I know there have been many topics about Crispian's gear before but I don't remember if anyone ever wrote something about the pickups of his Strats. The thing is that I want to buy new (and other sounding) pickups for my own Strat and I wonder now if anyone knows if Crispian's Strats still have their original pickups or if he has replaced them by others at some point (e.g. Seymour Duncan, Kinman...) It would make my choice already a lot easier if someone knows the answer to that question...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Phantom,

while we are on guitar subject what amp model does he use?i know its a fender but what model would help.i have a marshall tsl100 half stack at the mo but its just to bloody big so i want to get a smaller amp.

i know that he use to use fender lace sensor pickups. i think that he probably still does. also the amp that he uses is a fender twin. i would reccoment one of these amps as i have one. apart from they weigh about 20 stone, you can't fault them

Actually he never uses Lace Sensors (never seen them on the guitars he plays live anyway) His old 70's black strat has the original stock pick ups in there and the two custom strats made by fender for him had EMG active pickups in them for awhile... as for his Tele they also look like stock pickups... there was a whole webpage dedicated to the gear they use I'll try and find it and post the link.

oh right. just ignore me then.

As Sun of Surya said, i've never seen a Crispian Guitar with Lace Sensors in. The two 70s strats (i.e. St George and the most recent one) appear to have stock pickups in and the custom made ones had EMG active pickups i believe either SAV, or SV. The Telecaster Custom also appears to have stock pickups. The issue with the active pickups is that the red strat (dragon strat) has had at least 3 vartiations of pickups in it. It started with a single, single, humbucker config with black pickguard, then went to single single single with black pickguard and then to single single single with white. All EMG pickups, but the timeframe, and order of the variations, I have no idea.

When it comes to amps, Crispian has always used Fender, but i've also seen him dabbling with Conford (w/ the Jeevas) and Matchless (w/ KS but on tour in the USA). In KS he's pretty much always used a Fender "The Twin" from about 1987-94. A site with loads of details is below:
http://www.ampwares.com/ffg/twin_redknob.html
the only difference is that Crispian's was a black knob version of the above. It's not your standard Twin sound, as is actually quite a modern distortian sound. With the Jeevas Crispian used the modern Pro Tube Fender Twins as they were rentals. He normally had two on the go, i'm not sure if they were both on, he switched them, or one was just a spare.

Honestly, Crispian's sound is (to my ears)

Vintage style Fender single coil (be in strat or telecaster) into
Wah - Boost - Fuzz - Compressor - Delay
into fender amp (turned up loud)

and that's about it, the rest is in the fingers.

To actually help with some suggestions. If you want to go true to Crispian's sound go with some Fender Custom SHop '69 pickups. If you're feeling more advertureous go with Fender Texas Specials, or Kinman Blues. If you still want to be noiseless but have single coils go for some Bill Lawerence BL280 (i think!)

that's it for now

I was thinking on the subject of the 70's strat... I think it's the same, he just changed the pickguard and took off one of the stickers. The body and neck seem to be worn in the same places as the old one.... I've got a thing for that particular guitar I've been obsecively looking at pics of it to see if they're the same or not *L*
That's right folks that's how bored I am when I'm not at work! (even AT work sometimes too *L*)

I agree the 69 custom shop pick ups are the closest yer gonna get to that old strat sound he's got.

I'm really not convinced, but then I haven't got detailed photos of both guitars, I only have my memory of one and eye witness reports of another and none are really of high enough quality.

My reason for supposing it is a different guitar is because Crispian claimed (in a interview, i think available on the net) that he got the peacock and dragon strats because the St george had become to fragile for the road. That to me normally means that the neck keeps working loose in the neck pocket, or general tuning problems/issues. Having said that I don't think he would dig that guitar out and only change the pickups/scratchplate and remove a sticker. I think its far more likely he got a backup for the St George strat which was another (slightly later '79 i think) 70s' strat and added the Om sticker, just because he liked them.

I also know that the black Om Strat turned up on the Jeevas' tours circa 2002. So I honestly think it is a different guitar or at the very least only part of the St George guitar but I really don't think he would break it up because of the history attached to it. At least I wouldn't!

that's true he did say it was becoming frailer... but as a guitar yech, I wouldn;t find it too hard to fix the neck if it got loose with time.
besides he's not touring the world at the mo' just club gigs in England. That could be why he takes it out every now and then.

