[m-80]

Hey, guys!

Just decided to change my stock pickups to get more RHCP's vintage, warm and funky sound.

What pickups is best for me??

What pickups does John use?? on his 62 Strat or Red one??

Any clues?

[bobbybrenes]

m-80, on 24 June 2010 - 04:13 PM, said:

Hey, guys!

Just decided to change my stock pickups to get more RHCP's vintage, warm and funky sound.

What pickups is best for me??

What pickups does John use?? on his 62 Strat or Red one??

Any clues?

He used the original ones until they lost their magnetism and started using Seymour Duncan Antiques, as he stated in an interview, and he states that they sound exactly the same. However, those pickups aren't cheap at all, and apart from John I haven't heard any other reliable review about them. Check them up and if they are in your price range try them out and see what you think.

[riskybizz]

The Antiquities are very nice, I have a pair in my Jaguar and they blow me away every time i play it. They are pricey as mentioned. If you don't want to spend that kind of money you should check out the Seymour Duncan SSL1 and SSL2 pickups. Both are supposed to be wound to vintage specs. I'm thinking of popping some in my strat.

[djlaureate]

i just bought seymour ssl-1 for my neck, ss-1 RW for mid, and ssl-5 for my bridge. supposed to sound like a 1960's strat. waiting for them to come in the mail im very excited

[Libero Marconi]

I have SSL-1 pickups in my non-fender guitar, standard bridge and neck, RW middle, they sound great
although, they have higher output than pickups in my Fender 62 hot rod, that's the only thing I don't like, because lower output gives me more playing sensitivity

[m-80]

Great guys!!

So

Im about to save some money and buy Seymour Duncan Antiquity II surfers.

Actually they're not so expensive. New is about 75-80$ per 1 pickup.

[djlaureate]

just finally got the pickups installed. just amazing. the neck pup screams, and the bridge has great sustain. even my guitar tech said hes not a strat guy but this makes him want one.

playing out of a 2x12 fender de'ville tube amp so the vintage pups make an awesome oldie tone for zephyr song and universally speaking chords. a real joy to play

[micromnml]

Seymour Duncan APS1 seemed to lack output and lively-ness. Stuck the ceramic originals back in on my MIM strat and continued getting awesome 'warm' tones.

[cub]

I remember that Frusciante mentioned that he replaced his stratocaster pickups with Seymour Duncan. Can someone remind me of which interview this was in? Did he say Vintage or Antiquity?

[bobthecow]

John uses seymour duncan antiquity pickups, and he uses the closest thing to vintage as possible. This means that when you are buying your pickups, if you want either the Frusciante sound or the real vintage sound, you have to get them in the original configuration. Meaning, three neck pickups, no special middle, no special bridge, just three plain old neck pickups. In the 1960s, fender did not do reverse winding, nor did they make the bridge hotter. Their was absolutely no difference in the three pickups on a strat except maybe an extra wind here or there done by a human who lost count. I have a vintage 1962 strat that I don't take in public anymore, and a vintage spec strat that a guy here in missouri made for me. The only difference is that I used NOS fender parts instead of true vintage, and duncan pickups instead of vintage. Yes, there is a difference in tone, but the three duncan neck pickups are closer than anything fender has.

If you wanna save yourself a few bucks and use fender parts, the '57/'62 pickups that fender makes are damn good, I have a set of those in my fiesta red amvintage.

[SwedishFruscianteFan]

bobthecow, on 18 August 2010 - 09:38 PM, said:

If you wanna save yourself a few bucks and use fender parts, the '57/'62 pickups that fender makes are damn good, I have a set of those in my fiesta red amvintage.

Aah yes, have those on my CP 50's. They sound wooonderful.

[bobthecow]

SwedishFruscianteFan, on 19 August 2010 - 04:22 PM, said:

bobthecow, on 18 August 2010 - 09:38 PM, said:

If you wanna save yourself a few bucks and use fender parts, the '57/'62 pickups that fender makes are damn good, I have a set of those in my fiesta red amvintage.

Aah yes, have those on my CP 50's. They sound wooonderful.

Yeah, they have a great tone, nice and warm. The only thing "incorrect" about them is that they used a '63 set to model them instead of a '57 or '62 set. The inductance is a bit off because of it.

[cub]

bobthecow, on 18 August 2010 - 12:38 PM, said:

John uses seymour duncan antiquity pickups, and he uses the closest thing to vintage as possible. This means that when you are buying your pickups, if you want either the Frusciante sound or the real vintage sound, you have to get them in the original configuration. Meaning, three neck pickups, no special middle, no special bridge, just three plain old neck pickups. In the 1960s, fender did not do reverse winding, nor did they make the bridge hotter. Their was absolutely no difference in the three pickups on a strat except maybe an extra wind here or there done by a human who lost count. I have a vintage 1962 strat that I don't take in public anymore, and a vintage spec strat that a guy here in missouri made for me. The only difference is that I used NOS fender parts instead of true vintage, and duncan pickups instead of vintage. Yes, there is a difference in tone, but the three duncan neck pickups are closer than anything fender has.

If you wanna save yourself a few bucks and use fender parts, the '57/'62 pickups that fender makes are damn good, I have a set of those in my fiesta red amvintage.

Thanks, this is really helpful. If you put in three neck pickups instead of neck-middle-bridge, do you have to wire it up in a special way to avoid humming?

[bobthecow]

cub, on 26 August 2010 - 02:56 PM, said:

bobthecow, on 18 August 2010 - 12:38 PM, said:

John uses seymour duncan antiquity pickups, and he uses the closest thing to vintage as possible. This means that when you are buying your pickups, if you want either the Frusciante sound or the real vintage sound, you have to get them in the original configuration. Meaning, three neck pickups, no special middle, no special bridge, just three plain old neck pickups. In the 1960s, fender did not do reverse winding, nor did they make the bridge hotter. Their was absolutely no difference in the three pickups on a strat except maybe an extra wind here or there done by a human who lost count. I have a vintage 1962 strat that I don't take in public anymore, and a vintage spec strat that a guy here in missouri made for me. The only difference is that I used NOS fender parts instead of true vintage, and duncan pickups instead of vintage. Yes, there is a difference in tone, but the three duncan neck pickups are closer than anything fender has.

If you wanna save yourself a few bucks and use fender parts, the '57/'62 pickups that fender makes are damn good, I have a set of those in my fiesta red amvintage.

Thanks, this is really helpful. If you put in three neck pickups instead of neck-middle-bridge, do you have to wire it up in a special way to avoid humming?

If you ground everything correctlty, and you put the alluminum shield on the back of the pickgaurd, it wont hum too bad. Single coils are meant to have a bit of hum to them, you dont wanna lose it all or you will lose a bit of your crunch when the volume is up.

[AdMission]

I can get pretty close to JF's tone, and I have been using Duncan APS-2s in neck and middle positions. I use a maple fingerboard, though. The APSs might be rather dull sounding with a rosewood board. I'm not certain - never tried it.