Looking for a Strat sound

I'm looking at my xa 1330 and figured given the pickup layout, it should sounds like my strat, but it doesn't. I'd really like to get the strat sound out of the neck single coil. Is this as easy as replacing the neck and middle pickup with something else, a rewire, or is it something else, like neck length etc?

The strat 'quack' happens with neck and middle, doesn't it?? You may have to play with the tone knobs a little but I can get that sound out of any and all of my Westones....

I believe that in positions 2 and 4 on a Strat 5 way switch, the pickups are out of phase.

If your guitar is not already wired this way, you could swap the earth and live wires on the middle pickup. This would do the job.

Hoax

when you say 'strat sound' do you mean the quacky, or are you looking for a Fender-sounding neck pickup?

what i think of, when i hear someone say strat sound, i think the quacky, which is from the middle pickup in combination with another one

the middle pickup on a strat (and most all guitars made since the late 70's) is constructed differently than the neck and bridge pickups. westone guitars are no exception.
there are two differences that cause the middle pickup to give the characteristic sound;
1) the coils are wound in the opposite direction
2) the magnet is reversed
the standard abbreviation for this is RWRP (reverse wound reverse polarity). the result is twofold. it eliminates hum from the signal, and it creates that characteristic quacky sound. (there is some interesting physics involved, fun reading for the totally nerdy types)

i concur with corsair, i have no problem finding that sound on my XA1330, or any of my westone models equipped with a single coil in the middle.

is everything on your guitar working properly? pickups, switches, tone controls...

Does your guitar have 24 frets? If yes, then you will never get that strat neck pickup sound. Your neck pickup is in the wrong place. It took me many years to figure that out. 24 fret guitars neck pickups just don't sound right - it's in the wrong place.

Colt and Gittarasaurus are both right.

Are you looking for that "Bell" like sound from your neck pup? That's a distinct Strat single coil tone to be sure.

I'd go for an actual strat pup, seems obvious but worth doing. And as for pup placement, Colt is dead on with the extra frets being in the way. Sounds crazy, but it's so true.

Buy a Strat

Westbone wrote:Buy a Strat

Yup!

Not sure what pickups you have...HSS? SSS? But if its 22 frets and has 3 cheesy singlecoils..you should there..or close.
amI missing some details?

Gtrgeorge

I've discussed this elsewhere on this board - but - I've had difficulties making super strats sound like strats. But all of my old super strats had 24 fret necks. I now have an '80s vintage Warmoth strat body and 22 fret neck with a Floyd, a JB in the bridge, and a couple of old SD strat single coils (HSS pickup layout).

Switch to the neck pickup - sounds like a strat. Switch to the middle pickup - sounds like a strat. Switch both on- Dire Straits. Turn the JB on in the bridge by itself - ROCK AND ROLL!!!

This works! But - the single coils have vastly different output from the JB in the bridge and there's no way around that. Still - with a D-tuna I can go from Tool on the JB in the bridge to Stevie Ray on the neck - all with the same guitar. It is possible to almost have it all. What I don't have is the strat bridge pickup sound - which frankly doesn't bother me at all because I rarely use it. And that quack you get in position 2 of a strat is a lot like the quack you get in position 4 and I have that one!

I went through this recently myself with my Spectrum ST, I wanted it to sound like a strat, coil tap didnt do it on the original UBC's, coil tap on MMK45's didnt do it either, the ST isnt a strat, but a strat is! so I resigned myself to playing one of my strats when I want a strat sound, I play the ST when I want more beef.
you want a strat sound? play a strat.

me myself, i wanna westone sound

gittarasaurus wrote:me myself, i wanna westone sound

This.


