second, there's so many options for pickups, do you have any recommendations where to start shopping? I'm sure a lot depends on what sound I'm after. I like Jeff Beck's sound (not the reason I bought the guitar, however; and I've heard very different accounts of what pickups he actually uses). I like the sound of the lead guitar work in many of The Beatles more raucous songs (Me and My Monkey; Taxman). Another guitarist that comes to mind is Dean DeLeo, from Stone Temple Pilots. (I mean no offense to the 1000s of other guitarists out there that I could probably add to the list.)

Thanks.

I use this as well, and I tend to crank the mids on whatever amp I'm using it with. I'm not familiar with Crate gear, but I did have a differenmt expereince with the Marshall 2266c (combo), which I though it worked fine. That amp gets its saturation from the power stage, so you really have to drive it, to get a usable high gain tone.
Usually, I play through a Mesa Dual Rectifier Tremoverb, again with this guitar, with the mids cranks, as Mesas tend to be bass heavy, and these pickups with my guitar tend to also have a lot of bass.

The trick here is adjust the hieght of the pickups, and spending some quality time with the amp dialed close the setting you plan on using in live situations. With this pickups (agin, one my MIA modded strat) the neck pickup seems very bassy, so I have that side dialed way down with the treble side higher, but still lower than suggested in the manual. Same with the middle pickup. The bridge pup, because there is always going to be less bass response in that location, I have set even about 1/8 inch from the strings, and I really dig it, as it borders on an Esquire/Tele "ice pick" type of tone, with very easy harmonics any where on the neck. But this just my personal preference, as I tend to use the bridge for leads and the neck & middle for rhythm parts.

I'd look into the LSR issue, as they are pretty simple to replace and would affect the overall sound even without an amp. I have a MIA deluxe strat that has a similiar issue (wierd fret buzz) ,that I was able to fix with a shim.

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SG.
"Walls" video from Zero in the Sun by Villains of Yesterday

By string separation, I mean the clarity and evenness of one string to another and the strings among each other as they are played.

Do you want noiseless, meaning, humbucking pickups or will single coils do? Or, are you open to either?

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You dig?

I'm open to either.