Evening All! In my quest for tone I am considering installing a loaded pickguard on my Classic 50's FSR MIM Strat which is a little too chimey and clear for my current taste. One I have come across strikes me as providing masses of tone for a very reasonable price. Not Fender pups of course but they sound great to me. Have a listen! https://www.axesrus.co.uk/Axesrus-Texas-Blues-Assembly-p/tbuk-assy-cts.htm . This is a UK-based company obviously so our esteemed friends across The Pond probably will have no knowledge of them, so do any of my UK-based colleagues have any advice to offer (apart from "You should not be defiling your instrument with cheapo non-Fender hardware" ). The way I see it £140 is not too much to speculate on maybe getting the tone I'm looking for.
Yeah they sound nice, and a good price for a loaded pickguard. I often use Axesrus for various guitar parts and have always found them helpful. Never used any of there pups though. Have you listened to any Tonerider pups? I have used them in a few of my guitars and they sound very nice, and they are pretty cheap. Worth a look. In the end though it's what sounds good to you, it's always difficult to choose pups when hearing them online. I chose some Fender pups by listening online and they didn't really give me the sound I was looking for. So you do take a bit of a chance. Good luck anyway.
The only problem I would have with those is the scratchplate itself, they're all 3 ply 11 hole. I like my 1 ply 8 hole scratchplates (which yours has too), so would I buy the job lot and throw the new one away? Hmm...
I've bought from them in the past. They used to sell bodies and necks which were pretty good. I have a set of their Alamo pickups which were, afaik, far east (Korean) made and very reasonably priced but they seem to be winding their own now. Never had a problem which couldn't be sorted on the phone. I'm pretty sure they would happily swap the pg for a '57 type if you give them a ring.
I'm torn between the ready-made GuitarsR'Us loaded pickguard and a set of Toneriders! Help!! Those Toneriders sound great but I don't fancy butchering my existing Fender setup to replace the Fender pickups. Maybe I'm being too precious about the Fender setup: it's not like it's a Custom Shop jobbie, it's a MIM! Still, it's my pride and joy (which reminds me Texas Special types are the way to go).
I have done, without achieving what I'm after. Having now listened to many demos of "Classic 50's", "Texas Specials", "Mellow Blues and Jazz", and other types of pickup, I'm convinced the tone I'm looking for is the "Texas Special" type tone which is a fatter more powerful one with a touch less clarity. Thanks for the suggestion!
I have ordered a set of Tonerider City Limits (Texas Special Type) pickups and will report back later!!
Well i've installed the Toneriders and the difference is palpable. Gone is the icepick treble (I've also done the bridge pickup tone control mod) and the middle and neck pickups are much fuller in tone. I still haven't found the actual tones I'm looking for but I think this is now entirely down to the fact I'm playing through an amp sim rather than a real tube amp. I spoke to the lovely bloke who runs ToneRider and when I told him I was just using Amplitube there was a definite"Erm...well..." moment from his end of the phone call . I'm a happy chappie again! Big thumbs-up for Tonerider. The pickups seemed to be much higher quality than the Fender original ones on the Strat. They are lightly wax-potted and the connector wire is waxed vintage braid. The winding is protected by a fabric band rather then the wire being fully exposed on the Fenders.
