Van Zandt True Vintage pickups?

[Bluesbreaker59]

Thoughts, or opinions on these in a 50's reissue strat??? I'm trying to go for a tone similar to that of early Jimmie Vaughan or Anson stuff, or even the Cobra records guys, Otis or Magic Sam. I was considering a True Vintage in the neck and middle and then maybe a blues or vintage plus in the bridge or just a full set of True Vintage???

Thoughts? Opinions? Experiences with Van Zandt True Vintage pickups? Soundclips maybe??

As for my setup its either a Victoria 35310 or Double Deluxe and usually a reverb tank and a trem pedal, and again the strat is a MIM 50's reissue so alder body and maple neck.

Thank you

[chuckocaster]

van zandt makes some nice pups, i've played several sets and dug them. i don't know what the specs are, but they should be wound in the 5ks. i have some Hamels that are A3 mags and read from 5.3k in the neck to 5.8k in the bridge. they chime like mad, are sweet sounding, and take pedals really well. they are modeled after the earliest strat pups, then in late 54 they switched to A5, always staggered mag. with the tweeds, low wound pups are going to sound sweet because the amps usually sound gainy with "standard" pups. so the low wounds will balance out the tone of the amp. fender always wound the pups in the guitars to work with the amps from the same time period. tweed amps are mid heavy, gainy, the pups are wound low, are bright and sweet. it evens out. blackface amps have less mids, the pups are wound hotter. it's all a balancing act, and there is never a "right" or "wrong" just what works for you. but there are certain combinations that always seem to do the trick.

[mgade]

Cool reasonable explanation, thanks Chuck.

[Gris]

VZ 'true vintage' neck runs about 6.0k and sounds more like my old '62 Strat than a '50s to me, but for me that's a good thing. KILLER pickups though, best bang for buck IMO.

FWIW, I am a non-traditionalist when it comes to Strat PUs. I like a medium low output neck PU, a super low output neck PU and a medium hot bridge PU. I like this setup because I don't play on the mid alone and a super low output there enhances the tweener position.

[yankeerob]

+1 on weak middle pups - I used to take a 1000 windings off 'em to get good quack when in combo with a hotter bridge pup - and it doesn't matter what you use... it's what comes out the other end that counts...

[Bluesbreaker59]

Ended up buying a set of True Vintage with a Vintage Plus for the bridge, should be here in a couple of weeks, and boy am I excited!!!

[curt1lp]

Ended up buying a set of True Vintage with a Vintage Plus for the bridge, should be here in a couple of weeks, and boy am I excited!!!

I have that combo in a red 62 partsocaster. You will find they are really nice pickups with a great glassy in-between sounds.

[chuckocaster]

congrats.

[Bluesbreaker59]

Well I got the pickups and got them installed by a tech friend. The neck pickup has really, really great detail to the tone, lots of clarity, versus the more muddy tone of the stock Fender. The middle pickup is also a huge improvement, much brighter now, lots of snap to the tone. The stock Fender was very dead, in comparison.

The bridge is the vintage plus, and its pretty smooth sounding compared to the other two, but not really much "hotter", which is fine. I don't know if I really "love" the Van Zandt's yet, but I certainly like them alot. After I play them at a few gigs, I'll be able to determine things much better. Friday night will be my first opportunity.

The stock Fender set was actually pretty good, but compared to the Van Zandts, they just weren't nearly as "clear" and "detailed". For "warmth" the neck Van Zandt is great and so is the bridge, the middle position, I have with no tone control, so its bright and sassy. The in between positions have "cluck" by the barrell full.

The first impression I got of this set was its very much like Otis, Buddy and Magic Sam tones, when played through my Vicky Bandmaster and reverb tank. Not so much Texas tones yet, but I'll keep looking for them, I'm sure they're in there if you can play the licks.

[Gris]

You need a VZ blues-blues-rock set for Texas tones. BTW, like all great PUs, the VZ sound much better at full tilt. THAT"S where they really shine... ;-)

[Bluesbreaker59]

Interesting, a couple gentlemen I consulted on buying the Van Zandts said that for the Texas blues tones I want (early JLV, Anson and Mike Morgan) that True Vintage or Vintage Plus were a better choice and the Van Zandt Blues model was for more SRV type tones.

I'm thinking for Anson I just really need a BF Super Reverb, but that's going to take a while longer to save for...

I'm absolutely DYING to get this strat out to the gig and give it a good work out!!!

[Gris]

They're right. I was being inaccurate. I mean't for SRV tone.

[Bluesbreaker59]

They're right. I was being inaccurate. I mean't for SRV tone.

No problem at all, I was "painting with too broad of a brush" when I said "Texas tone", which could mean anything when it comes to strat tone.

[Bluesbreaker59]

Well I played this out at the gig and gave it a good workout. We played Friday in a REALLY, REALLY lively wooden room. I used my Victoria Double Deluxe and Fender reverb tank. We played mostly old school blues, since we had the premiere blues drummer from our area with us. It was lots of fun hearing him nail those old Chicago double shuffles... Anyway, the neck pickup was my favorite tone, but I switched it up and went between all three pickups. The room was so lively, that the bridge pickup sometimes was still my "blow torch" setting to cut through. All in all we were playing pretty darn quiet all night so it was tough to tell what they could really do. I had my Victoria on 2.5, and the drummer was playing really light, with tons of dynamics, and the bass was mostly upright.

Its probably my least favorite room to play in honestly, its just too lively, not really meant for electric music at all. Its a HUGE, HUGE wooden room, with a very high triangular shaped ceiling. NO carpet at all anywhere in the place. Even conversation sounds incredibly loud in that place. The room has lots of natural reverb, but its a very bright room too, which doesn't help. We had a great bunch of dancers though, so that was really nice.

[Bluesbreaker59]

A follow-up...

I've now had the pickups in the guitar for about 5 months now. I've been finding that in a trio format that strats aren't always a great option. But recently I've forced myself to take the strat out and play it, because I just love the full bodied, detailed, yet crisp tones that I can get with it at home.

So I find that with my Bandmaster and a reverb tank with some tremolo, I'm right in Magic Sam's land. Its a beautiful tone for blues songs, and if I kick on my Fulldrive or Hotcake, it does well for alt country stuff.

With my Double Deluxe, and reverb tank its a blues machine. I played the whole first set on it last week, and was getting some really nice fat tones from the neck pickup. Switching to the middle position was great for Anson-ish style fun on the shuffles, and going down to the vintage plus in the bridge unleashed some Albert Collins moments. I got to use this setup while backing up a really great local frontman/harmonica player, and the strat was perfect for those grinding Jimmie Vaughan shuffle patterns, plus it was a great switch from my Heritage 535 and my slide guitar.

My main guitar in the trio is either my Heritage 535 or Gretsch 6120DSW, I alternate back and forth. So I'm used to that thicker, hollowbody tone, going to Teles isn't too hard, but going to a strat things get thinner sounding. So its just adjusting your ears and your settings on the amp, PLUS adjusting your playing style to accomodate the strat tones.

I'm definitely very satisfied that I got the Van Zandt pickups. Occasionally I consider getting a True Vintage bridge, but I just can't decide yet. I'm actually pretty pleased at how balanced things are with the guitar right now, so I might just leave well enough alone.