Replace pickups on custom Strat

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Hugo77

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Replace pickups on custom Strat
« on: June 28, 2015, 04:06:43 AM »
About a year ago, I posted some questions about replacing pu's on my Strat. Got a few tips and suggestions. Thought I'd revisit those and contact DM customer support once more on the matter. Friday I made a decision and yesterday I ordered the pups.
I had a high powered Strat with 2 Seymour Duncan Little 59's in neck and middle, plus a JeffBeckjr in the bridge. I have been struggling with the latter since. Maybe in a mahogany body it would have been halfway decent, but in my swamp-ash body...not so much. The little 59 in the middle didn't make a lot of sense either, though I had the neck pup switched in parallel in pos 4 and the middle one in pos 2.
Still, the only pu I really liked was/is the neck. In combination with the amps I use, it sounds pretty good to my ears.

Anyhow..I decided on 2 new pickups that had peaked my interest; a DM Chopper in the bridge and a Injector (bridge version) in the middle. I figured a bridge Injector would make more sense because of the slightly higher output and tuned down high end. A bit of a gamble, cause there are no demos on Youtube on this pup in a middle position, only in the neck or bridge.
Customer support suggested a BC-1 in the bridge and I did consider this to be a interesting idea. I don't like a tone zone and the BC-2 is basically a TZ S modified. The BC-1 has less mids and bass so I'd probably liked it in the bridge.

But again, no demos of this configuration to be found so I decided against it. I'm very curious on the end-result. Looking at the specs, the Chopper makes less sense than let's say a BC-1. The Chopper has a lot of high end which is one thing that bothered me in the SD JBjr. But all the demo's I've checked out (listened a lot to Richie Kotzen too, the albums he uses his ash Tele) and all I here is a beefy, full sounding pickup.

I'll post my findings when I got the guitar back and have played it for a bit.

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Offline darkbluemurder

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Re: Replace pickups on custom Strat
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2015, 01:07:01 PM »
The Chopper is indeed a beefy pickup but still has a lot of bite to it - similar to the bite a PAF style pickup in the bridge would have. I cannot give you any comparison to the JB jr. or the BC-1 because I never played either.

I find youtube demos or clips to be of limited value because most of the time
- the player will play differently than I do
- the guitar the pickup is used in may be vastly different from mine
- the amp, speaker cabinet and other equipment may be substantially different from what I have, too, and
- the recording and replay equipment may pose further limitations on the sonic end result.

If I go by clips then I try to get as much background information on the points I outlined to put the audio information of the clip into context.

The Injector bridge does not come to my mind first when considering the middle position - that's where I would rather put the Injector neck (I have one in a strat together with a Heavy Blues 2 in the neck and a JB-like humbucker in the bridge). It's bright but not too bright, works well with a higher output pickup in the bridge and with a 500k volume pot. 

Given the fact that you seem to be afraid of too bright pickups you may like something warmer and more output than the Chopper.

Cheers Stephan
Area 67, Area 58, Area 61, VV Pro 54, Injectors, VV HB2, Virtual Solo, SDS-1, Area T, Area Hot T, Area T 615, Virtual Hot T, Chopper T, Bluesbucker, Breed set, Air Norton, Super Distortion, DLX+ set, DLX-90, DP240, DP198, DP168, VPAF b, AT-1, Mo' Joe, FRED, Super 2; GS b