Love/hate the Tex Mex pickups...

[buddastrat]

I have a parts strat, sounds great. I'm very happy with it, I built it for not too much and had a mixed set of Fender CS singles in there. But tried some Tex Mex out of a road worn and like them even more. Just great, clean, dirty and balanced.

The problem is the stagger is ridiculous. It's beyond needed for a 7.25" radius. Looks like it'd work on a 4" radius'd neck!! I get so much damn stratitis from those high poles. I have to drop the pickup way too low for what I like.

on the custom shop pickups, the way they are made, I can push the poles down a bit and not have the problem. I guess this post is just a vent. I'm just living with it for the moment. Don't want to buy more pickups...

 

[VaughnC]

I hear you...I yanked the pickups out of my new Road Worn Strat the next day...just a little too crisp for my taste. But they might work ok in a darker sounding guitar. Mine have been laying on the shelf for a few years waiting for a home....but I have no dark Strats around! Anybody wanna buy them ?

 

[Guitarworks]

Love the tex mex

 

[John Hurtt]

The Tex-Mex aren't horrible...but pretty far down on my personal strat single coil list of favorites.

 

[honeyiscool]

If the stagger's your problem with them, they look like they have plastic bobbins, which means you should be able to push the magnets through pretty easily.

 

[Medgeking]

Try Rio Grande's. To me, their pickups have a similar flavor to the Tex-Mex.

 

[Boris Bubbanov]

If the stagger's your problem with them, they look like they have plastic bobbins, which means you should be able to push the magnets through pretty easily.

You can screw them up, doing this, but at the price, what are we worried about?

I bought 4 Jimmie Vaughans with the intention of changing at least 3 of them out with fancier pickups. I can't do it. I like my action maybe a little higher than the OP and added a base plate to the bridge Tex Mex and I can't get rid of them because they're solid. If I want a brighter sound I tend to reach for a Telecaster, anyway.

 

[Daka3]

Love 'em. Just had the bridge piclup wired to the tone control, which is a great little hack. Sounds gnarly.

 

[Sweetfinger]

on the custom shop pickups, the way they are made, I can push the poles down a bit and not have the problem.

On a CS pickup, you run a risk of wrecking the windings. Don't do it.

If the stagger's your problem with them (TEX-MEX) they look like they have plastic bobbins, which means you should be able to push the magnets through pretty easily.

Yep. With the plastic bobbin you can slide the magnets any way you like.

You can screw them up, doing this, but at the price, what are we worried about?

Very little chance of screwing up the Tex-Mex. If you pop the magnets completely out you just have to make sure you re-insert them properly oriented and watch out for demagnetization if the magnets stick to each other.

 

[mc5nrg]

.018 or .020 wound third ....

 

[monty]

Huge fan of them on Strats.

 

[buddastrat]

On a CS pickup, you run a risk of wrecking the windings. Don't do it.

Yep. With the plastic bobbin you can slide the magnets any way you like.

Very little chance of screwing up the Tex-Mex. If you pop the magnets completely out you just have to make sure you re-insert them properly oriented and watch out for demagnetization if the magnets stick to each other.

Nah...I push the magnets up/down all the time on all the CS pickups. For years, always been fine. If I can do that on Tex Mex, that'll be great.

 

[buddastrat]

I hear you...I yanked the pickups out of my new Road Worn Strat the next day...just a little too crisp for my taste. But they might work ok in a darker sounding guitar. Mine have been laying on the shelf for a few years waiting for a home....but I have no dark Strats around! Anybody wanna buy them ?

I like their sound tho' Vaughn. My maple neck'd alder strat is real woody and not real bright, nor dark. No need for a tone pot on the bridge either, nice n' full with no shrill. Just that I'm using a 9.5" radius'd neck and it's way too much with the vintage stagger. It's the D and the G, mainly.

 

[fenderjapan]

Love them.

 

[buddastrat]

Woo Hoo, it worked...thanks everyone. Moved them down, they went down easy. MUCH better for the unwound G string, and then MUCH better for the more modern radius!

 

[derekd]

Try Rio Grande's. To me, their pickups have a similar flavor to the Tex-Mex.

I agree. I had their Muy Macho set in a US strat for years.

They are everything the Tex Mex pups wanted to be.

 

[AtomicBlaze]

Woo Hoo, it worked...thanks everyone. Moved them down, they went down easy. MUCH better for the unwound G string, and then MUCH better for the more modern radius!

I just moved down my CS 69 pickup poles in the neck and it survived, so far so good I think I prefer them flat.

Edit:
I ended up moving the wound strings back up a bit to balance it out, about half the height they were originally and it is just about perfect now.

 

[Boomstick]

I had them in my prior strat and they weren't perfect but I liked them enough where I never bothered replacing them. I traded that for a '10 American Standard. I'm not sure what pickups they are, I don't think they are the Custom Shop Fat 50s in '10, but they have the same problem as the CS Fat 50s which is absolutely horrible string imbalance. If you think the Tex Mex's have poor string balance...

 

[buddastrat]

I'm not too picky on pickups. I think the Tex Mex are as good sounding as anything out there in the vintage realm for sound. Just a different flavor...they have a nice output without being very middy. I'm confident I could stick 'em in my old '66 strat and it'd sound good.

I have no fear adjusting Custom Shop poles, and tweaked the stagger on pretty much every model they make over the years. Wasn't sure on Tex Mex Nice to now know the Tex mex can be adjusted better too. Besides dropping the D and G down a bit, I raised the low E pole up a tad, I wanted a little more out of that string. On the neck pickup, the low E was way down compared to the other Tex Mex. not so consistent, so maybe not as good in that regard.

 

[garret]

Love em as well.