Help with single coil pickup recommendation for Strat guitar

  • Hello everyone.


    I need help with pickup recommendations for an American Fender Strat guitar. I've been using my Epi Les Paul Tribute with the Kemper since I got my Kemper a few months ago. The Les Paul sounds AMAZING through the Kemper and haven't given my strat much attention since I got the Kemper.


    Today I hooked up my Strat to the Kemper and ran into some issues. My strat has the Custom Shop Fat 50's and they sound Phenomenal on pretty much any clean profile I choose. The issue I am having is (and I believe this is definitely from the Strat and has nothing to do with the Kemper since my Les Paul is awesome through it) is that if I push the gain up to try and get some nice edge of breakup sounds or add moderates amount of gain the strat becomes terribly muddy and undefined. It sounds really bad. I assume (this is IMO) this is do to the CS Fat 50's since they are not really geared for those types of tones (hence the 1950's sound in its name).


    I am not trying to play any type of metal profiles (like Uberschall or Diezel etc) with my Strat. I def know better & I save those for my Les Paul or Schecter guitars since obviously those tend to fit better.


    Just FYI ,,,I do consider myself very well versed in tweaking the parameters in the Kemper such as definition and clarity etc etc. And I have messed with input sensitivity. I am convinced it is the Fat 50's . Some tweaking does help a very little bit (maybe 10%) on the edge of breakup profiles but anything with gain over 10 o'clock and it is unbearable.


    I would like some single coil pickups that would handle moderate to semi high gain WITH CLARITY & PUCNH. Nice good definition and clarity on edge of breakup and then don't unravel with a semi cranked JCM 800. And Hopefully they will also sound as good as the CS Fat 50's do on clean profiles. The Fat 50's deliver 120% on WARM VINTAGE CLEAN tones which I love.


    And also FYI I did check my pickup height to make sure it was at correct height and they are set to fact standards. Also I use mainly TAF ARMIN MBRITT etc commercial profiles so its not a bad profile issue. And again my Les Paul is awesome through all those profiles regardless of gain settings.


    I have very little knowledge when it comes to single coil pickups since everything I have ever owned has been Humbuckers.

    Any suggestions for single coils that fit my above criteria?


    Thanks and Merry Christmas!!

  • I have quite some experience with swapping PU's in Strats, Teles and Les Pauls.


    for Strats I like the Fender Tex- Mex- PU set very much and would recommend it to you as I have them fitted into 2 Strats of mine. They don't cost a fortune as well (95.- Euro)
    http://www.thomann.de/de/fender_tex_mex_pu_set.htm
    I believe they were first introduced in the Jimmy Vaughan (of Fabulous Thunderbirds) signature strat, and they give you an overwound kick to work well with more crunchy and OD sounds without losing their vintage clarity/ability. Best of both worlds to me, and you can try them with full money back guarantee.


    Also very recommendable is the Redhouse set by the German boutique PU maker Leosounds which I have fitted them to another Strat of mine.
    http://www.secleosounds.com/os…7958f47fc5288f7adb367745f
    At 115.- Euro they're very affordable as well.
    (In direct comparison they almost sound identical to the Tex-Mex's though so...).


    Another very good alternative IMO would be the City Limit set by Tonerider. I only have experience with their Telecaster and PAF Pickups but these are totally awesome so I would totally be confident to try them and if I needed another set I think they would be my first choice.
    http://tonerider.com/city-limits
    In Germany these are best available through Amazon.
    http://www.amazon.de/Tonerider…rds=tonerider+city+limits
    Their price is just great IMO.
    Hope that helps.

  • Pickups are another of those things that are a matter of taste. Personally, I have settled on a Fender CS '69 in the neck, Fender Fat '50s in the middle, and Seymour Duncan SSL-5 in the bridge ...


    Edit: Merry Christmas :thumbup:

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • To be honest, I think you should consider to keep your Strat as is and instead go try some P90 guitars.
    There should be plenty of choice in Nashville, hehe.


    Here's a great video by Acy who is a pretty well known PU expert here in Germany and he's quite familiar with the Kemper Profiler as well.
    Usually he demos the solo guitar sound first and then he rocks it using a backing track. Let's see if you can enjoy the world of P90s.

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  • Hi Mateo,


    I think it depends also a lot to what kind of profiles your using.
    I bought a strat last week and it was customized with suhr pick up's. Meanwhile i am a big fan of it because the cleans are awesome as nearly on every strat, but i tried a chrunch profile from guido (the lemon ones) for playing some floyd stuff with not so many high gain. I think the suhr pick ups are really nice. Here is the result ( this lead sound makes me smile, the strat likes it)

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    Have a nice x-mas

  • I have a strat with cs fat 50s in the neck as well. The muddiness is part of the deal ... but consider how great the cleans are. If you want to go with mid gain or higher consider using the eq before the amp - high pass filter. The grand finale profiles done by Andy TAF have some nice crunchy profiles that work extremely well with my cs fat 50s. Finl thought: One of the reasons to have more than oneguitar is that different sounds are required in different situations. There is no single guitar that can do all the great sounds there are with many different guitars.


  • Thanks Ingolf for the recommendations. I'm going to look into those especially the TEX MEX PU's they sound very interesting

  • To be honest, I think you should consider to keep your Strat as is and instead go try some P90 guitars.
    There should be plenty of choice in Nashville, hehe.


    Here's a great video by Acy who is a pretty well known PU expert here in Germany and he's quite familiar with the Kemper Profiler as well.
    Usually he demos the solo guitar sound first and then he rocks it using a backing track. Let's see if you can enjoy the world of P90s.

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    Nice option but sounds very much like my Les Paul. I'm trying to keep the single coil strat sound but just clean up the muddiness and get more clarity in the gain area.

  • I have a strat with cs fat 50s in the neck as well. The muddiness is part of the deal ... but consider how great the cleans are. If you want to go with mid gain or higher consider using the eq before the amp - high pass filter. The grand finale profiles done by Andy TAF have some nice crunchy profiles that work extremely well with my cs fat 50s. Finl thought: One of the reasons to have more than oneguitar is that different sounds are required in different situations. There is no single guitar that can do all the great sounds there are with many different guitars.


    Definitely will try adding pre EQ to dial out some of the muddiness before I spend any money on new pickups. Thanks!


  • Hi Mateo,


    I think it depends also a lot to what kind of profiles your using.
    I bought a strat last week and it was customized with suhr pick up's. Meanwhile i am a big fan of it because the cleans are awesome as nearly on every strat, but i tried a chrunch profile from guido (the lemon ones) for playing some floyd stuff with not so many high gain. I think the suhr pick ups are really nice. Here is the result ( this lead sound makes me smile, the strat likes it)

    External Content soundcloud.com
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    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    Have a nice x-mas[/quot


    Those sound very good!