1963 Strat vs 2005 '57/62 pickups

[Stranded Albatross]

I thought it might be interesting to make a comparison between a friend's 1963 all original Stratocaster and my 2005 CIJ '62 Reissue fitted with US '57/'62 pickups. Both guitars have alder bodies and rosewood boards though the CIJ has a slab board.

Aside from the two different guitars everything is the same. Strings sets from the same manufacturer and same gauge, same tone settings on ToneLab and into the same recording equipment.

I know this isn't a scientific exercise but all variables apart from the guitar differences mentioned have been eliminated.

I wonder if forum members can tell which is which and which they prefer. It'll be interesting to hear your comments especially from those with the 50th Anniversary Collector guitar.

Cheers
Ian

http://www.4shared.com/audio/gROx125O/2 ... ipe_1.html
http://www.4shared.com/audio/PbohogiF/1 ... _Pipe.html

[kipper]

dont now which is which but i prefer the second sound. peter

[John Boyd]

Ian, I'm with Peter on this one. I prefer the second version.
Now, will you please tell us which guitar was used?
Cheers,
JB

[Stranded Albatross]

Thanks to both you Peter and John for your views. As soon as this post has run its course I will say which is which.

Regards
Ian

[Martyn]

I prefer the first as it has a mellow, sweeter tone and I'm guessing that's the 57/62s - bound to have egg on my face now . . .
Any chance of an identical test using the bridge pickups on, say, Wonderful Land? Always feel the bridge's sound is what makes me opt for a particular pickup set.
Regards,
Martyn

[Stranded Albatross]

Hi Martyn

Thank you for you response. This does shownthat we accept tones in different ways and that both guitars can sound pleasant. At the moment I don't have a recording of Wonderful Land through the ToneLab only one through a PodPro Mk1. If this is any good to you I'll email you a file, otherwise give me a couple of days and I'll redo a ToneLab version for you. Please PM me with your email address. If I can get the '63 back I'll record this as well.

Here are the results of the competition:

Track1 (#23) uses the 1963 Strat and
Track2 (#17) is the Japanese reissue with the 57/62 pickups.

The preamp was initially setup to provide a nice tone to my ear for my general recording, and was not reset to suit the '63 Strat. Whether this had any influence on the result can only be guessed at or redone with best tone settings to suit each guitar.

However it does prove to me that a used 2005 CIJ reissue with the 57/62 pickups set at the sweet spot can make a nice tone on a guitar that cost less than £400.

My thanks to everyone who replied.

Regards
Ian

[dave robinson]

To my ears, each of the examples sound pretty good, but I don't hear that signiture tone from either of them when the low notes are played, maybe because no amplifier is involved. I have several guitars with 57/62's as well as a 63 Strat which now has it's new '59 Sliders pickups fitted and edges the 57/62's, enough for me to hear a pleasing difference.
I couldn't choose between the two examples shown here. Maybe on something like 'Kon Tiki', 'The Frightened City' or better still 'Big Boy' for that 'barking tone of the middle pick up, having said that the 57/62's do that really well . . . . . It's all good fun though.

[Stranded Albatross]

Dave, I deliberately chose a soft melody because I don't have the kit that can produce the sounds that we associate with the early strat. It requires more of a challenge to us guys working on a low budget, and when we get close to the tone we do get a tremendous boost.
Look forward to hearing some sounds made with those Sliders, you've just fitted.