Is It Worth Modding An Expensive Guitar? PT2 Pickups
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- In today's video, I take an expensive guitar and change the pickups to see if it's worth upgrading an expensive guitar.
For this experiment, Im taking my Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster and changing the Fender Custom Shop 60s set to a set of SUNBEAR Pickups 59/69 set.
To contact SUNBEAR pickups follow the link below.
www.sunbearpic...
The Studio Rats are core band members Paul Drew on guitar/production/mixing, drummer James Ivey and Dan Hawkins on bass. They collaborate with singers and musicians to produce radio-ready songs.
Clean is nice and piano like while the crunch is surprisingly throaty. These are definitely on the top 5 list of single coil vintage style pups.
Thank you again for your time and skill, Mr. Drew.
Cheers CJ!
Oh, you're the same guy that did the HSS strat video that I left a comment on. You really convinced me to get an HSS man. You really know how to dial in your tones and your playing is also great.
I’ve owned and played many guitars in my 50 years of playing. You either get a great sounding and playing guitar or you don’t. Many things can be fixed. I’ve had fret work done on brand new expensive guitars right out of the box. On more than 90% of my guitars I have changed one or more pickups. A very good guitar can become a great guitar for you by matching the pickups to your style of playing and/or the type of music you play. Love your videos and playing. Your tone is always beautiful.
Thanks MrH.
Normally I agree with everything you say but on this occasion I prefer the originals but it’s such a personal thing. I just feel they make your Strat too similar to your tele, which I know you love, but for me I’d stick with the custom 60s. Each to their own and great video as always
Cheers John.
Love the tortoise shell pick guard
Cheers fella, it’s really quite divisive some people love it some hate it.
Awrsome demo as usual , Sir. They sound fantastic
Cheers Nabil
Very Nice! Think I can hear a bit more "Chime" on the (59/69's) Neck.
The Middle sounds incredible too! 😎👌
The middle is like night and day, it’s the first time I’ve heard a Strat middle that I think is usable.
I have a modern strat American pro II and would like to have a bit more vintage sound but not too much. Since Monty’s strat pup sets have some different year copies which ones should you would you recommend? I’m even thinking of make my sss to a hss but maybe I will just make a mistake doing so. Your channel is 🔝
Very, very impressed indeed. Very vibrant set that just sounded that little bit more alive.
Agreed
To my ear the Sunbear sound a bit less airy (if that’s a word?). I personally wouldn’t bother changing out the Fender pups with the exception of the bridge.
I was looking for "noiseless" pickups for an average Strat. The Fender option reduced the hum, but the tone was not near that of my original 65 Strat. Eventually, I tried Kinman pickups, and the tone was even better than the 65 Strat. I decided to install Kinmans in the vintage 65.
i like fender cs60. sounds more traditional. while the sunbear sounds a bit too sweet.
Honestly, I prefer the fender pickups 🤷🏼♂️ but maybe tomorrow I’ll change my mind 🤣
Beautiful guitar and really cool pickups. What are you playing through? For your clean sections and dirt?
Cheers I was using an Axe Fx3
I have a set of sunbears in my custom shop Landau 68. Definitely an improvement over the CS Fat 50s.
they did seem to have a bit more clarity to over all tone, less bass but nice sounding. more air to the notes ringing out. bridge was less scooped and nice cut, tamed top end. over-all, it's a nice upgrade, but the original pick ups are no slouch. do you have the bridge with a tone pot? one thing i noticed, the pick up height sounded and looked different, with the new set a little lower than the original. this does make a difference as i'm sure you'd know.
That mrxr, the height of the new set was adjusted to taste not to the original pickups height. Agreed they do have a hair more clarity. I’m really digging the Sunbear set.
Love the pickguard
Sounds lovely Paul. I really want to change my noiseless pickups on my Nashville Tele, it’s always a gamble on spending the money with hopes you like the result, new pickups can be quite a stress.
I completely agree Gary, however I’m not a fan of noiseless pickups so I think you’ll be happy with what ever you choose. Have a chat with Stu at Sunbear pickups, I’m sure he’ll have some suggestions.
@@TheStudioRats thanks Paul as always. I’ll do that and let you know the results as I’ve procrastinated long enough 😊
The intro was fine to me. That's why I got a stratocaster. To try to create that sound. I not that good, yet.
ultimately its personal preference, which is why I would prefer to spend that much money building my own guitar or getting a guitar that already has exactly what i want.
