Need dark tone for Ash body Strat

[BluejazzMalmsteen]

I have a bright/weak sounding Classic Player that I want to redo electronically. I'm looking for pups that will be *warm to dark*...especially in the bridge position...and have power and *sustain*. I don't like the Noiseless pups and I don't want Seymour pups either (unless that's the last resort.)
I'm wondering which of the following might best achieve that kind of tone.

Custom 54's?
Fat 50's?
57/62's?
Fralins?
Voodoos?

[SMark]

I can't offer any opinion on the Voodoo's, but of the others you mention, the Custom 54's would have my vote. Specifically, the bridge pickup will be closer to what you are looking for, unless you want to consider the Fralin Steel Poles as a possibility. For a hi-gain lead tone, I have found the Fat 50's bridge and the 57/62 Reissue pickup to be rather lacking for my needs. The Fralin Vintage Hot and the Fender Custom 54 both sound fine, but the Fralin wasn't nearly as smooth as the Custom 54 bridge pickup. The Fralin actually had a pretty hard edge to it.

$0.02.

[Fendercrazy]

Look into the Dimarzio FS1 @ www.dimarzio.com

It should be close to what your searching for. Worth looking into anyway.

[Guildx700~]

Originally posted by BluejazzMalmsteen
I have a bright/weak sounding Classic Player that I want to redo electronically. I'm looking for pups that will be *warm to dark*...especially in the bridge position...and have power and *sustain*. I don't like the Noiseless pups and I don't want Seymour pups either (unless that's the last resort.)
I'm wondering which of the following might best achieve that kind of tone.

Custom 54's?
Fat 50's?
57/62's?
Fralins?
Voodoos?

Warm and dark tends to be a non vintage type overwound high output pup, Texas Specials have that exact complaint leveled against em from some folks, I have em as well as Fat 50's and all the others you listed but the Voodoos, I would say the TS to be the darkest of all of em.

[BluejazzMalmsteen]

UPDATE:

After much research I ended gambling on Duncan Antiquities.

6.61k neck, 6.66k middle, 9.99k bridge. CTS 250K pots.

This seems to have accomplished what I wanted. That almost-10K bridge might seem that it would take the tone out of vintage style to a modern or darker side of tone, but it didn't. The pups are great. Everything's in balance despite the ohm separation.
The guitar, a '97 classic player--ash body, is still a bit on the bright side overall, but the tone is a thousand percent better! No shrillness, or glass shattering, or thin tones anymore.
The Vintage Toneless pups were just terrible for this type of body.
Of course they may have improved them since. These pups were among the first ones issued...over a year before regular production started on the Classic Player series.
Btw...the Strat has a Rosewood board, and finished in Aged Cherry Burst.
Anyway, I highly recommend the pups. I'll bet they'd sound even better in an alder body.

[LightninBoy]

BJM,

Where'd you buy them, and if you don't mind telling, how much did you end up paying for them?

[BluejazzMalmsteen]

at Dave's guitars. They're $70 each pup. Not cheap. Damn good thing they worked. Oh btw...they come with aged covers...meaning they are not white. They're cream colored. That part sucks.

[kottkewannabe]

Aged covers on something that has "antique" in their name?...Who would've thought?

But seriously...one thing about that unbalanced winding sounding rather balanced...read up on Fralin's site. He talks a little bit about how the string current output is much lower (as there is much less string travel and yet much more treble because of its placement) and about how this is compensated with a heavier wind (and his baseplate). Overall, it's some pretty helpful reading.