57Gregy
I bought a Strat a few years ago because I've always wanted one.
After playing mostly LPs and SGs and a Gretsch for most of my life (with 2 pick ups) I'm having a hard time getting used to the Strat's middle pu. I keep hitting it too hard and hear it in the recordings.
Must practice, practice, practice!
Have you messed around with setting your pick up heights ? or is your guitar set as per the factory settings ....
in some cases the factory settings are no longer right if you are using different gauge strings or if you have altered the guitars action w out re setting the pick ups
In any case , Fender Strat pickups are not so posed to be set to high in relation ship to the strings
They can get in the way of your playing and the magnetic pull of the pickups will jack up the guitars intonation and add unwanted over tones ..this comes up all the time
I have worked in some well know guitar stores I also worked with Luthiers & repair men to put food on my table in the past ..
Some Strat pick ups have a flat pole piece for all the 6 strings . Other Strat Pickups will have protruding pole pieces at different heights for the 6 pole pieces ...the pick up with the protruding pole pieces can have the pick up set a lot lower into the guitars body because the pole pieces stick out higher from the pick up and they are closer to the strings ...
Most people set those pick ups way to high thinking they are gonna get a better tone when the opposite is true
On the other type of Strat Pick ups you can still get away with keeping them at a modest height .. it is also a very common trick to keep the bass side a little lower than the treble side
....
All 3 pick ups will have a slant to them ....the pros set their guitars this way & all the average Joes don't
Unless you are running EMG's that have to be set much closer to the strings , you would be amazed at how much setting the Strats pick up heights will affect the guitars tone ...lower settings will give the guitar a much more woody tone with a lot of body ...it will also eliminate much of the shrillness ...
I currently have 4 Strats , 2 i bought new , 2 I bought used ...the 2 I bought used had pick ups that were after market and the guys I bought the guitars from did not like how the guitars sounded ...they sounded like $hit to me
I bought them anyway because I know how to set up a guitar .The first thing I did was to re set the pick up heights
they no longer sound like $hit ...the 2 guys wanted to buy them guitars back after I set them up
One of my new Strats was bone stock and that's the way it's gonna stay because the pick ups are set right .
My other Start has a P 90 w 2 hum buckers ...
Then I have a Pro-type Guild Blues Bird that Mark Dronge ( the President of Guild at the time ) gave me as a gift ..
That guitar has a Les Paul / Blues Bird shape w a Khaler trem and a set of EMG's w the presence control ...
It's the Gilmore type of EMG pick up sett up ...that guitar looks like a Les but sounds just like a Strat on steroids ...
the pick ups are set high due the nature of the non magnetic pull of EMG's ....
anyway I don't mean to ramble .....if you decide to change the settings on your pick up heights an easy way to do it is to count how many times you turn the screw driver as you adjust your pick ups ..if you do that you can alway get back to where it was
Another trick you can do is to set your guitar pick up heights while running your guitar into SONAR ..If you want to you can have SPAN on a track /channel
FWIW you don' t really even need SPAN , yet it is a good way to balance your guitars tone ...
example if you hit a low string and your track red lines over 0 Db you can set the pick up for more tonal balance between both the treble and the Bass .....I do this stuff all the time ...including setting up my pick up combinations of more than one pick up ...
There you have it I just gave you a thousand dollars worth of advice ..keep you eye on the mail box the bill is on the way
just kidding no charge
all the best,
Kenny