Lollar Strat Pickup Owners

[guitarb]

I just put Lollars into a Tele Custom I put together. My first time with Lollars (always been a Fralin devotee) and I have to say I f'n love them. I'm thinking about putting some into one of my Strats and was hoping to get some viewpoints from owners...what you have...and why you like them. For the most part, I'm looking for good classic Strat tone......having said that though..I would like a warmer bridge tone. Anyway, just not sure which set to get that would get me closest to what I'm looking for. Thanks for any input.

[cbpickin]

Check out the Acme Guitar Works site, they have clips of all the Lollar strat sets. I have a Blonde set in my KLine and Blackface in my G&L. They are both great but very different.
The Blondes are more scooped and "vintage" sounding. Great quack and clarity. They also do the cool funk tones on the bass string runs, like you hear on James Brown recordings. Kind of that hollow, yet punchy stuff.
The Blackface are fuller and stonger in the bottom end and mids but still clear and have good in between quack. I had Fralin Blues Specials in the G&L before and I much prefer the Blackface. They are full, but not too fat or dark, classic balanced strat tones with a little more fullness like the pre-CBS hotter pickups. They do still have great high end presence too, which I felt the Fralins were lacking.
If I could only have one set, I would probably go with the Blondes just because they sound like beautiful, older strat pickups right out of the box. Not big and ballsy, great single coil chime and spank yet not thin souding either.
Both sets do great with overdrive pedals too.
I hope that helps, sound is so hard to put into words.
Quack, quack, quack!

[atomicmassunit]

I have Lollar specials. I really liked them because they sound to me like a bigger, bolder, sweeter, fatter strat sound, and NOT AT ALL like the SRV sound. I play humbucker guitars mainly, and when I play strats I get very distracted by the Hendrix/SRV sounds and end up subconsiously playing all those 'strat' licks. I find the Lollars allow for a more P90 like tone, which in turn makes me like playing the strat a lot more. Lollar specials and a strat into a 100w plexi is a just heaven... for my taste, it's the ultimate strat set. I have some nice vintage sounding pickups that will be sold because I find the Lollar Specials to be more along the lines of what I like.

[zzzezums]

I've got Lollar Blackfaces in the neck and middle positions of my Reverend Commando GT along with a Lollar Imperial in the bridge. Sounds great.

[cbpickin]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that many builders, including Nash, are using the Blondes in the neck and middle with a Special in the bridge for a fatter, fuller bridge tone. I almost went that route, but I wanted more of a classic, underwound tone.

[Thazy]

I've got a set of Specials in one of my Strat's and the bridge pu gives me a very inspiring hard rock sound. In fact, all pu's sound great but, the neck and middle may be too dark sounding for some. Works great into a Vox-style amp. I would love to try the Nash combo of Blonde's in the neck and middle and a Special in the bridge.

[Mr. Kite]

I went with acme pre built lollar black face neck & mid, special for the bridge, blender wiring.

[Seegs]

I stand by the Tweeds...I like articulate glassy strat tones and the Tweeds were the best at that...I wanted an RnB/funk thinner sounding guitar for rhythm and the Tweeds delivered in spades...

I am having a Kline hardtail...ash/maple strat built and it will have a Tweed neck with Blonde middle and Bridge pus...I like a really articulate neck pu and the Tweed neck pu suits me best...

the right Lollars for your needs are really amp and music style dependent...

the Tweeds are the most mid scooped and go well with mid heavy amps..ie. tweeds or El84 style amps

the BF set has more mids and goes well with scooped mid bf amps...they were too middy and much for my amp and a bit woofy and dark in the neck position...

the Blondes are very similar in character/texture to the Tweeds only fatter and the specals are the hottest...

Chow,
Seegs

[Festus]

My strat and G&L both have Blackface neck & middle pickups with a Special in the bridge. They also have the Suhr BPSSC installed, so they're nice and quiet even with a lot of gain.

The blackface get a great clean strat tone, and can also growl when you dig in. Still very good quack in the 2 and 4 positions. The Blondes probably get better quack, but I found I wanted a bit more output and attitude from my strats.

Lollar pickups are dynamite, can't think of a better single coil. :AOK

[Zillie]

is it like that the blondes are better for 50's strats w/ maple neck and the blackfaces for 60's pre-CBS strats?

[Seegs]

Originally Posted by Zillie

is it like that the blondes are better for 50's strats w/ maple neck and the blackfaces for 60's pre-CBS strats?

more like...what kinda amp you using?

Chow,
Seegs

[Zillie]

Originally Posted by Seegs

more like...what kinda amp you using?

100w Marshall Plexi handwired

[cbpickin]

Originally Posted by Zillie

is it like that the blondes are better for 50's strats w/ maple neck and the blackfaces for 60's pre-CBS strats?

What Seegs said, but yes also to what you are saying. The pups are designed to be similar to what was offered in the Fenders of those eras. The 50's strats were being paired with tweed amps that were heavy in the mids and the Tweed and Blondes match up very well with mid-strong amps (they are also superb with all amps!). The Blackface strats were being matched up with the BF amps that are scooped in the mids and so the Blackface pups have stronger mids for a great match. The names really match up to the strats and amps from that era of Fender.
I love my Blondes with my Blackface and tweed amps. I also like the Blackface with all of them too, just different tones.