Though I have to say that in a covers band you will - at some stage - be required to make Fender noises. It is inevitable...

that won't be me.

the band i played in was with 3 brothers who were very educated and experienced musically. they were sick of the wedding/bar mitzvah cover band thing. so they started up a band to do all originals.

i fell into it by accident. they had recorded a song that needed a guitar solo. i was friends with the drummer and he asked me to give it a try. and after about 20 takes i got a good solo on tape. next thing i know, they drafted me to play with them onstage. i had never played guitar in front of people before, and they took me to NYC to play in a nightclub.

our band lasted 6 years.

i guess they couldn't find another guitar player because they only did originals and you don't make no money like that.

eventually that was what put an end to our band. a couple of the brothers wanted to play music full time to make money, and the originals band got in the way of their money bands, so that was that.

i am just not a cover band kinda guitar player. i never learned to imitate other guitar players' sound, nor did i really want to. and i never learned much in the way of note-for-note song playing. what i enjoy most is the unique style of any particular guitar player, and i would always strive to find my sound rather that imitate another.

i like it when somebody brings their own interpretation to a cover song better than if they can do a precise copy. but, i know that is not the way most audiences are. they want a living juke box. they want it to sound like "the real thing". "play Freebird" and all that crap... (insert one finger salute here)

i just can't make myself want to do it.

different strokes and all that....

gittarasaurus wrote:that won't be me...

...I am just not a cover band kinda guitar player. i never learned to imitate other guitar players' sound, nor did i really want to. and i never learned much in the way of note-for-note song playing. what i enjoy most is the unique style of any particular guitar player, and i would always strive to find my sound rather that imitate another.

i like it when somebody brings their own interpretation to a cover song better than if they can do a precise copy. but, i know that is not the way most audiences are. they want a living juke box. they want it to sound like "the real thing". "play Freebird" and all that crap... (insert one finger salute here)

i just can't make myself want to do it.

different strokes and all that....

Abso-bloody-lutely, mate - my 'ethos' in a nutshell, too!

/start rant...

Nice if you can make a living doing originals; most of us can't hence the need for covers bands.
I played in many, many covers outfits over the years and quite a few originals bands and the ones that paid for the mortgage and food etc. etc. were the covers bands; no-one says you have to slavishly copy tunes - you give them your own spin and as long as the basic structure is there, you're golden!
I'm skilled enough to be able to do original sounding solos, but if you want to analyse the bejesus out of them, then I'm sure you could find similarities to other peoples solos in them; that's just the way it is!

I don't hold with the whole "originals are best", holier than thou thing; that sort of attitude was rife in NZ when I was up and coming and my mouth got me into a number of scrapes when I voiced my opinion of the navel gazing wankers who were playing originals and dissing those of us who could actually play our instruments!

YMMV....

/rant over

i don't mean to say that there is anything wrong with playing cover toons. it is just not for me, for several reasons; 1. playing music is just a hobby, i never intended to play in a band or try to earn money from playing. i had a career job that paid the bills. the guitar was my relief from the grind. 2. i am not trained or skilled enough to imitate others well, 3. i don't really like much of the 'popular' music that would be the bulk of what would be requested.

after playing with a band, i have much greater appreciation for what it takes to put together a good song and a good performance, even for musical styles i am not particularly fond of, i can recognize the skill and the hard work it takes to make it sound right.

our band did eventually cover a few toons by others, but not really big pop songs, just songs that we liked. we were the Koo Koo Heads, so we usually didn't get too serious about it all. we knew we were not going to get rich & famous playing our songs. we enjoyed freeking out people with our wild, wide open, craziness. usually the other musicians would get it, but the bar room crowds would not always understand the jokes. we were very much into the spinal tap satirical view of what we were doing.

we even had a song called "None More Black"
(played to a medium reggae beat)

i went to see the Bunnymen
but i didn't wear black
a long and steady drone
drove me out the back
a fashion show is what it was
look at me, look at me, look at me!
trick or treat i said
sick for sweets i said

i went to see the Bunnymen
but i didn't wear black
i mean, how much more black could it be?
and the answer is ... none
none more black, none more black....

Yeah, that is a bit black.