I have a 2004 tangerine deluxe strat, I love to look at but hate the sound of the Scn pick ups.

I am toying with replacing the pick ups with 69 customs....do they hum alot? I have texas special in another strat and love them.

Would I be better off with vintage pick ups?

How difficult is the rewiring, because of the existing SCN switch on the volume knob?

Is this a job for my local guitar guru?

Thanks,

Jeff

It depends on what kind of sound you are trying to accomplish.69s for a more vintage tone and Texas Specials for more bite.Rewiring shouldnt be any different if you keep the s-1 switch.If you are trying to eliminate it,thats a different story.

If you have no problem with the Texas Specials hum, you won't have a problem with the 69s.

As to would you be better off with vintage pick ups? Only you can answer that.

In terms of the level of difficulty rewiring your guitar, the question is relative, base on your skills and once again, only you can answer that question. I would presume though that since you asked it and threw in the possibility of your local guitar guru, you might want to bring it to a COMPETENT tech.

As always, this is merely IMO where YMMV.

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You dig?

SCN's are decent pickups, have you tried playing with pickup height?

Moving the pickups closer to the strings will give you more output and distortion but will take away some sustain.

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I didn't Lose my mind, I traded it for this guitar.

The 69's will give you more hum because the middle pup is not reverse wound. The Texas Specials are reverse wound in the middle so you will get less hum in position #2&4. The Texas Specials are a hotter pickup but as mentioned earlier everything depends on your preference and what amp you are running through. Eddie Van Halens early humbuckers were not high resistance pickups. That contributed to his "brown sound" and the tone that many heavy metal players emulated.

Custom 69'2 are 5.8K, Texas Specials range from 6.5K-7.1K for the bridge, 6.5K for the middle and 6.2K for the neck. The SCN's are 11.6 for the bridge, middle 11.6K, neck 12.0.

So you can see that by the DC resistance measurement the SCN's are the "hottest" of the group.

You didn't mention if you have the S/S/S setup or the S/S/H setup. I personally found that the three singles sound much better and more "Strat" like than the humbucker setup. The S1 set up gives you a ton of tonal options, are relatively quiet and have a pretty good vintage Strat quack IMHO. But I found that on the three singles NOT on the humbucker set up. (I also assume you know that you can push in the top of the volume knob to get another sound in every position)

The Custom 69's were designed with that Jimi Hendrix sound in mind. Texas Specials, were the SRV pickup. (although he didn't use those in his own guitars) I guess it really depends on what music you intend to play that would determine what pickup you may want to choose. I believe the S1 system works well with the SCN pickups. If you want to change pickups then you can just as easily replace your wiring assembly or purchase one already wired together. Check out Mojo Musical Supply at www.mojotone.com. You can buy a whole wiring assembly and get a vintage or blender set up for whatever your preference might be. Then you could sell your whole S1 setup for probably the amount you will spend on the new stuff. The S1 is pretty popular for resale on eBay. I personally like them and put them in some of my custom builds. They are very well received.

I recently sold a Candy Tangerine that was included in another thread a few months ago. That one had Lace Sensor Alumitone's in gold, black pearl pickguard with all gold hardware and was killer looking and sounded great too. You can get a pre-wired Lace pickguard assembly ready to install too.

But if you already have Texas Specials in one guitar maybe you will want something different for the other. Either way, have fun. Here's a shot of the Candy Tangerine with the Alumitones and a Maple Neck.

DC resistance of itself is NOT an indicator of the strength or timbre of a pickup. This is a rampant misconception as there are MANY more factors which determine this. Case in point: A DiMarzio HS-4 (formerly known as a YJM) has a DC resistance of 23.5K ohms. I guarantee you, volume and grit wise, your Texas Specials blow them away as this HS-4 output wise and tonally, is akin to nothing more than a quiet 70's Strat pickup.

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You dig?

I just replaced the SCN's and S1 on my customclassic with a bareknuckles sultans set. I chanced them after trying the Mothers Milk set, based on Fruciante's 54 strat pickups.
Very vintage tone, no real hum increase. I wouldnt have done it had I not had another guitar with S1 and SCN's. Their far too versatile to lose completely.

I bought pots, cap and switch too. I just unhooked the ground and jack wires, dropped the complete wiring harness pickups and all, out. Rewired the pots, switch, cap and pickups onto the guard. Hooked up the jack and ground wires and away I went. For the £20 it cost me, the time and agro it saved me, its a no brainer.

69's to my ear are way too mid scooped and less vintage sounding than SCN's. I wouldnt recommend them.

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No no and no

Martian you are correct that there are many other factors involved. I just quoted the DC resistance numbers because that seems to be the most common measurement that manufacturers use to compare pickups.

yeah, I like my Cs 69s but don't love em
I'm starting to feel the scn's a little more.
I am totally contemplating on changing
the 69s to TS.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

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The bottom end on the Texas Specials is hard to beat.You can get a more vintage tone if you lower them ,but you sacrifice some definition I feel.Take overdrive and distortion really well too.

My only problem with SCN's is that their very flat across the range. Theres plenty of power there but they dont seem to favour treble, bass or mids, one above the other. That maybe why people say their bland sounding. They seem great if you like to tinker with controls. I suppose thats not everyones cup to tea though.

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No no and no

I would recommend setting aside that entire pickguard/pickup assembly and building a new setup from scratch. You select the pg, the type of pups and pots/caps/wire for your project. The S1 switch is not a project for a rookie wiring project. Snag yourself some traditional strat wiring diagrams from sites like Seymour Duncan or guitarelectronics.com, study them and have at it. Once you learn the basics of wiring and soldering on some plain wire and can make clean solder joints, the sky is the limit. It's good for you as a player and as the owner of your instruments to understand pot and cap values and such. Once you have this component of guitar setup mastered, you can coax just about any sound you like; plus, you'll still have your original pickguard to use any time you wish.

Cheers!

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60th Anniversary AD Strat, Deluxe Nashville Tele, Player's P Bass. Mesa/Boogie Mk IV combo, Marshall JCM800, 1960A cab, Genz Benz El Diablo 60, Genz 2x12" cab, too many neat little practice amps and kit projects!