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One of my students that I teach guitar to just had his parents buy him a low cost strat. I played Mayall's 70th Bday party and he fell in love with Buddy Whittington's tone. I personally own a Clapton Strat and absolutely love it but thats my only experience with strats... I've never even played another one. What pup suggestion would you guys suggest to help my student get a great blues tone like Buddy Whittington's tone?

I like Buddy's tone too. Budddy usually plays his 60's strat, or his Lentz strat that has similar specs and uses Scott Lentz's custom wound pickups

I'd suggest taking a look at the vintage strat pickup reviews in The Vault Section for an over all perspective

since it's a low cost strat, SSLs are a great choice

Can I make a biased comment here?

Buddy also is a user of DR-Z AMPS!!! That is a big factor to great tone IMHO...

signed,
a DR-Z amp owner

yup, good point

you'll need a decent tube amp to get the best tone out of a good set of pickups in order to even get close to Buddy's tone

I let him play through my orange ad30 when I'm showing him how to play so its a pretty good tube amp . I never got to play a Dr. Z but I hear great things about them. Thinking about getting one someday

I've never heard the tone of Buddy Whittington... but my favourite strat pups for blues were always the Alnico 2 pro staggered single coils (APS-1's).

ssl1 or 2, aps 1 or 2

those are a good starting point, if its a darker guitar the ssl will help brighten it up. brighter guitars might sound better with the aps to help warm them up

When I hear Buddy Whittington play I hear the tone of a vintage Strat (I know: it's a new Lentz) through a Dr Z amp. Sounds like 6K to 6.4K alnico 5 Strat pickups to me. I've seen Buddy play a couple of times...once when John Mayall opened for Peter Green at the Boulder Theatre. (Good show!) I'd recommend a set of the Antiqutiy Surfers or the California 50's, which is three SSL-1's with a RW/RP middle. Lew


Originally Posted by LewguitarWhen I hear Buddy Whittington play I hear the tone of a vintage Strat (I know: it's a new Lentz) through a Dr Z amp. Sounds like 6K to 6.4K alnico 5 Strat pickups to me. I've seen Buddy play a couple of times...once when John Mayall opened for Peter Green at the Boulder Theatre. (Good show!) I'd recommend a set of the Antiqutiy Surfers or the California 50's, which is three SSL-1's with a RW/RP middle. Lew

Saw him in Detroit during that same tour although I don't remember the venue (could be the Majestic). We met him after the show. He is a *great* player who gets a great tone IMO. He is also a really nice guy -- great to talk to. I also got his autograph.

Surfers, if money's not tight.

SSL-1's seem like a good choice for him.