But I'd go custom any day. Good playing, wish I could be like you.
the sunbear are great pickups but the fender cs60's are great too...
They both sound great, but the fender cs have that true vintage strat sound.
Is that Sonic Blue or Daphne Blue? That type of blue with the Tortoise Shell pickguard is my dream Strat.
It was Daphne blue.
@@TheStudioRats awesome, thanks. 😁
I'm a bit concerned by the packaging - the way that they were rolled together in the paper. Usually when you get a set of pickups, they each have their own slot in the box so that the magnets can't get close to one another. The last two pickups appeared to be sitting against one another as you unwrapped them. A sure-fire way to demagnetise a permanent magnet is to expose it to the magnetic field of another permanent magnet.
Interesting I never thought of that. Perhaps Sunbear could comment on why.
Absolutely a fair question. They are not packed face to face, though sometimes as you unwrap them they will have a chance to pull together momentarily of course . Each is separated as wrapped so no chance of physical damage either. I’ve conducted various tests on proximity effects to make sure gauss changes don’t occur and can confirm all have had no issues with this packaging style. I try to avoid the use of any foams or plastics for sustainability reasons also. Hope this helps 😊.
@@sunbearpickups4978 I guess you can take heart in the fact that I had to attack the packaging because I couldn't fault the gorgeous pickups.
They were close but my money's on the Sunbear pickups because they seemed a bit warmer and fuller.
Cheers Jeff agreed.
They sound great
The Fender pick-ups sound better.
Fender CS 60’s felt like home to me imo.
The Sunbear's have what I would call a bold sound in comparison.
Agreed Joe.
The Sun Bear bridge I like better, but all other pickups I prefer the Fender custom shops.
They’re all good pickups.
Hi Paul how set your pick up high in mm? Thanks
I do it by ear, it’s different on all my guitars.
is this still the Wilkinson bridge?
I put back the fender bridge, I’m putting the Wilkinson on another guitar.
Very close but the Sunbear do sound a little "better" to my ears. A bit more "open" sounding. All this stuff is subjective init. Trying to describe subtle tonal differences is always fun 🤣
Cheers Gaz.
You are calling it a £4000 guitar but really, it's just an Alder or Ash body with a maple neck and a rosewood board. It might as well be a squire or a Pacifica (£189) with a better fret-job and slightly more expensive electrics. Of course a better set of pickups by an experts such as Stu Robson will make a huge difference! The guy has seen and played everything and knows what to do with any guitar in order to improve the clarity and tone in general, customising a set according to the frequency response of any wood species combo. The fact that Fender decides to sell a guitar for £4000 doesn't make it different (tonally) to any other inexpensive Alder/Maple/Rosewood guitar...the electrics/pickups will make a huge difference, as well as the amp choice of course
A $4K Strat? I have a Squier Standard Stratocaster for which I paid $229 a decade ago. Plays great, sounded great then… sounds even better now after adding a $150 pickguard with noiseless Fender pickups and a 10 way switch configuration. How did you manage to pay 10x for the same thing, and still find it inadequate enough to need to modify it? I just cannot see a Strat being anything more than a $1200 guitar
Thats what i dont get ... whats the point of buying a "custom shop" just to change it ? lol no one is gonna convince me that make sense at all... ever.. all in your head "placebo effect"
It’s his job. I’d be getting the best too if it was my job.
@@Utube-g3g his job is to test guitar setups or be the best guitarist he can be?
@@Utube-g3g it came from the ‘Custom’ shop, for $4K. How did it, a block of wood with a relatively standard Strat neck, not arrive as “the best”?
@@prodbyjuneg LOL. bro.
tbh the cream pickguard looked way better than the tortoise guard.
I prefer the originals ...but very close...
The set sounds great! It’s like the CS set, but like playing through an EQ pedal that slightly enhances it. Also, THAT is a surprisingly useful middle pickup sound!
Yeah I’ve finally found a mid pickup that I like.
Nice guitar, nice pickups, great playing (as usual). But that tortoise shell scratch-plate has got to go!
I like it. I hope it stays.
@@Utube-g3g I like it too. I said that as a joke because in a previous video he said he hates 'tort guards'!
I’m not a fan of tort guards, I’m starting to get used to it. I put a minty one on it and still didn’t like that. If it was my choice i wouldn’t have chosen Daphne blue but the guitar sounded so good that I had to ignore the colour.
@@TheStudioRats Don't look. Just play. 👏
You lost me at $4000 guitar...😅
Very little difference.