audio-talk

Of interest to very few I've found the worst sounding 'strat' pickups I've ever heard.

2005 Chinese Squier. No tone difference at all, precious little attack..... astonishingly awful!

Stripping them out, the wiring was bog standard ( one cap) but all three pots were 500k, A for volume and B for tones.

As Eni fule no, Strat pots ( single coils) should be 250k but these ones are utterly beyond the pale. I can't be arsed to test them as should be but I'm prepared to go off at a tangent and buy some alnico 2 pole magnets in a search for the elusive lovely 50s strat tone.

Custom fat50s were my favourites but have tried several sets and found them variable. Vintera 50 pickups I'm pleasantly surprised by ( nearly there?) cheap too.
I've found some named Allegree pickups which could be 'IT' but coughing up £80 for unknowns.... well I am not wealthy. Later maybe, busy elsewhere.

gotta say I'm at a loss on this one...

I rarely play direct into the amp these days, and the only amp I have is my bass 50, so it gathers dust. I play through the studio set up so I can insert any number of plugs to alter the amp settings. I've found that plug ins make so much difference that I've lost the ability to detect what pickups bring to the party.

I have discovered that the switch on the 335 can change from single pole to humbucker but no matter what I'm playing through the single pole is so weedy that I haven't used it since the first week of owning it.

I only have one regret musically, and that is having sold my line 6 variax. It illustrated how and why pickups are redundant....trouble is it was not very nice to play and instead of fittng a warmoth neck like I should have, I sold it....oh waily

Variax..... argghhhh. I found it was a fun thing and yeerrrsssss that sounds a bit like p90s and okay, tele! But when played live it just sounded amorphous - could have been anything.

Like having the d.i. done before it gets to the mixing desk. Remarkable but.... I was very happy to sell it on ( to someone who already had two!)

I don't see the point of splitting coils . Humbuckers are humbuckers and phroaaaar.

Again I'm stunned by the vintera guitar range but when live they sound mushy and imprecise. Expensive guitars come into their own when the pressure is on. A 335 will sing and a custom shop strat will be fabulous ( if the player is any good, ahem). I'm very pleased with the fender pro2 range - very good. Value for money, smooooth and sounds great when under pressure.

All only my humble opinions...