Fender Strat Fat 50's

[alanb]

Hi, New member and I was wondering if anyone had the pick up height settings for Fender CS FAT 50's. I bought a brand new American Fender Stratocaster with the usual fender factory setup, the annoying thing about Strats is the way the pick guard is covered in sticky back plastic and it needs to come off. Loosening all the little screws round the pick guard (all 11 of them) taking off the tone knobs and the volume control knob loosening the nuts for the pots and the selector switch screws what a pain but I don't like bits of plastic stuck underneath the screws etc. Finally to finish the job the pickup screws have to be loosened to remove the offending sticky backed plastic and after fiddling around with the screws job done "But" during this process I have inadvertently lost the original factory settings for the pups. I have looked at the little booklet that you get with the case candy and nope no reference to FAT 50's Vintage style Tex specials Noiseless etc yes but not FAT 50's. Anyone any idea if they come under Vintage style or just plain single coil ?
I have set them at 1/8" Bass side and 3/32" Treble side as for Texas specials and they sound pretty good but I cant help wondering (as you do) whether they are set right or not any ideas all replies welcome. P.S never had the same problem with my Gibson Les Paul Traditional.

[dyker124]

Hi Alan,

I purchased a new USA standard Strat in 2012 with Fat 50s fitted as standard, When I got it home I found the nut was damaged (by the staff in the shop I think -- no proof), but before I returned it I measured the pickup heights. I returned the guitar and they eagerly replaced it with another new one (still in the box). When I got it home, out of curiosity I measured the pickup heights. The settings were all over the place as were the settings of the previous one and they were nothing like each other either. I then got in touch with Fender Support as there was no laid down recommended height for the Fat 50s.The guy at Fender Support recommended that the settings should be the same as most other pickups and recommended 6/64" from the top of the pickup pole to the underside of the 6th string and 5/64" from the top of the pickup pole to the underside of the 1st string, with the last fret held down.. I used those settings for a while and found them fine, but a while later I visited a Luthier and he demonstrated to me the magnetic pull of the strings when trying to set the intonation so he lowered the pickups a tad.

Since that time I have always used 8/64" (6th string) and 6/64" (1st string) on all three pickups with the last fret held down, and they have been absolutely fine. It seems like you have your settings spot-on.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards
Roger

[RUSSET]

I too bought a Fender USA Standard Strat, actually this year, about 4 months ago. I wondered what 'Fat '50s' meant with regards to the pickups, but they sound vintage style to me, so that's OK. I don't think they sound particularly 'Fat', just similar to any other vintage pickup. I bought it because I thought that current prices, £1,099, pretty good value for a USA made guitar at present. Must be due to the lower value of the dollar versus the pound at the moment.

I have also just bought a new Roland Blues Cube 'Artist' amp. Yes, I know for Shads fans it's not a Vox, but it is a great amp with lots of useful features. Roland have a great reputation for top quality. It is a fully solid-state amp with 80w output, a 1 x 12" speaker, a Clean & an Overdrive channel & a button to mix the two. There are boost buttons for both channels & also tone buttons which give a treble boost. There are no valves involved & no heavy transformer, so it only weighs 35lbs. I am thrilled with it & will get a vinyl cover to protect the beautiful cream tolex, & a foot controller pedal. It also has a four stage power output switch ( 0.5w, 15w, 45w, 80w), so you can use it for home practise without annoying the family, & also it's easily loud enough to do a decent size gig with. There is also a smaller 60w version called the 'Stage'.
Check them out. They don't disappoint.

Tony.

[dave robinson]

I'm not sure either what the term FAT 50's is referring to, all I know is that the ones I've heard sound good.

[alanb]

Many thank's for your replies guy's. I have set my pups to the settings 1/8" low "E" and 3/32" high "E" as you say with measurement's taken first fret depressed and from under the string. It does sound much better on high gain for playing heavy metal style guitar but I have to turn the "Delta" tone knob (Bottom tone control) down some to say number 5 to avoid a horrible overtone from the guitar. I like the Strats clean tone for brighter tones on Chorus pedal but no way can it compete with my Gibson Les Paul Traditional (Old standard) guitar the two guitars are totally different and the Les Paul wins every time. The single coil pickup's sound best for me with the neck pickup and the middle pickup selected the bridge pickup is a little to on the treble side for a so called FAT pickup. The so called factory setup is a hatchet job and no wonder every guitar sounds different no real factory setup to any precise settings just a rough setup and the recommended settings are a joke. "Get your settings right Fender and set the guitar up properly at the factory is my comment". Thank's again people.

[roger bayliss]

The vintage sets like the Fat 50s and the 57/62s have all three PUs wound the same. The Fat 50s have more windings than the 57/62s.

The CS54s have an over wound bridge PU to about 6.2k but neck and middle are same.

I find the bridge PU of the 57/62s and the Fat 50s is a little thin sounding because of this and I thought the bridge on the CS 54s sounded better. However the middle and neck PUs seem fine on all three sets.

Some balanced sets from specialist PU makers in the vintage vein are a good option. I would say anything over 6.3 K on the bridge and you start to lose the sound for Shadows tunes. I have owned the CS54 and the 57/62s and feel the CS 54 are a better option due to this balancing.

I currently use a Tonerider vintage on the bridge with 57/62s in neck and middle and find they work well. I think the tonerider bridge is similar to the CS54 wind of around 6.2K and does a good job. The use Alnico 3 on the treble string side too taking the bite out of the sound.

Playing live is when the the thinner sounding bridge PUs are a bit shrill, but recorded they are OK.

I find 3/32s a good initial setting for the PUs and then generally adjust from there often taking the bass side down a 1/64th seems to be about right but some experimentation is needed to get the right sound. I usually play a tune using the PU and find where it is giving me the right sound. For me I seem to go for around 6/64s treble side and 7/64s bass.

[alanb]

It makes you wonder why Fender bother to publish settings (as a recommendation) when the settings on the guitars they send out are nowhere near their own specs. Bonkers ! surely after all the time that they have been manufacturing guitars that they can't come up with an optimum setting.
I know that tastes vary considerably according to playing style etc but a guitar is a supposedly finely tuned instrument and certain settings are to a point a perfect optimum that could be measured electronically to find the perfect position. Standard is at A 440 HZ when tuned to pitch so why not set the pickups to achieve the best possible response to that frequency at the factory by oscilloscope.

[roger bayliss]

In fairness though none of the manufacturers set them up and I think the intention is that the sellers would do this to the buyers taste. I would certainly recommend learning to set up your own guitars if you can as it yields a result you generally want and like.