Strat tone quest: completed?

[RuiNs777]

Went down the rabbit hole a few months ago and dug into strat tones. Got a custom shop 61 time machine and replaced the Texas Specials with SSL5/SSL1/SSL1, Josefina HW 50s and eventually dropped these BKP 63 veneer boards on it. It has the sponginess, the feedback, harmonics and all the dynamics I could have hoped for. What you guys' go to strat tone?

 

[CrushingAnvil]

Nice, I've been on a 'find the perfect Strat' quest for years now. I had an HSS American Professional II Strat but couldn't get along with the vintage fingerboard radius, but it had some great tones. I switched in a Lukather EMG set but then realised that his SLV's are way less stratty than S's or S's. Then I bought an HSS Caparison and used the same set of pickups in that. Now I get my Strat tones from my Suhr which has an 85 (Knopfler mod) + SA + SA.

As far as tones go I like Neal Schon ("Lights"), Steve Lukather ("Rosanna", "Without Your Love", and countless others), and Mark Knopfler's strat tones ("On Every Street"), but there's also Dann Huff ("Glory of Love" by Peter Cetera) and Michael Thompson (Michael Bolton, Celine Dion, Christopher Cross). I also love some of the stratty stuff various players have brought to Steely Dan tracks, like Steve Khan's on "Glamour Profession".

 

[narad]

Nice. I like lollars for strats. I have a kubicki strat with lollar blondes in it, but I like the blackfaces/64s too.

 

[Rubbishplayer]

Went down the rabbit hole a few months ago and dug into strat tones. Got a custom shop 61 time machine and replaced the Texas Specials with SSL5/SSL1/SSL1, Josefina HW 50s and eventually dropped these BKP 63 veneer boards on it. It has the sponginess, the feedback, harmonics and all the dynamics I could have hoped for. What you guys' go to strat tone?

I fit SSL-1s as standard to my strat builds, so I can't fault your choices here.

I've experimented with a few other makes, usually boutique handwounds, but just keep coming back to them, as they reliably give that classic strat sound that I love, with real depth.

If I want it hotter, I usually do that with a clean boost, rather than a pup with extra winds, but that's just a personal preference.