Beginning My Quest For TONE | Modding My Fender Strat
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Join me in my journey to find the best Fender Strat tones I can! Inspired by Mick Taylor of That Pedal Show!
In this episode, I swap out the original 50’s scratch plate for an Gold anodised plate, and swapped out the pickups from the custom shop 50’s set, to the Radioshop RSV57 set!
Scratch plate: bit.ly/3dG7eDx
Pickups: bit.ly/2WWp0vs
I’ll be filming another few episodes as I have acquired a bunch of pickups to test out!
#fender #stratocaster #mods
Video edited by John Hollingworth
⬇️⬇️⬇️ Feel free to read this ⬇️⬇️⬇️
Hey guys, I’m Rabea. I'm the lead guitarist in Toska, Frog Leap & Dorje where I write music, make songs and have a great time with my mates. I also have my own line of guitars with Chapman Guitars, and I’ve designed numerous products with some really cool companies, such as the Victory Amps VX Kraken. Anyway, i hope you enjoy my videos, thank you for watching!
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54 yrs old, been a Strat guy since I was 15 and just love them. I just landed a Richie Kotzen Red Strat after years of trying to get my hands on one here in the US and it is the glassiest most beautiful sounding and looking Strat I’ve ever owned
Rabea can you please make a full guitar collection? I know it might be a lot of work to do, but I would love to see it :D - Great Content btw
I think he did a video of them
@@malungtvnews yeah he did
@@malungtvnews Send link - I can't find it
Useful tip Bea: when soldering by the switch, tilt the while thing, so nothing can drip into the switch itself, otherwise it can ruin it for good ;)
"It's a polite guitar." I feel this sentence. It's Such a fantastic great description, and It's so simple but relatable. Love it Bea!
Ok, somehow I'd managed to never see the innards of a custom shop strat and oh my god, that has to be the sexiest cable management I'd ever seen. Holy shit
I agree! If I pulled the pick guard and saw that wiring I would very slowly and carefully screw the pick guard back into place as is and call it done. That is truly beautiful work.
I have two guitars that were wired by my amptech friend. They look similar. Aesthetically super-pleasing, wires lead together, everything arranged super-neatly.
For what it’s worth, after trying a lot of Strat pickups, I’ve found that narrowing down the options into 2 categories, the 50s style and 60s style pickups, is the best way to stay sane through this process. I’ve been watching you play in all of the Andertons videos for years, and now your own videos. My guess is you will prefer the 60s style Strat pickups, because of the more assertive sound they provide. The trick is to find the right spank, without harshness, so you can feel the sweetness in the tone. I have a Fender 57 reissue Strat which I love, but eventually I found that the 50s sound was not right for me. After looking into it, I realized that my favorite Strat players were all using mid 60s Strat pickups, including Hendrix, which I know you love too. I actually ended up with, and recommend the Fender 65 vintage pickups which I found to have the right balance between being more assertive, and still allowing the important dynamic range needed to let the subtlety of your playing to come through. Congrats on your success and best of luck with your journey!
What a gorgeous cleanish tone at the beginning. Beautiful.
That's his song called Dulcet Thing. Look up his playthrough. It's incredible.
@@bennyharderguitar thanks man I was looking for this lmao
Beautiful:)
@@MrOwie I learned how to play it by watching his play through over and over again. Took me forever!
I have a CS ‘57 reissue inspired strat that also sounds very clean like the start of this video. I’m no expert but I guess the PuP’s were a little cleaner with a dipped mid range compared to the ‘60 styles (in terms of CS reissues anyway). I also have a CS ‘64 so that’s my personal reference point. I was starting to think the same as Bea regarding my ‘57 Tones, but then I played it through a Tone King Sky King and that had some kind of mojo effect. Perhaps some of the high end clean tone amps help make the more neutral CS 50’s strats sing more.
You could dip the pickup covers and knobs in coffee for a few hours to “age” them. Works like a charm.
