Fender Strats with Nomads

[gibder87]

Hey guys, I started using a Nomad 45 recently after 4 years of solid state amps (best move ever).
I was considering changing the pickups in my fender strat (maple fretboard) from stock s-s-h pickups to dual blade style pickups in the neck and middle and a warmer humbucker in the bridge. I found the fender way too bright and tinny through solid state amps, leaving it relatively unused. However, I have dialed in some reasonably good tone with the big bodied sound of the nomad.

I was wondering whether anyone here uses single coil (or single coil sounding) pickups with a Nomad? If so, what styles do they suite best?

I am now reconsidering the change as I already own 2 Gibson Les Pauls (one with high power dimarzios and the other with vintage alnicos), which give good fat tones. I am also considering the dimarzio virtual vintage line (for single coil tone, without 60 cycle hum).

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

 

[jaquetapus]

I've got Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro's in all the positions in my maple neck Strat and I'm really liking them. Still not a real big fan of the bridge pickup sound tho, it's kinda thin for my taste. Definitely help get that huge SRV style blues tone. I've begun to really enjoy my Strat/Nomad 100 head for the in-between kind of sounds. I'm thinking of goin to a H-S-S setup with a DiMarzio AT1 in the bridge. [loving Andy Timmons' sound] I'm workin on getting some clips up of my different pickup/guitar/amp combinations.

-dave

 

[Tommy_G]

I've found that neck p/ups sound best with sc, and bridge with HB's.

 

[longhair55]

Well,All I have are two Strats.
All the pup postions sound good.

 

[Dolebludger]

Single coil + Nomad really depends on what other gear you have. If you have a graphic EQ and a Sonic Stomp (or maximizer) it is very possible to get great tones out of single coil PUPs. All my guitars have dual-to-single coil switches, With this gear, I find that the use of one or more PUPs on single is a great way to avoid the infamous "Nomad mud", if one wants to avoid it.

Indeed, to get good sounds in the double coil mode through the Nomad, I found that I had to lower the PUPs. There was just too much signal for the Nomad to handle with any degree of clarity in ch. 2 and 3.

 

[Koreth]

I have a Ibanez RG5EX1, which is more of a shredder superstrat than a normal strat. It does however have a rout for a single coil in the middle, which I have a Seymour Duncan FiveTwo, which is like a vintage strat pickup, but with Alnico V magnets for clarity on the low strings and Alnico II magnets for sweetness on the high strings. While nowhere near as hot as the humbuckers I have in the bridge and neck, the singe coil simply cannot be beat for clarity, and makes for a very nice clean tone. I run my clean channel with the gain at noon, presence at noon, treble at noon, mids at 9:30, bass at noon, and the channel master and overall master set to taste, depending on how loud I want to be overall or in relation to the other channels.

For clean sounds, a Strat into your Nomad should do very well indeed.

 

[KozMcCharlie]

I use a Strat loaded with CS '54s and love it through my 45. I've normally got it in extreme mode and while the strat sounds good, it still takes some dialing to get the mud out. Personally I use the Strat for lower gain stuff. Mostly funk in fact...

 

[lerxst88]

I like the neck pickup alot in general. i would advise using a V shape in the EQ and for some reason it just sounds sooooo nice with singlecoils, somewhere between SRV, Los lonely boys and NOFX