Lightening Boy asked me:
Barry,
I'm curious about your p/up's.
I've heard EMG's in strats and they sound great.
I also had Chris Kinman wire me up a reverse polarity p/up with formvar wire. It sounds terrific in my strat. (He actually lived 30 min's away from my previous address, and he is a very nice guy).
How would you compare the EMG's to Chris's P/up's ?
My reply:
I was looking for 'more' out of my strat pickups than what the traditional Fender passive pickups offered. Being a pretty big fan of Dave Gilmour and his tones on various recordings I bought a used EMG DG-20 harness (pickups and tone pots) Its active and noiseless. I installed it into my Frankenstrat1 and really liked them because:
1. noiseless
2. easy to install
3. tone shaping pots actually did good stuff- consisting of the EMG SPC (strat presence control- a mid boost) and the EMG EXP (mid-cut, treble and low mid expander- think of it as a strat scoop- like the 2&4 quack positions of a 5-way switch, but even more-so.)
All in all a great set-up. MUCH more pronounced mid boost than the passive Fender Clapton stuff or the Griblin harness.
Negatives-
1. 9v battery under the pickguard. Yes- it will last 1500 hours IF you always remember to unplug the guitar- DUH! Otherwise- welcome to Strat pickguard disassembly and restringing class.
2. The EMG alnico pickups themselves which are supplied with the DG-20 are kind of 'anonymous' sounding. you don't get a real sense of 'strat-like' tone. But then again- if you really listen to Gilmour and study how he gets his tones- its not from the pickups really. He uses multiple MXR EQ pedals in different configurations along with all his other FX to shape his 'strat' tones.
3. The EMG tone pots add a significant amount of hiss, particularly the EXP. You wouldn't notice it in the mix of a live performance except perhaps in a quiet solo passage, but it might be deemed unacceptable for recording purposes depending on the ambient noise floor surrounding the guitar.
Whew!
On to the Kinman part of the story-
A friend of mine built a strat clone and installed a set of Kinman Woodstock Plus pickups based on his research. I played the guitar and loved the tone of the pickups. Much more vintage strat heritage evident, yet still noiseless.
I was in the process of assembling my Frankenstrat2- a real '55 neck married to a Custom Shop 56 Relic two sone sunburst one piece alder body.
I sent an e-mail to Chris and inquired if he would be willing to build a harness for my strat using his Woodstock plus pickups and the EMG electronics from the DG-20 set.
I thought these parts could all work together I could have the best of all worlds. I mainly play live, so the hiss was not a big deterrent. The midboost of the EMGs adds enough extra harmonics to make the front end of my amps sing and push my OD boxes even further harmonically without making them louder. It actually makes a single coil seem like a humbucker, except with more definition. The EXP is perfect for scooping out the mids and getting those hollow, woody, Hendrixy almost acoustic sounds, perfect for clean rhythms and cutting through the mix.
I cant make this long story short- but-
Chris worked with me on this project long distance. I purchased the pickups and sent him the EMG electronics, which I was able to purchase as aftermarket parts. Chris researched the wiring of the EMG pots, and found that although the EXP pot is NOT supposed to work with passive pickups, if he wired it into the harness with the SPC it did in fact operate properly.
When Chris wired the harness together and dropped it in his test guitar and fired it up, his exact quote was: "Holy Sh*T!"
I can't say enough good things about Chris, and how terrific he was to work on this project. I made some mistakes in the initial wiring of the harness when it was shipped back to me. He had me ship the whole harness back to him, and spent a lot of time testing the correct wiring. In Chris' own works- he is a perfectionist.
After several months of back and forth from OZ to NYC, I finally received a harness with a marriage of EMG electronics and Kinman Woodstock Plus pickups in a solderless arrangement that installed flawlessly into my Frankenstrat2 in less than 15 minutes.
I have had that guitar to the Tampa ToneFest in Florida where I was asked to demo the single coil tones for around 50 boutique and vintage amplifier afficionados. Everyone complimented me on the stellar tones this guitar produces. I recently took it to a major jam session in LA during the NAMM show and had similar response- 'What kind of pickups are those!!!??!!'
And because this is the Bottleneck Forum- keep in mind that this is my main guitar for electric
slide. Of course my Strat is a wolf in sheeps clothing. It appears to be a '50's strat, and quite a few parts of it actually are- but under the hood- its a hot-rod built for screaming singing slide tones.
Hats off to Chris Kinman for his tireless dedication and enthusiasm in pursuit of great tone.
If you decide to inquire- ask him about Barry's Frankenstrat Harness. He'll know...