Mexican Standard Strat Shadows Tone

[dakes2]

I know i am jumping into a minefield on this question, but i have been using my G&L Tribute legacy for playing shadows music together with a Zoom G5n effects unit and its sounds ok, I just bought a mint condition 2017 Mexican standard strat and to my ears i cant get a shadows tone out of it and it just doesn't sound right for playing shadows music, now the question is i am thinking of changing the pickups and as you all know the range of pickups for shads sounds is a bit of a minefield, so if anyone can suggest good pickups or has any comments on this, i would be glad to hear them, thanks John

[dave robinson]

I have to agree about the G&L Legacy Tribute , I have owned one and ot does great Shadows sounds no problem, I gave it to my son as I also own the G&L S-500 Tribute, which is equally good for Shadows music and much more. The key is the wonderful tone circuit on those guitars as it actually works and adds something, unlike a Standard Stratocaster\s wiring that only decreases the treble.
I have wired several of my Fenders with the same wiring as the G&L S-500 and they too perform in a similar way with that mod. Recommended !

Regarding changing the pickups ? No, I would change the wiring instead, the pickups will deliver with better functioning pots.
Over the years I've swapped out more pickups than you can imagine, in many cases finding out that it was a waste of money and in several cases, going back to the stock pickups .

[dakes2]

Thanks very much Dave, I will give it a go when I get a moment

[dave robinson]

I just read on the other thread that your pickups on the Mexican Strat could be ceramic, but my experience after trying ceramic pickups is recent times has been good.
You may have read a recent post of mine that I bought a guitar from a guy in Nottingham which was a Vintage V6 Stratocaster and he also had an Encore Stratocaster which he offered me for £10. When I got them both home I plugged in the Encore and it sounded amazingly good . When stripping it down, I discovered that it too hard ceramic pick ups, but they sounded great and equally as good as anything I owned, so nothing more to say really. I gave that guitar to my friend who absolutely loves it.

[dakes2]

i think i will sell it and buy a g&l s500, like you say, they are good guitars.

[dave robinson]

I consider my own G&L S-500 Tribute to be one of my best and most versatile Strats. I 100% recommend them. Those tone controls are a delight and the MFD pickups are lovely.

[roger bayliss]

Yes +1 for the G&L S500 , great guitar , I have had mine a number of years now, nice looking with natural Ash body. Fingerboard radius is 12 inch and as Dave says , the pickups are wonderful with the PTB tone circuit.

[dave robinson]

I was so intrigued by what was being discussed that I dug out my G&L S-500 and restrung it today and had a good couple of hours going through the stuff we do and love.
I'm as happy a a dog with two bones, no matter how old or experienced you think you are, you discover new stuff every day and today I put the G&L through my Strymon Iridium and Zoom G5n into my Dynacord Powermate 600 PA Desk that I have in my front room, it works identical to the band's 16 channel version that we use on gigs (which is why I bought it) and I experiment with new bits and bobs that come my way, so I can bring them to our shows with the band.
I realised only today that the MFD pickups that were Leo Fender's last major invention that he was working on in 1977/78 before introducing them into his G&L guitars, are made using ceramic magnets for the reasons of improving his original pickups from the fifties that used Alnico magnets. There's lots of stuff on You Tube from G&L telling everyone about these pickups, explaining the benefits and improvements and it all makes sense, worth a look if you're interested.
All I know is that for quite a few years whilst I've owned the G&L S-500, I've considered it to be one of the best sounding / playing Strats I ever owned, though I'm not mad on the dark blueburst finish If I'm honest as it may as well be black, which is why I don't seem to use it alot. That said, I'm putting all of that to one side and I'm going to use it anyway, I've been brainwashed for too long with fiesta red and what the hell, Hank had a black Strat for ages.
I've just installed a set of Ernie Ball ' Mighty Slinky' 8.5/40 gauge strings and set it up with the trem floating and it works and plays beautifully and sounds as good as it should, even on Shads stuff. Yes I know they are very light, but my hands are weak so it's a compromise. I've done a lot of studying string tension lately and these work for me on a Straocaster scale length, on a Gibson I can use 9/42 with similar 'feel'. In his later years, Chet Atkins used a Gibson Solid Electro that was nylon strung for the same reason, which is what made me investigate as I wanted to continue playing steel strings because of the music I like. I do have a similar guitar to Chet's Gibson but less expensive and built by Crafter, which is a delight to play as it is kind to the fingers. I once owned the Gibson Classical Nylon strung electric but sold it about ten years ago as I never used it but I can confidently say that the Crafter version is just as good but less expensive.

[TimRyland]

Dave,

Out of interest what’s the difference between the Strats tone circuit and the G&L circuit. Is it an easy modification for someone with reasonable electrical knowledge?

Tim.

[dave robinson]

I checked out the components and you can find them and get an idea of what it's about by Googling the G&L tone circuits, that's what I did to find my components to do my own mods on some of my Strats.
On the G&L, there are proper bass and treble controls that do something useful which I find refreshing, instead of the boring 'dull' knobs provided by Fender. The bass cut knob is particularly handy for achieving That Sound.