HSS vs SSS Pickups

[stratojack]

Just wondering how many out there have an HSS configured Strat? I rarely use the bridge PUP except for some Pink Floyd stuff and would like a bluesier tone. Will the humbucker get me there?

[dan P]

Welcome Stratojack, a humbucker in the bridge slot will add a lot more pleasure, I have added a pearly gates to one of mine, and makes the bridge useable for what the doctor ordered, you may wire her up to split the coils and have both world's..... Dan

[tazzboy]

I am more of S/S/S then I am of mixing Humbuckers and Single Coils. But hey to each his own.

[bobmac]

My 1994 MIJ Strat is a H-S-S. I find the extra poke of the H to be useful but for a good blues tone I find the neck pup is best.

[sigep79]

I have a fat strat with a DiMarzio Air Zone in it. I also did the split pole mod with a push/pull Tone 2 pot. It is very nice to have the bucker and the single coil sounds. Also try the true bypass mod for the volume pot. You won't lose highs when you turn down. I love the versatility of my strat.

[tylerangle1990]

I can't really say if you'll like it or not...it's going to be fatter and hotter but that doesn't necessarily make it better. What I personally might be interested is a true single coil that sounds a little bit fatter than the original but not like a humbucker...kind of like a Tele, because the Tele bridge seems to be a bit less volatile than the Strat bridge. However, the Strat bridge always has it's place as well...it's really all about personal preference

[johnreardon]

I have a US Deluxe HSS with S1 switch. Hardly use the bridge on all my other Strats playing Blues stuff, but I do with the HSS. It's a lot more flexible, for me, than the others.

It can sound a bit shrill at lowish volumes but stretch a valve amp and it's fabulous

[Boris Bubbanov]

Never bonded with that H-S-S model, I guess I just remember this guitar this one way.

A lil 59 Seymour is not too bad, and aesthetically is more acceptible.

However, I do admit I am annoyed that only Bill Lawrence (Keystones, for example) bother to address what I see as a crucial issue, and that is matching the pickup pole pieces to the string's location over them. Everyone knows the sound does fall off when there's a mismatch, especially if the strings fall far outside the pole piece locations.

Bubbanov

[Eoraptor1]

Originally Posted by Boris Bubbanov

Never bonded with that H-S-S model, I guess I just remember this guitar this one way.

A lil 59 Seymour is not too bad, and aesthetically is more acceptible.

However, I do admit I am annoyed that only Bill Lawrence (Keystones, for example) bother to address what I see as a crucial issue, and that is matching the pickup pole pieces to the string's location over them. Everyone knows the sound does fall off when there's a mismatch, especially if the strings fall far outside the pole piece locations.

Bubbanov

Please forgive me if I've misread your post BB, but if I've got you right, you're saying that only Bill Lawrence pickups match humbucker polepieces to Fender spacing, and this has been untrue since the second half of the 80's. You can get Seymour Duncan Trembuckers, and most DiMarzios in "F" spacing upon request. (As well as other brands, but I'm most familiar with DiMarzios and Seymours) You can see what alternate spacings are available on their respective company websites.

stratojack,

I personally use an "F-Spaced" DiMarzio FRED in the bridge position of my main guitar with a Fender American Standard Bridge and the strings lay perfectly over the polepieces. This is a medium output humbucker that I have set up with a mini toggle so that I can play the coils either in series or parallel. I DO NOT split my coils. In series, the sound is very similar to the PAF Pro, but harmonics jump out very easily, so you can pretend to be The Edge even if you're not particularly adept at popping harmonics out of your neck. In parallel the sound is more like a fatter version of the Strat; that is, fatter than stock, but retaining the "truer" fidelity associated with single coil pickups. (Did I just sound like an ad? I may have absorbed that somewhere in a magazine, so be warned.) This pickup comes standard with the Ibanez Joe Satriani model. Specs here: Ibanez :: Electric Guitars :: JS1200 If your local music store has one on hand, you can hear for yourself. Hope this helps.

JAMES

[imwjl]

My first Stratorcaster was HSS and maybe that's why we never bonded. I don't think there's anything wrong with them, but I'm not much of a bridge pickup users except occasional twang fun with my Tele or some position 4 playing with my Strat.

[ldelo]

I had the MIA strat that had the two TX specials and the Pearly Gates at the bridge (I keep forgetting what that model was called.)

I liked the HB at the bridge some of the time and it was nice to have that Gibbie-seque tone available at the bridge together with the bluesier mid/neck SCs.

However, I found that I missed the SC at the bridge more than I liked the Pearly Gates.

As an attempt at a compromise I the PG tapped with a switch installed, but never found the tapped HB to be comparable to an SC (at least in this case and to my ears, and of course all our tastes are different.)

So in the end I sold the guitar (it was my first strat), bought my '62 MIA RI, and have never looked back.

It is very personal and all that, but for my ears and tastes the HB at the bridge (even tapped) was not a good compromise and I'd rather just have SSS rigs.

I do have to admit that all the Warmoth bodies I've bought have been HSS.... just in case I ever have a change of heart **again** I don't have to get out a router or chisel...

[JKjr]

I just picked up a '96 MIM HSS. Nobody seems to know what the pickups are, but this thing is a blowtorch. Seems that to match a bucker's output they put some pretty hot SCs in it. There went the "quack factor". If the only options are mismatched output level or loss of transparency I'd rather just keep the SC @ the bridge if this were the only guitar I had.