Or play the shit out of it 😁
Te
True, works amazing! Try lukewarm water for the coffee. Works better than cold, hot water will warp the plastics so be aware of that. This is a decent ageing trick although it doesn't seem to have any effect on Mexican made plastic parts.
Some fine sandpaper and brown and black shoe polish on the edges are also a fine trick
I always heard about using tea. I actually don't have much trouble with the natural method, either. My stuff gets a real thrashing just being here.
The change in tone from 6:20 to 16:55 is insane. I'm blown away.
My experience of aluminium pick guards is that, with single coil pickups, eddy currents induced in the aluminium have a muffling effect on tone. Some people like this, but I found it reduced too much high end. The effect is measurable as a small change in inductance. About 4% less at 1000Hz when mounted in aluminium compared to measurement in air or mounted in a plastic guard. As far as I know Fender started using the gold anodised aluminium guards for looks and for electrical screening in 1957 but soon dropped them. One possible explanation for this is that once a player wore through the gold anodising, aluminium particles worn off the exposed surface turned their fingers black. Later on from 1959 to 1967 Fender fitted a thinner aluminium screening plate under a plastic guard. This also has an effect on tone, but being thinner, not as much as the previous gold anodised pick guards.
I came back to this video again just for the view under this custom shop pickguard at 9:18. I have never seen such care taken on wiring including the routing of the wires, which is just beautiful. It makes me want to get one of these someday.
My buddy introduced me to "White Dove" a few years ago, and I totally dug your playing. Then the more I heard your stuff, it was cool that we share some guitar DNA. . .Nuno Bettencourt. You are just as rabid a fan as I am of the guy. I'm 37 years old and I laughed the other day when I heard we both got Nuno vids off Limewire. My thoughts are that you are the link between "old-school" players like Nuno, but with modern sensibilities. I can hear you are part of the new breed of technical and polished players, but with soul. . .not that whacked out computer sounding stuff, non-stop. Great to see you evolving in your search for tone!
Thanks Bea ! I am a Strat player as well (60's era) . I am intently watching yours and Mick's journeys with pick ups .
I like the original tone, and that custom shop solder job was a work of art.....the way they wired the 5 way selector was awesome. I would have just made a loaded pick guard and swapped the whole thing, if I could afford it. That being said Ive done the same thing many times over, chasing tone.
Hey Rabea, I know I don't speak for just myself when I say you look incredibly healthy now, I've seen even your skating videos and such on your RUclips story and you've come a long way man. You seem more confident and comfortable in videos and look great. I watched the old sounds like dimebag without busting the bank video right before this one and your change is incredibly clear. Good work man, cheers. We all love you
Sound aside, which your opinion is much more important than ours, given that we can't really *hear* it, I really appreciate someone doing work on their guitar and explaining it as someone who isn't an expert. You've got this sweet spot of knowledge where you're not over complicating it, but you do know what you're doing. It's very approachable.
Superb post Rabea. for my money the new pickups are extraordinary and are at home in the Blues/R&B area - perhaps more than full on distortion. Clarity is just great and you play with great fluency. Thanks so much for this. you've really got me thinking about my older strats...
Welcome Rabea, You have just entered into the Strat Zone of tone search. Mind your head it tends to get tight in that rabbit hole. Best of luck.
Dude I love this...This is almost exactly what I do with mine. I've got 2 Mexican Strats that I have put so much of my own soul into I've had to re-fret both of them. EVO gold fretwire, High mass bridge blocks one brass one steel, and different flavors of Fender's Custom Shop pickups. Scratchplate knobs and covers of course need to be tweaked from the sterile white they come with and a bone nut because why not, once you do a full re-fret you've gotta carve a new nut anyhow. I do all my own work, my first guitar was actual trash my old man rescued from a dumpster. Smashed into pieces and left for dead, a few parts from Radio Shack gave this thing it's heartbeat back...ten years later I restored the thing proper and she is an absolute Powerhouse. It inspires me so much that this piece of garbage has had possibly the most profound affect on my life; decades later this guitar would end rehabilitating me in much the same way. My Mexicans will go toe to toe with your Custom Shop and I could not be more proud of that. Awesome video brother.
