[timba33]

Hi,

I have a '96 MIM Strat that I picked up cheap, and was thinking of replacing the pickups. It's in excellent shape, no fretwear, but the pickups sound muddy, unless it's just me or my amp. I have a VOX PAthfinder 15 R amp. It is the HSS model, with a Humbucker at the bridge. The POT's are 500k, I looked. Check out the picture, are these the original MIM pickups? They look kinda funky on the bottom with the extra magnets on the side of the poles.

I've been looking at the GFS pickups on Guitarfetish.com, and noticed there are some Strat pickups with the poles Staggered (poles are higher on the D,G,B string positions). I have some $ from ebay sales and may use it on a custom wired pickguard with either the Premium Alnico Staggers, Premium Alnico overwound staggers, or maybe the

The pickups on the basic pre-wired pickguards can't be good if the whole assembly is just $30-$38.

I like everything from classic rock to modern rock.

Also, they pair up the middle pickup that is reverse wound, and claim to get a humbucker noiseless sound with bridge/mid, neck/mid.

What's the sound difference between Staggered and Unstaggered pickups?

I kinda like the humbucker at the bridge, gives a nice heavier sound. What would I miss If I get just SSS pickups?

[Ultimate Garage Band]

Those look like factory pups and wiring to me.

I'm not sure about what the difference is on staggered poles is vs. non. I'm not much of a single coil officienato; I've been a dual humbucker dude for just about all my playing life. I do know that it bugs me that on 'Fat' Strats (humbucker at the bridge) you don't get a tone control for the humbucker. I've wired my 2 Strat style guitars, one w/3 single coils and one w/3 humbuckers, w/a master tone and a master volume. For the other hole in the pickguard I have an 'always on' switch which when flipped adds the bridge pickup to the 5 way selector switch in posions 4 (all 3 pickups), and 5 (bridge and neck pickups).

[USGold]

Your other point about noisless pups in single wires is basically correct--if the two pups are wired for reversed polarity they should not produce feedback resonance (Hum).

[Rockerbob]

The original design with the staggered pole pieces, was to increase the volume of the wound G string. WHen the strat was designed, the G was almost always wound. The wound G was not as loud as the plain strings. With a plain G, like most use on strats these days, the G is a little louder than the others. It's subtle and it's part of the "vintage" strat sound.