Anyone have a Stratocaster with a JB jr in the bridge? If so, how does it work for playing punk and rock with the higher output? Been thinking about getting a Stratocaster again. Learned on one back in the day and stock pickups just weren't cutting it for the style I was playing. Im really wanting one again that I can mod to play punk/rock stuff and even blues stuff since i've been taking blues lessons. I know there are Stratocaster Lonestar's with JB humbuckers but I'm trying to get away from the humbucker look/sound. Came across a few videos of Strats with JB jrs, but the video quality wasn't that great.
For punk I would just get p90s or humbucker. I have a p90 5%overwound hot pickup in my jazzmaster and I can play all styles I find. Blues, punk, whatever. ps. I want a strat too.
I mean if you want to use a strat with standard single coils and play punk. Most important thing for punk is the right dirt pedals in my opinion. But I don't play punk so what do I know.
Just curious - why are you wanting to get away from the humbuckers sound if you're playing punk music?
Just want to try something different. Aesthetically, I haven't been a big fan of the humbucker look or sound for that matter. I personally like the look of a single coil/P90. I have a les paul jr with a P90 and it sounds amazing for the heavier/high output distortion, but I don't like it for a blues tone. So I'm trying to find a pickup that looks like a single coil, has a high output, and can have a decent blues tone in the bridge. So I came across the JB jr and now I'm here. I love the look of strats and they are easy to modify. Basically, I'm wanting one universal guitar.
Good point on the pedals. I should give pedals more attention, but never really cared much for them. I have the basic Boss MD2 and DD-3 for poops and giggles. Any distortion pedal recommendations?
I'm sure alot of people are going to have more experience and recs on dirt pedals / and more experience on punk aesthetic than me but, from what I can tell something like a Sansamp or a Rat or a Muff would prob be good for punk
The way I have my tele is a tele style hum bucker in the bridge for heavier tones and a single coil in the neck for my blues stuff. single coils are nasty with gain you would need a noise supressor or something to get away with it.
single coils are nasty with gain? not in my experience standard tele pickups with gain... hard to find a better sound imo
not in my experience is all I'm saying. I own a tele and a jazzmaster Thrice uses tele and jaguars with single coils and like fuckin russian muffs
complaining about feedback, like it can't be used musically, is one of the dumbest complaints with playing guitar imo
Yeah I know I'm dumb but It is annoying and I'd rather use a humbucker for playing punk. not sure what's the problem with that.
doing that yourself would be a pain but yea I guess you could do that. I wasn't bashing it just not my preference for playing punk music. I'm sure lots of artists use them. If you're a good player you can probably make a shit guitar sound ok.
like reverse winding is more a pain than normal? I'm confused. you can buy pickups wound however you want
Don't take this as patronising, but you know a JB Jr is still a humbucker, right? I mean, if you just don't like the aesthetic of a strat with a HB bridge, then fair enough, but if you're after a single coil sound, you'll get a bit of a shock if you stick a JB Jr in there! Also, I thought the Lonestar Strat came with a Pearly Gates Seymour Duncan, not the JB? If you want a strat which can do a bit of everything, then a humbucker in the bridge with a coil tap will give you a lot of options. However, on a strat, you have so many positions on the switch anyway that you maybe wouldn't miss the single coil bridge tone. A Jb Junior will also have insane output. I played a Chapman ML1 Pro the other week which had an SD lil' 59 in it (which is just PAF clone in a single coil case, I think) and that thing had some guts. The JB is even hotter, so you're really going to notice that! You could always get a high output single coil though. Numerous companies do P90 style pickups in single coil cases and you can also buy tele style bridge pickups for strats, which have a really nice gainy tone. They won't do full on chugging metal super well, but for snarly punk and rock tones, a tele bridge is a feisty beast. As for pedals to up your gain, I think we'd need to know what sort of amp you're using and the sort of tone you're after before anyone can make a sensible solution.
Midnight Amplification is a cool pedal builder out of Australia that I have like three pedals by on my Hannukah list. Really cool, innovative designs. Mostly drive pedals, but some weirder designs and combo pedals, as well as some cool amp-based pedals. The Giant Sound (based off a Sunn Model T), the Skyhorse (reverb w/gain for the trails), and Old Black (based on Neil Young's fender stacks) are all really cool.