"The neck is SO fat" - puts his hand round the neck like a mere mortal holding a chopstick...
I would change the hardware to black it would look insane
You mean the scratch plate ? 9:47
cries in small lady hands
Big, meaty, claws! 👍🏼
Rabea playing a strat is just magnificent. The what goes around cover he did is insane.
HA! I _KNEW_ this would have something to do with hanging out with/talking to Mick as soon as I read the title! When you brought him up by name and I almost said "called it!" out loud lol.
2:37 Hahahaha! You got Mick's horn in your video! Hilarious! I hope TPS saw this video
My impression is that the sound is somewhat stronger beefier, more bass and mids - maybe actually sounding a bit less like a typical "vintage strat" - than before. It immediately reminded me of when I replaced my 70s Strat original pickups with Kinman "Blues" type pickups in neck and middle position years ago. Of course it's hard to remember exactly from this distance but there's that spontaneous impression like I heard that type of "shifting" of the overall sound before. And as you said: you probably can't tell on the spot if it's really "better" than before because it's just - well - "different" and you've probably got to have some time to relate to it playingwise before making up your mind on some sort of solid basis.
Interestingly with my Kingman's going in a similar direction soundwise I've over the years developed a feeling that I might like to have a bit more crispness back (like the old pickups had) - especially for rhythm or chord playing. So I put in a treble bleed mod, which did the thing. Having played a year or so with this "clearer" less mid/bass sound I find myself thinking today that I actually may remove that treble bleed mod again to get back the original beefy Kinman Blues sound I had then been going for in the first place and which really reminds me of the sound of those Radioshop PUs...
I guess this illustrates in a way that the perception of a guitar's sound and the personal preference of a certain sound may well change gradually over time and so it can be quite hard to decide on what's better (or worse) in the long run. On the other hand you probably have other guitars where you never felt the need to change anything at all...
i am just doing a 3-tone sunburst strat project with maple neck. i'll go with black scratchplate and plastics, HSS. i'll go with a schaller megaswitch e 5-way, it splits the humbucker in position 2 and 3 (without additional switches or push-pull pots). yes, in mid position you get one coil of the humbucker and the neck together! positions 1, 4 and 5 are the same as on a regular 5-way.
In the first few seconds I was thinking: wow this is some really nice sounding guitar, and looks to be a well made, interesting video. then I realised: this video is by Rabea Massaad, the metal guitarist that does stuff for Andertons. Was pleasantly surprised by this, amazing.
Very much enjoy these sorts of mods. I picked up a 2019 Squier Classic Vibe 50's Strat at the end of December; very well-made and terrific guitar. Upgraded to Gotoh locking tuners, Tusq XL nut, Seymour Duncan pickups and Graphtech saddles and it plays and sounds as great as it looks. Absolutely killer guitar at a down-to-earth price.
For real. I picked up a Classic Vibe 60's Thinline Tele a few months ago. I have the Fender '72 Thinline reissue and like it a lot. When I saw the Squier from across the store, I thought, "ooh, what's that?" I was a little discouraged when I got close enough to see it was a Squier, but figured I would plug it in anyway. I couldn't put the damn thing down. It was great. Had to buy it. My only real gripe was I didn't like the steel saddles and that they and the bridge plate were all-shiny and chromed out. So, I bought a 50s style Fender bridge plate and some Gotoh compensated brass saddles and now it not only looks better, but sounds way better. It is one of the least expensive guitars I have ever bought, and it's still one of my favorites. Might change out the pickups for something a little different, but with the new saddles, they sound pretty damn good to be honest.
Thank you for your humility and your love of Tone/Guitars/Gear. Cheers
It's about time one of you British tone mammoths we all love and adore demo a set of handmade EdMire pickups from the north of Norway.
