Hey, I just picked up a used Fender Strat - MIM.

The elex are upgraded to '62 reissue, but the pickups are stock from the Mexican factory.

I find the tone to be quite muddy on the B/M, and M/N settings (switch at 2 and 4). This is really bugging me because my Telecaster and Gibson sound fantastic on the amp/board I'm using, but the Strat has too much dark tone.

I'm curious to whether a new set up pickups, like Texas Specials or such, would solve my tone problem. Someone let me know if this sounds like an electronics issue or just if I need a good set of pups.

Thanks!

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Devon

'08 Standard Telecaster
'80 Gibson Sonex Deluxe
'95 Standard Stratocaster ('63RI)
Hot Rod Deville 212

The earlier Mexican Strats from the 90s were known to have pup issues but recent ones have had pretty good pups.I have an 00 MIM Strat and it has a real clean tone as you would expect from a Strat.What year is your Strat?If it's a 90s model it could quite possibly be a pup or even electronics issue.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I have to second guitslinger's comments there...the stock pickups in my '96 were just awful. I've recently played a couple of new MIM's and the pickups sound -a lot- better...but personally I still think there's a little room for improvement. In my case I went through a few sets of pickups before I finally settled on the Duncan Rails. I do mostly classic rock and blues and they really fit the bill for most of what I do. Ok...they're not single coils and they don't really have that traditional single coil sound (one of the reasons I own multiple strats) but over-all they sound -really- sweet...even more so than the Vintage Noiseless. I'm also a HUGE fan of EMG's...I just love how they sound in a Strat but they're also way out of my price range. Honestly if money weren't an issue, I'd probably have Duncan's and EMG's in -all- of my Strats.

Now I would also like to quickly say that if you've changed the rest of the electronics, do make sure you're using the proper value pots and such too. I really don't know what the '62 RI's use (I would assume 250k's but I could be wrong) but make sure you didn't do something like put 500k or 1meg pots in when you upgraded those as that -will- change the sound of your pickups...regardless of what brand you use. Also, if it really does sound -that- muddy, you may also wish to double check your wiring as well...make sure you didn't mis-wire something and make sure you don't have any cold solder joints or anything.

BTW...if it is an older MIM, you also may wish to take a look at your trem block as well. My '96 had one of the dinky little half-sized zinc alloy trem blocks from the factory...I upgraded that with one of those heavy steel blocks from Callaham and it made a HUGE difference...nearly as much as the new pickups did.

Okies...just my $.02 worth,
Jim

I have an '04 MIM Strat with stock pickups and I can kind of see why you're describing them as muddy or dark. They aren't bad pickups, but my Squier with Texas Specials blows it away tone wise. I'm eventually going to replace the pickups and the trem block in my Fender. I wish I could replace the trem block in the Squier but the body is too thin for Fender replacement parts. But anyway, I think that replacement pickups would make a difference. They made a huge difference in my Squier.

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I have a 2009 Standard Strat. I don't know enough yet to tell if it is muddy or not, but...

I am getting prepared to do a set up on it myself. I was looking at the neck pup height, and by stacking feeler gauges until I was very close to 5/64 of an inch, the neck pup on the base side appears to be very low, not even close to having the stacked gauges touch the bottom of the string.

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http://www.facebook.com/UCtheband
2012 American Standard Strat Charcoal Froast
2009 Standard Strat Sunburst Brown
Blues Junior Tweed NOS
2007 Line6 Spider Jam

That's the git you have signed by Jimmy Vaughn, right? It'd be cool to put Tex Mex in there as that is what is on his signature guitar. Sorry ... I can't help myself ... I feel like the resident Tex Mex pup apologist here. Great pups for the money in my humble opinion ...

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

My head is spinning from some of these 'remedies'.

Your problem lies in the fact that lower strings naturally resonate more than the higher ones and when one pickup is combined with another, this lower resonance is now electronically spread out and picked up in more strength over the body yet still, proportionately more than the higher ones. In the case of weaker output pickups such as your's, the pickups are essentially focused on and are obviously, favoring the lower end. Consequently, these lower vibrating frequencies by necessity will be more dominant by the time they hit your amp. If you want to attempt to shift the frequency spectrum away from the lower frequencies a bit, you can change your 250K volume pot to a 500K one. But even at this, you may find that your pickups may sound a bit sterile with those lower frequencies now shifted upward. Other than this and/or an EQ, anything else you attempt is virtually superfluous unless you change your pickups.

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You dig?

Hey all, thanks for the replies!

Just finished putting in a set of '54 Custom Shop Strat pickups and I now know that there was no issue [i]at all[/i] with the electronics.

The tone I'm getting now is just fantastic, makes the stock pups look like something out of a Wal-Mart guitar.

I agree with Martian with the newer MIM pups being hotter. Unfortunately the overall quality of the 'upgraded' MIMs isn't like the '90s ones. My Strat's a '95 and plays better than 2 Am. Stds. I've played, and blows the Highway Ones out of the water.

My Tele's an '07, pre upgrade. Stock pups weren't as bad as the '90s Strat, but I still replaced them with Vintage Originals. Good stuff now.

Thanks again.

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Devon

'08 Standard Telecaster
'80 Gibson Sonex Deluxe
'95 Standard Stratocaster ('63RI)
Hot Rod Deville 212