I was just wondering if any of you guys have tried a full set of Lollar Special S? Or do most of you mix and match between the Specials and the Tweed/Blond/Blackface?
I am using a set of blackface. Very very nice. Can get very nice bites out of distortion tones. Glassy tone but yet has enough phat when it comes to OD. Does not sound thin and sterile. Not overly noisy with hum when OD is engaged. Go to the ACME guitar website. Listen to their samples - they are accurate. That's how I decided on blackfaces. If I am not mistaken the specials sound a bit thicker - but I wanted mine to be a vintage set with the agressiveness of modern playing. So that's why I chose blackfaces. Hope this helps. Buy a calibrated / matched set from Jason Lollar. Ask him for some advice - he gave some pretty good guidance on choosing my set. Hope this helps.
+1 for the Blackface pups. I called Jason and he recommended this set and the're just like crosse79 described. I found the stock pickups in my Strat thin and tinny sounding. The Lollar's absolutely tranformed the tone in my Strat.
Dittos on the Blackfaces! After trying tons of pickups these suited me the best, Alder bodied Strat w/Maple neck.
I have a couple sets of Blackface neck/middle w/ Special Bridge. Awesome tone, nailed what I was hoping for. Talk to Jason about what kind of tone you're shooting for, and the guitar they'll be going in, he can get you set up. The Blackface are a good combination of muscle and quack/stratiness. Tweeds are superclean and superquack, Blondes great cleans and quack, while the Specials are more beefy, less quack all around.
I have built with the specials all the way around several times. They are a hotter wind but not in a distorted Texas Special way. Very usable, thick, full and take pedals well. If you're looking for a full, well balanced tone, go for it. You will never regret it.