I loved the sound of both sets of pickups ❤ both very different, and I believe you’re first impressions of the sound change are spot on 👍
Love the Project, but I'd resolder the Ground (Black) Pickupwires with a Soldering Iron that has more Power.
The Solderjoint looks pretty cold and might cause Trouble down the Line. The Joint should form a dome and be nice and shiny
Ive been looking to buy a Fender Stratocaster for a few year's now. I got into Squier to learn. Then, my friend brought me one to fix. A Mexican Stratocaster. I have not been aboe to afford one so i started to see what Squier model's closely resembled a real stratocaster. The Starcaster, and then the classic vibe qnd finally i landed on the holy grale, a Stratocaster made by Axl for Squier. They didn't cut corners and did it right. Baseball bat neck, 50's headstock, full thickness body qnd good wood's. I added my own pickups qnd some cool trebel bleeds. Duel potentiometer and 22g wiring. Its a beast! My free guitar beats all my other one's. Soom it'll have some texas vintage tone but i love it as is. Heavy relic too, had a veneer!
Looks and sounds bad ass! I have a Road Worn 50s body in black with a classic series 50s lacquer neck and the gold pickguard. Favorite guitar I have ever owned.
Rabea you´re Strat tone is truely inspiring me
It sounds awesome. To me it is the holy grail !!!
I’m a bit OCD, but the cleanup after the new pickups went in was hilarious. Bea was dying to just go play the thing! It sounded awesome, btw. Good job, Radio Shop!
That is probably the best strat sound I've ever heard. I always think I like something about a strat until I play one, then remember why I still don't own one. This almost makes me feel like I'm missing out
That intro music was great! Amazing sound. More of that please!
It’s good to see even pros like Rabea have to set sail on an occasional Tone Quest. Killer vid man!
@Rabea Massaad That honk :D Almost spit the melon I was eating on the screen :D Nice one, man :D
changing the tremolo/bridge can have a huge effect as well, I'd heartily recommend Wudtone (UK based), installed one of their tremolo bridges on my frankenstrat, made a really nice difference, well worth checking out
Great video, and I dig both the before and after tone of the Strat, dare we say it's all you Rabea. No doubt about it, you're a phenomenal musician.
I always find it a bit sad when people fall out of love with the sound of a custom shop piece and start changing. *I don't blame anyone at all for doing it,* it's yours and your right to do it, but I do find it to be the most ultimate form of chasing the dragon and never fully being satisfied. It's only that it's a custom shop, probably limited in quantity all things considered, that makes for it being the cherry on top.
Was wondering what happened to that beauty. Now I know.
You know your all time best tone vid (at least for me) was the snake oil pedals review. Watching (listening) that 55 reissue made me fall in love with strats again, made me buy a gorgeous Squire CV 50s. That also has Alnico III pups with similar output and great sounds.
But as you say tastes could differ.
Great playing as always!
I'd be tempted to try black pickup covers, knobs, switch tip, a tremolo end to match the outer ring of the sunburst.
Absolutely what's needed, agreed. Also white and gold...meh, but look at how good the gold hardware looks with the black plastic on LP Customs. The gold scratchplate with black plastic bits would look just as classy on that Strat
Josefina built pickups!! Sweet. Helpful to take pictures before ripping things out.
Rebel Relic is from Amsterdam, and I think that every guitarist ( who can of course) should visit the shop, plus the owner Luke is so friendly! Great video in any case!
Also...as Mick mentioned recently in his vlog, you might try floating the trem to have it react as Leo intended. Setup properly, that won't effect tuning but may give you a bit of a different feel and tone you like.
I’m not a big “Trem user” but I set mine up floating, I prefer the springy sort of sound it gives!
Have no tuning stability problems whatsoever!
Cool sounds there, mate. Seems to me that the extra bass on the Rshop ones has more to do with height than the pups themselves. So far, I prefer the originals, but let's see how it turns out, since Mick sent you a set of pups too...
