Start Texas Speical Pickups?

is it easy to get the jangly tone of guitarists such as U2's The Edge on Texas Special Pickups? Ive recently got a strat with these pickups and im hoping that Ill get used to em cos they dont seem as bright as standard pickups. Any tips to help me? i.e puckup height, amp settings, fx etc?

for some reason, the pickups just seem to sound dull and not at all like ive heard in recordings. Its acatully very very easy to play and work with (remarkable) but the pickups sounds so "dull" to say that they are meant to have higher frequencies n output. I think i might tyry and get this guiatr set up

Maybe your relying on the pickups to produce a tone that your guitar is not capable of. I think the best tonewood for a strat is solid alder. Of course that is just a matter of opinion but I have had swamp ash bodies and tops on strats in the past that sounded very dark and bassy no matter what you did with them. Not all ash guitars are this way but ash does vary in density much more than alder.
The bottom line is that the wood , string type and string guage, along with your touch, have more to do with tone than anything electrical. All of the electronic gadgets are just a way to shape your original tone. If the guitar doesn't have it to begin with it never will. I have a solid alder strat with texas specials , I use light guage strings 10 - 46 , And I play through several different fender tube amps and a mesa boogie. With that guitar I can get all the jingle jangle tone you'll ever need. I would say ,set the guitar up according to specs and see what happens , hopefully that takes care of it for ya, but if not have a pro check the wiring out for ya , could be wired wrong. Just because it's new doesn't mean it's right. Good luck to ya.

It is not the pick-up little brother that is all about sound processing. That sound is generated inside the electronics. Pick-ups will be more Jangly in the bridge position than in the neck position, but what you really need is a compressor, digital delay and a chorus effect to get the sound you want. Good Luck.

It sounds like you have the pickups set too high and close the strings.

I've got these in my Strat and they sparkle.

According to the Strat's manual They should be set up as follows....

Depress all of the strings at the last fret. Check the distance from the bottom of the 1st and 6th strings to the top of the pole piece (not the plastic PU cover) The measurements should be as follows....

Low E = 8/64"

High E = 6/64"

The way the pole pieces are lined up on the Texas Specs., it is not unusual that the plastic PU cover will be tilted and not parallel with the pick guard.

As far as getting that "jangly sound", stick with the mid/bridge pickup selection, and if you amp has EQ, turn the midrange almost to zero and the Treble and bass to 8 or 9. A Compressor pedal will help smooth things out too.

Good luck.

Forget all the "Math and Measurement" to the whole deal of it , If your pickups are flush with the pickgaurd, they're probably too low, ifwhen playing all the way up the neck (any string) and they bottom out on a polepiece, they are too high. Anything in between those two is fair game - just use your ears!

Texas Specials are the ideal pick-up for that jangly sound your talking about. They will work fine with the right amp settings. I have a Stevie Ray Vaughn strat with these pick-ups and its a monster. These are the brightest and hottest single coil pick-ups I've ever played. If they are as "dull" as you say then there is something else wrong. I would have a tech look at the wiring. Also, you didn't mention where they came from or who installed them, if they were in the guitar when you bought it they might not be Texas Specials. I have ran across several guitars lately that were advertised as Texas Specials but were actually Tex-Mex pick-ups, which have a suprisingly deep tone that is much more "dull" than the Specials. Hope this helped.

Alot has to do with your amps as well. TXS SPCLS are a hotter pickup tahn the standard strat. I would say less jangly. The fender vintage noisless or a set of Kinmans have a grat STRATTY sound. The TXS special are a great pickup for a hotter and meatier sound.

hello. iam a very big fan of the edge. i have had the most luck replicating the jangly tone by using blue"herdim "picks (the have a textured surface,and edge plays them on opposite end).
i also own a korg sdd 3000 and a framus amp(very similar in sound to the vox ac30 topboost).
write to me at ed@thefretartgallery.com and i can email you some of my recordings for you to review.
I also have an srv strat and I was able to tweak the amp settings to come close to his sound. try finding someone with a late 70'S strat , and compare with your guitar.
finding the tone you want is all about research.so,play on my friend...