How to I get that Strat front pickup sound?

[moon]

Stick a strat pickup in it. Will require some routing.

[paulp1960]

You really don't need to spend much to get the sound of a strat. Nothing wrong with an SG I would like one myself but it will never really sound like a strat. It's not just the pickups that differ. They have different scale lengths, and bolt on hard maple necks and different body wood and mass.

[Eric_M]

Originally Posted by moon

Stick a strat pickup in it. Will require some routing.

Install a Strat vibrato too. That's essential. Get out that Dremel and get to work!!

[moon]

Originally Posted by paulp1960

It's not just the pickups that differ. They have different scale lengths, and bolt on hard maple necks and different body wood and mass.

Some things might add some subtle colours but it is mostly the pickups which define the sound. Every pickup acts like a pretty dramatic EQ filter with a big boost around the resonant frequency and then a sudden fall-off.

It's like chicken. You can add different kinds of herbs and spices but it'll always taste like chicken.

Put a strat pickup in an SG and it'll taste like chicken too

That's how I see it anyway. If I had a particular tone which I was trying to replicate, I'd work backwards through: speaker, cab, amp, pickups - and only then think about a plank of wood to mount them on. If anything earlier in that chain isn't right, the choices you make after might not matter.

I'm definitely not saying the "plank" has no influence at all but the electro-magnetic bits define the kind of range it's going to fall in.

[muscmp]

just do the best you can with what you got. pedals don't matter.

play music!

[Steel and wood]

Originally Posted by terryj47

I have two MIM Strats. Black with maple finger board and candy apple red with rosewood finger board. Both are excellent guitars. Paid less than $300 for each (used). One from GC and one from a pawn shop. Both just required some clean up and minor setup. Both are like new guitars now. Sound, play, and look great. I hear you can get bad MIM Fenders. I just haven't seen one.

MIM Stratocasters are unbelievable guitars for the money.

[M Hayden]

Even some of the MIC ones....have an MIC Squier Tele toploader that's off the charts good. Good does not always mean super expensive, and when you find good and inexpensive, go for it.

[patrickgm60]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Quite frankly, I'd be thinking in terms of using one (or more) of those "around the house" guitars as trading stock toward a Strat of some kind - I've seen primo MIM Standards routinely in the low $300's, about as much as a new Squier CV (which can be iffy IME - the good ones I've played have been really good, the bad ones were total crap) - since I strongly doubt you're going to be totally (tonally?) satisfied with anything else...

+1. For me, the Strat look and feel are also part of it. Trading for a used MIA or MIM Strat or Squier is a great way to go. And the shopping process can be fun.

[JeffreyAK]

SRV had a pretty unique sound, and part of it was, he used very heavy strings, high action, and strong picking. You might try going in that direction with your SG to see what happens. If I want to sound more like SRV, I'll run both the neck and middle pickups at once, out of phase, so if you can run both pickups like that with your SG, you might like the result. Also, a wah pedal is pretty great as a tone control, and gives you quite a broad tone spectrum to give you more sonic options.

[Edit: Actually I'll backpedal on the pickups being out of phase, I'm not sure. I installed a hot humbucker in the bridge position 35 years ago, and I'm sure it's out of phase with the middle pickup, but I'm not sure about the phasing of the neck and middle pickups, they might still be in phase]

[rmp]

you can get a great blues tone out of humbuckers...

use what you have, figure out how to make it work for you, don't spend time trying to sound like someone else, no matter how great they are,

most of their sound is in their hands..

[Scotso]

My take- you have 2 choices. Make do with what you have and come close or get a strat and nail it. Strats can sound like other guitars but I have never played a bucker that comes close to a strat, split coil or not. Not sure if it is scale length, pup position, maple neck or what...strats are just different. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with the sound of an SG. Something about playing SRV on an SG appeals to my rebellious, anti-authoritarian nature. And to take this a step further, I would probably make it so I sound nothing like a STrat but have my own sound.