You've had the anodized plate for awhile now, which means we've been hearing the nodded strat for a few weeks- when you get to the end of this pickup journey, maybe give us a "wrap it up" video, showing all the sounds/pickups you've had (original, radioshop and Mick's) ?
Cheers
Great choice with the anodized pick guard 👌 I started modding my strat about 20 years ago. All white strat, got a black pick guard, a stacked dimarzio humbucker in The bridge, and chrome metal knobs 🤘
A lot of newbiews ( and some cork sniffers ) mod things on guitars with dead strings, then put new strings on and marvel how bright and clear the guitar sounds, always makes me smile. You need a few miles on the clock before you can decide if it works for you.
Nice job using the cloth. Wouldn’t want to scratch the finish. Haha. Looks cool. Really like the gold pick guard.
good lord the tones from that amp are incredible... i looked for other videos and it sounds great even on channels where the tones are usually not top notch - studio quality - in your face
At first I was like, it is a Strat just leave it be. Then I thought who am I to tell anyone what "their sound" is. Rock on, Rabea!
I hate to say it but I preferred the original pups!! Just my opinion though! You are insanely talented man, thank you so much for sharing! It is always a pleasure to hear you play!
Josephina Compos made a few hundred sets of hand wound pickups called Ancho Poblano and I have them in my strat.If you want attitude in the pickups they definitely have attitude, see if you can locate someone that has them or a guitar that has them in it to try, well worth it!
I once tried to sell my 2007 USA Strat, and thankfully no one was prepared to give me the price I wanted. Thing is, I love the neck with its maple board. Just didn't like how I interacted with it. So, I decided I would mod it. Today, it has a DiMazio "injector" in the bridge, an Irongear "jailhouse rails 2" in the middle, a Seymour Duncan "quarter pounder" in the neck, and a Vega Trem. The guitar is now my favourite axe.
treble bleed was one of the best mods I made to my strat... just a low value cap like 220 cross the input and middle lugs of the volume control. No need for a capacitor or anything fancy, it just makes the volume so much more natural sounding as you turn down because the highs don't disappear.
That's a 2 tone burst. I have an American Vintage 56 coming to me now I can't wait. Modding and chasing tone is half the fun.
Great video! Thnx. I have been using Dimarzio and Duncan aftermarket pick ups for years. Lately, have been jonesing for something different. So many great boutique p/u’s out there. May have to check out the radio shop ones
Don't know if you'll see this or not, but I would like to say that a very easy mod to make for extra tonal possibilities is the Gilmour mod with the DPDT switch to enable the neck pickup. I did this with a push/push pot on my bridge tone control instead of the actual switch through the pickguard, and I have to say that position 2 with the neck pup engaged (so it's all three pickups) is simply amazing. I cannot recommend it enough.
Pro tip, eep the original electronics in place on the original pickguard and get everything new to put on the new pickguard.
Then all you need to change is two wires. Easy to switch back if you either don't like the new sound of it you love the new sound and want to bring it to a new axe.
You can also purchase "loaded" pickguards which come completely pre-wired.
Fancy finding some Radioshop pups just lying around your room. Amazing.
Radioshop PUs are great ! I have 3 of my strats loaded with their PUs and they sound awesome if you're looking for vintage kind of tone. You should try to low down the heigth of the PUs to get less bass and reduce the output a bit. BTW the pickguard is gorgeous !
Dude!!!!!! That sounds sooooo sick. Keep those pickups. Looks amazing.
I was sceptical of the gold pick guard when you first showed it, but once on the guitar, you were right man ..it’s cool looking.👍
That gold pickguard looks amazing on it!
Your Strat sounds incredible with the new pickups and looks awesome with the gold pickguard, it definitely gives me early Jazzmaster vibes and I like it. Great demo, Bea
I liked how the new pickups were "stronger" or "sturdier", but maybe even a bit too powerful. If that tone could be translated to a bit gentler one. Maybe that could be changed by screwing the pickups lower. The originals were a bit too sharp and thin to my taste. Interested in seeing what you end up deciding and what's the tone that you're after. That song around 18 minutes btw sounded so much like Dan's song vlog song :) Just after the Pink Floydish lead.