I've got three pics of the guitar(s) one from the late 90's (very detailed) and two from the recent tour (one detailed of the neck and one detailed of the body.) And the show the same marks at the same places
I've got to find a place to upload them...

i had kept the text from the website who had all about the gear:
here it is:

VIEW FROM THE CREW:
Guitar Gear
Melody Maker, 8th February 1997

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LOOKING after Crispian Mills’ onstage equipment is a bit more work for Stig.
“The main guitar is his old Fender Strat (‘79/’80) that he’s had for ages. It’s all standard,” said Stig, “except for the Sperzel locking machine heads and the screwed down bridge (no whammy bar). On ‘Into The Deep’ he plays a Gibson ES 335 with a capo at the second fret.” He apparently likes the action quit high and the Strat gets new strings every other gig.
“He doesn’t really like new strings though - says he’s nervous about them!”
The electric guitar goes through a Vox wah-wah and a Boss ME-8 multi-effects floor unit, which is programmed up in a clear and simple way over the five programme-switching pedals; one is bypass, one just has compression (and is louder), another has delay (quite long, always the same), another is marked “Lead” (it has a simple multi-tapping delay and volume/distortion boost) and the last one “COD” (for compression, overdrive and delay again). Plus there’s a clean/dirty channel footswitch for the Fender “The Twin” combo used, though he doesn’t use the combo’s speakers - the signal is fed to two Fender 4x12 cabs either side of the drum riser, a mono sound but split like this to give a wider spread.
With each guitar change, it’s also Stig’s job to adjust the guitar amp to new tone settings - taped to the top of the combo. “Crispian’s got very good ears - he can hear if something’s not right and pinpoint it exactly.”
+ St George Stratocaster
+ Gibson ES-335


The many guitars of Crispian Mills
compiled and written by Caroline

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Crispian has owned and/or used a number of different guitars over the years. In most articles, he lists different ones. This is just a summary really. All of this information appears on pages in parts of the Tech Centre. I've just brought it all together. This is very basic and is not a complete guide.
Rickenbacker 330-12: have no proper info, yet... but have a photo.

'Squier Venus XII' 12-string: Crispian endorses this one, so the only picture I have of him playing it is the actual advert itself. Smart Dogs is played on this one.

Gibson Les Paul 'Wooden Top' (ho, hum): err, yes... another Crispian joke, you see this was a Les Paul 'Gold Top' (ie, it had a gold finish), but it doesn't have any gold on it anymore. Can be seen in the video for: 'Grateful When You're Dead'.

'St George' Stratocaster: Possibly Crispian's most famous guitar (amongst fans anyway), bought on a visit to America when he was about 14. Guitar has a screwed down bridge (no whammy-bar/tremolo arm/whatever you want to call it) and classic 70's big headstock. Retired after the 'K' tour was completed, as it became too frail for the road. Has quite a few stickers, including an 'Om' symbol and the cross of St George (hence the name). Can be seen in the video for: well, most of the early singles, e.g. 'Hey Dude', 'Tattva', looks lovely in 'Govinda'.

'Peacock' Stratocaster: exact replica of 'St George' Strat (except for inclusion of whammy-bar/tremolo arm/whatever you want to call it), made for Crispian by Fender Arbiter. Painted by Dan Abbott. Used on tour from early '98.


'Dragon' Stratocaster: exact replica of 'St George' Strat(except for inclusion of whammy-bar/tremolo arm/whatever you want to call it), made for Crispian by Fender Arbiter. Also painted by Dan Abbott. Used on tour from '98 (I think) (picture nicked from Cameron's site)

Gibson ES-335: Lovely, classic guitar (that's classic, not classical). I've seen him play this one once, when they played 'Knight On The Town' on TFI Friday.


RICKENBACKER (360/12MG)

i know NOTHING about guitars (except to tell if they're pretty or not!), but i do believe he quite possibly talks about his guitars and stuff in the article on him in Guitar Player magazine (at least i think that's what it was, some sort of guitar magazine!), can't remember though. i'm pretty sure it's somewhere around here....

quote:

Originally posted by dazytripper:
i know NOTHING about guitars (except to tell if they're pretty or not!), but i do believe he quite possibly talks about his guitars and stuff in the article on him in Guitar Player magazine

That was in the September 1999 issue of Guitar Player. At least, that is what this website says.

Thanks a lot for the detailed and interesting information, guys. I have a better idea of what I want now and will go for either the Fender CS '69 or the Kinman Woodstock Regular pickups. Probably, the Fenders I think...
Not sure if anyone's interested in this but this is a good site where a few different Strat pickups are tested and compared (with sound clips).

Interestly I have a set of Fender CS '69s in a pickguard which I could be convinced to sell. I believe them to have been winded by Abigail Ybarra who has been winding pickups for Fender since the late 50s

If you're interested them let me know and I'll contact you off board