Hey all. I'm about to purchase Stratocaster Standard HSS. What intrigues me though is the new Tex Mex single coil pickups with Diamondback humbucker. After googling the subject, I must say I didn't find many opinions on this line of pickups, and those that I did find were very.. controversial (few say amazing, few say $@!&#*, etc..)

Currently I'm looking for a "whole package", as I don't have enough money ATM to change pickups. Plus, I'm very worried about the Tex Mex and Diamondback.

Does anyone posses HSS with these pickups? any opinions on them? I can deal with S/S/S, so perhaps it would be worthier to buy S/S/S with the standard pickups and eventually change them to something like.. EMG in few more months?

Thanks a lot.

Hi wootis,

I have a Road Worn 60s Strat with Tex Mex pickups, SSS. I think that the Tex Mex are awesome pickups in that guitar, and will be a nice improvement over the Mex Std pickups. I don't know about the Diamondback humbucker, but I'd bet that it would be better that the Std also. If those are your only choices, I'd get the one with Tex Mex pickups. You can get a used/like new MIM Std SSS "Loaded Pick Guard" later for very cheap on eBay, and then you will have both!

_________________
---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

I bought a 2010 standard with the H-S-S, well I found this.
If 1 in the Neck, and 5 is the Bridge on the selector, then 4 was way out of phase and had a huge volume drop, to the point it was unusable.
The neck and middle had a strong signal, but to my ears sounds very vanilla in the tone department. Not bad, but not a true classic strat tone neither. They also hissed in 1 & 3 more then they should have. This left 2 & 5 as the most usable selections.

The humbucker was overpowering and impossible to balance to the other two, in the end I replaced them with three singles set up of Fender custom shops.

You should know I play blues, so it is that type of tone I am shooting for, these pick ups may just be fine for the type of music you play.

If you want to do a Jimi/Stevie Ray type tone, plan on a new set of pick ups.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Thank you, that was very helpful.
I also have heard the recent Stratocaster Standard guitars are not the way they used to be , like, 10 years ago. The quality is downgrading.

In my fender I'm looking for something versatile. I mainly play rock (classic, progressive, hard , etc..) but recently also gotten into Blues and Jazz. Jimi indeed has a big part in this equation.

That's why I wonder if I should get S/S/S with the Std single coils, which are amazing, well developed and been used for lots of years by thousands of guitar players. If I'm gonna play something heavy for a short while, I believe a pedal could be very useful.

But I don't know, in this case, the humbucker is gonna be missed..

Being old enough to remember the way it REALLY used to be, no, the quality of my MIM is quite good, fit and finish and wood quality.
But they did do some thing to lower the production costs, the MIM pick ups and the zinc tremolo block come to mind.
But these are easily replaced with better ones, I have a brass tremolo in mine and the pick ups I told you of, all these can be added to yours.
Yes, the S-S-S model would be a better choice for classic rock and blues.
I would suggest the fat 50's set, as the center one is reverse wound/polarity for hum calcining. This way you can get the humbucker tone as well in 2 & 4 for hard rock and the more modern tones. I would suggest you look at the aluminum pick guard, It looks nice but it also kills off the single coil hum issue.

_________________
Marriage is like playing cards...

At first all you want are Hearts and Diamonds.

But in the end, all you really want is a Club and a Spade.

Talking MIM, the quality of a MIM today is LEAGUES above the quality of a 90s MIM.

_________________

I was talking about the American Strats. I heard those are losing quality.

If I'm about to upgrade my pickups though, I'll go with MIM. Although I've been thinking about EMG DG 20.

Personally, I REALLY like the Tex-Mex from the neck and middle of the HSS. I replaced the HB with a Standard single coil bridge pup I had laying around because I'm more of a blues / classic rock kinda player. That setup really produces a nice bluesy classic-Strat tone IMO. I should mention that I spend more time on the neck/middle than I do the bridge and I find the Standard bridge perfectly good for what I play with it... Dollar for dollar, the Tex Mex pups are pretty sweet!

Hello

I have an American Mahogany HSS which has the Tex-Mex/Diamondback HSS configuration.

I love it. I don't play live, as I'm in my 2nd year of playing. My practice list includes 80's Hard Rock, 70's Blues Rock and 60's Blues w/a little Red Hot Chili Peppers and John Mayer thrown in.

I use a Line6 Spider III.

Position 1 (amp - clean setting): Single - perfect clear and "bell-like" signal for John Mayer "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room", Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under the Bridge" intro

Position 2 & 4, as noted, do sound "muted", but this sound works for a lot of Led Zeppelin ("Over the Hills and Far Away" for sure) - Page has a lot of subdued but still Hum-cancelling tones, Black Sabbath....which is what this sounds like to me.

Position 3 (amp clean) has more attack than 1, still "clear" but has more bite - works for Jimi Hendrix "Red House", "Purple Haze" and "Voodoo Child" (with Wah of course), SRV "Cold Shot" amp on overdrive for SRV "Pride and Joy"

Position 5 (Humbucker) works very well for 80's Hard Rock (Amp overdrive) such as AC/DC, most Van Halen, Ozzy for sure, some Aerosmith ("Train Kept a Rollin'"),

What the guitar does not do well, in my opinion, in the single PU's is that searing clean in Pink Floyd ("Dark Side of the Moon")...the Tex-Mex is more bite than chime, so to speak...so if your clean has overdrive you may love it, if your clean taste is more bell and chime you may not...

The Diamondback does not excel at Thrash Metal (Metallica, Megadeath), Modern Metal (As I Lay Dying, Mudvayne), and that Les Paul Tone in Guns and Roses, a lot of Aerosmith, Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd

It's an amazing guitar, and I've found the pickups perfect for my tastes, amp and skill.

I haven't heard of any quality issues with the new Fenders, as they all seem perfect to me. The MIM Strats I tried out had sharper frets that were not anywhere near as level as the American, but still an amazing deal for the money. I would have been fine with one, but I could afford the American so I did.

Surely it depends on taste, amp....

My 2 cents.....

_________________
Electric Guitar #1: Fender American Select Mahogany Stratocaster HSS
Electric Guitar #2: Agile Al-3110 Les Paul
Acoustic: Fender CD200SCE Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Guitar
Amp: Line 6 Spider III 75 75W 1x12 Combo Amp
Piano: Yamaha M450

Why base the whole of your guitar shopping plans on the pickups? A guitar is a lot more than just the pickups.

Find one that you like, how it plays is much more important than how it sounds. That can be changed at a later date after you've had time to evaluate what needs to be done. And when you can better afford the cost of replacement parts.

Seems the better option to me.

_________________
No no and no

Again thanks for the responses.

I've just played MIM Lone Star. I was pretty much amazed. Both American Stratocaster Standard S/S/S and the Lone Star felt great in my hands, but I liked the sound of Lone Star better.. the Std was almost perfect though.

I'm only troubled because I've heard the electronics on the MIM guitars are basically very bad.. That's why I'm probably gonna buy this guitar with a good friend of mine who basically was born with electric guitar, heh..

I wouldn't be too concerned about the electronics on a MIM Strat. It's a great guitar and the electronics will hold up to years of abuse. I have friends who gig 2-3 times a week with stone-stock MIM Strats and they have held up fine despite being put through the ringer! Keep in mind, if you were compelled to upgrade the pots/switches/capacitors to USA spec parts, you could do it for less than $20 from Guitarfetish.

Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstrat was made for next to nothing (less than 200 bucks!), one [working] pickup, one tone pot... Not exactly a work of art, but in the hands of a virtuoso...