Dan Patlansky ?
It really isa matter of taste. For me, the stock pickups are strat tone perfection. The new ones are really cool though.
For him, the aggressive character of the new set works just fine. For me, original set. Very good video by the way.
Yeah I prefer the CS pups, but today I’m filming the next episodes - writing in some bare knuckle coils. Got the mother’s milk and the 63 veneer board set to try.
After that, it’s Mick’s Ron Ellis set ;)
@@RabeaMassaad Oow, ok looking forward to watching it. I have a set of Lace Sensors on my 1985 MIJ Strat. I like them. They have that modernish 80s pop rock kind of tone that works so good on recording sessions. Thank you :)
You’ve inspired me to upgrade my pickups and scratch plate now.😆 Awesome job as always brother. Cheers from the states!
I must admit, I wondered why you would want to change a custom shop set of pickups but I definitely prefer the radioshop pickups! I have an '85 jap 57 reissue and I think I'm going to get me one of the anodized pickguards after watching this, have thought about it for years but it looks so sick!!!
@Rabea, small video tip: use a (digital) compressor on your voice recording (track). It'll get rid of volume issues - close to / far from the mic: your voice will sound equally loud.
I love the sound from that Strat in your cover of Wicked Game. When it ramps up and you kick the pedal, Love that solo and the sound. Must have listened to it well over a 100 times with the volume Cranked! Could you when done and happy with the tone play that solo part for us? Thanks and I hope to see you at Sweden Rock Festival some time in the future.
That wiring job by Fender Custom Shop is so neat.
You have gotten in great shape! Nice work! 👍
Love the relic’d gold anodized pickguard. Thanks for the tip on rebelrelic. Been looking for one of these for my black over 3-tone sunburst mischief maker. 👍
I really liked that video :) :)
It's nice to see you!!
Also before screwing everthing back on you can do a ruff test of the soldering by puting the jack back in a use your screwdriver tip on the pickup to see if they are working !
A late but perhaps interesting post? My guitar is a 2005 Fender Highway One. A Sunburst with a maple neck and a sixties, so a small headstock. At the time I heard a friend play an otherwise different type of Fender strat that had replaced the pickups with Custom Shop '54 pickups. He realized a sound that went towards my desires.
In my Stratocaster were Alinico 3 pickups with the following values: Bridge 6.05 K, Mid and neck both 5.90 K. According to Fender's statement, the Custom '54 pickups have values of: Bridge and middle both 5.90 K and the neck has a value of 6.05 K. Something that almost (?) matched my Alnico 3. Does replacement make sense, I asked myself?. I did it anyway and the sound turned out to be beautiful and well suited for me. By the way, after measuring I got many other values for the Cusom '54 pickups, namely: 4.40 K for all three pickups!
The great thing about a strat is you can unsolder the jack socket and the scratchplate then removes entirely so you can work on it without damaging your guitar.
Otherwise get a big soft clean towel and use it to protect your guitar whilst you work on it so you don't add unwanted relic marks.
I think my perfect strat would be like Misha’s custom Jackson that looks classic but have the modern sound available from the bridge pickup and the classic from the single coils
Funny, I'm sitting with a MM HT-6 "Bulb" in Laguna Blue on ,my lap. It's an amazing guitar. It splits to out-of-phase sounds, but would def be amazing if it split to a pure single coil sound.
It still gets really sweet clean sounds esp through a Plexi style amp. I'm on a Jimi jag this week, and getting some sick tones out of of it.
@@MrScrofulous he didn't mean the HT6. Micha has a new strat style guitar. I belit its custom made.
yea the bridge is the ragnarok by bareknuckle, not sure if the single coils are a preexisting model tho
I modded my Strat up with a compound radius neck with jumbo stainless frets, graphtech nut, big block tremolo, locking tuners, Bareknuckle Nailbomb in the bridge, and DiMarzio noiseless singles in the neck and middle. It looks like a classic HSS Strat, but plays like a modern guitar and sounds like anything you want.
Did you notice that the wires from the pickups came twisted together? There's a reason for that. I noticed Mick also left the wires untwisted on one of his pickup change videos. Since the vintage style pickups don't use shielded cable, twisting the "hot" wire with the ground provides some degree of shielding. The aluminum scratch plate will provide some shielding as well as the ground plane providing some magnetic field change making the guitar less bright. Early '60s Strats had a metal plate under the plastic to recreate the effect of the late '50s metal plates.
Who doesn't love a Strat journey? Love the "vlog" :) Nice companion piece for Mick's, but this is waaaay too short! :D
Already ordered an anodized pickguard in the style of the 50s, for my RI 54. It's sexy and so authentic!
Love it! I've watched just about everything Mick as done with Blue and totally enjoyed that as well. The Strat sounds totally different.. def more gain and looks killer! I have a Bordeaux Metallic Strat I want to put the gold scratch plate on as well. Great job Rabea! Thank you!
Rabea, thanks for sharing this. I am a southpaw player ( it's difficult finding good left-handed guitars ) and I recently saw a tobacco sunburst lefty Strat. I hate to be a copycat... But Man, that finish with that pick-guard looks sick Dude !
I was really skeptical when I first saw the gold scratch plate. But I gotta admit, it looks amazing on the guitar!!
Instructive! Beautiful Strat. I'm tweeking mine, switching from BK pickups to Lollar Blondes... rabbit hole, rabbit hole 😂
That sounds great with the new pups!
Looks way better with the gold pick guard !
And awesome beautiful playing, as always.
I've been looking forward to this. Also, you should absolutely collab with Chris Buck! My two favourite Strat-players united.
Chris’s signature set has a “base plate” fitted to the bridge pickup!
I fitted one to the Fender “Tex-Mex” pickups I’m currently using and love the difference it makes!
I have always been a believer that your tone should be dynamic and should reflect what feels right at the time.
Exactly, that's why I spend so much money and time trying to get the equipment that will respect my feelings and not fuck my tone up quite so horribly. I am done with oppression.
FREEDOM!
I always HATE introductions to videos... but this one, with images of the guitar and music in the background, was fantastic!
brilliant video ive got a 2014 Mexican strat got it second hand love the way it feels I was thinking of changing the pickups was looking at the already loaded scratch plate got to do some research on what they sound like look forward to next video from you
Hi Rabea! I would highly recommend that you get a Weller 40 watt soldering iron for future swaps. It so much faster AND reliable when soldering to pots. Believe me, you won't regret it ;-) A 25 watt for the small stuff (lugs) and 40 watt for the heavier parts (back of pots) makes a nice combo ;-)
Nice work, Rabea! I know performing surgery on one of your prized possessions can be a daunting task, sometimes.... looks and sounds good.
Inspiring tone + playing, and also inspiring weight loss mate having watched your vids for years now you've never looked better! Keep at it 🤘
It's a beautiful guitar Bea and your playing is awesome as always. I really liked the guitar as it was but the changes are great too - I think whatever makes you feel better when you play it, stick with it. As several people have commented, you should definitely try adjusting pickup height too, it makes a huge difference.
This reminds me of my favourite strat type which is Mark Knopfler's Schecter Dream Machine. Maple board, sunburst, brass/gold scratch plate, black pickup surrounds, metal knobs. It's the Tunnel Of Love guitar and it's amazing!
i have the same pickguard (scratchplate) for my 3 tone tobacco burst and i love it. i put all black hardware on mine tho; pu covers too
Honestly, i'd be happy either way, but since your are happy and this is your guitar i'm glad for you. Awesome video Bea