What are the best pickups for an HSS strat?

[moon]

I'd just step on an Xotic XP booster when I switched to a single coil. You could even build a boost into the guitar that kicks in automatically.

[guitararmy]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...guard?pfm=ac-m

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/acces...ckguard?pfm=sp

These are nice if you don't mind having the wiring already done for you.
I have some fast tracks in a partsocaster and love them...

[Gcunplugged]

Originally Posted by BLUtunes

Yes, I'm familiar with those. The "gold" ones are the one that supposedly have the "classic" strat sound, right?

Yes, the Gold ones have what I think of as the classic strat sound. The Lacemusic site describes them as "A classic 50's Style single coil sound with a classy bell tone."

And you can hear samples here:

Clean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOXe...layer_embedded

Overdriven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWB5...layer_embedded

Hope that helps,
GC

[MikeMcKee]

Rocketfire single coils are pretty amazing.

[noledog]

I've been usin' '80's Duncan JB's since the prototype came out for the rear/bridge. Combines nicely with other pu when split to single too.
For the SS I would use 2 Duncan Alnico II Pro APS-2 PHAT baby! Although in the neck of my Tele, the Duncan quarter pounder was killer!

[mikealpine]

Originally Posted by BLUtunes

These brands are totally unfamiliar to me. But I'm intrigued, especially with the results that you've gotten on your HSS strat. Boutique shops, I assume?

Brad, yes, and a bit on the expensive side, but worth it, at least to me. A less expensive option might be to look at Carvin twin-blade pickup for the single coil slots and then find a good bridge bucker. The twin blades sound awesome in some of the YouTube vids.

[franchelB]

For my money, I'd get a set of Seymour Duncan's Alnico II humbucker and single-coil pickups.

[royd]

Brad,

the difficult part is getting a bucker and singles to sound like they actually fit together. On my third partscaster (HSS) I got the Carvin Allan Holdsworth bridge pup. I like it alot. It splits well and sounds great on its own. I have the Carvin single coils as well. I know lots of folk don't like Carvin pups and I'd agree re the rest of their humbuckers, but those two pups work very well and very well together.

One piece I would strongly recommend is that you get a Schaller Megaswitch E. It allows for great connections and only 1 ends up not being humbucking.

1 = the bridge humbucker
2 = one coil from the humbucker and the middle pup (humbucking)
3 = 1 coil from the bridge and the neck pup (humbucking)
4 = middle pup and neck pup (humbucking)
5 = neck pup (not humbucking)

You lose the middle single coil by itself but instead get a setting similar to a tele switch in the middle position. I did have to swap the middle and neck pups so the RWRP pup would be in the right place to have everything work correctly.

[BLUtunes]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody! I've started a Word document to keep track of all the suggestions. Much appreciated!

[BLUtunes]

Originally Posted by royd

Brad,

the difficult part is getting a bucker and singles to sound like they actually fit together.

Yes, this is the part that I don't feel like I have a good handle on just yet. The setup that you recommended would certainly be one solution. But what if you want to put together a hummer and two single coils on a regular 5-way switch? How do you deal with the impedance issues, the fact that the humbucker wants to see a 500 kohm resister and the single coils want to see 250? These are the questions that I don't feel I fully understand just yet.

It also seems to me that you'd need a volume and tone on the two single coils and a volume/tone on the hummer. Looks like you couldn't make this work on a regular Strat control panel, unless you used a stacked knob on one of the positions.

[royd]

Originally Posted by BLUtunes

But what if you want to put together a hummer and two single coils on a regular 5-way switch? How do you deal with the impedance issues, the fact that the humbucker wants to see a 500 kohm resister and the single coils want to see 250?

The problem with using a regular 5 way switch is that when you go to the second position, you're blending the full humbucker with the middle pup and you lose the great quack that position usually has. I don't remember what value pots or cap I currently have but I have used 500K & 250K pots at various times and have swapped a variety of different caps in and out... you can use any value for either, you just get a different sound. Common wisdom isn't always best. Pots and caps are inexpensive so if one value doesn't work for you, you can always swap to another.

It also seems to me that you'd need a volume and tone on the two single coils and a volume/tone on the hummer. Looks like you couldn't make this work on a regular Strat control panel, unless you used a stacked knob on one of the positions.

I use one tone and one volume that works on all of the pups. On a normal strat panel, you could set it up for a common tone control on the two singles and another on the humbucker or just choose one pup to go straight through with no tone control.

have fun! And nothing that you do has to be permanent.

[aknow]

Back in 1980 I bought my 1st strat. Being stupid, I bought one that looked good, a walnut Fender "The Strat" with gold hardware. I didn't realize at the time it weighed a ton and I could have bought a 1960's strat for about the same amount. When I started gigging with it, the bridge pickup had no guts. I took it to a luthier, Jon Carruthers, and he said, "Let's put a humbucker in the bridge position". He said he'd never done it before, but it was an easy modification. I had a 1964 Gibson SG Std with a broken headstock and we transplanted that humbucker from 1964 into the strat. That was a Great idea.

[BLUtunes]

Originally Posted by aknow

I had a 1964 Gibson SG Std with a broken headstock and we transplanted that humbucker from 1964 into the strat. That was a Great idea.

Very cool idea! And a good way to re-purpose a nice classic humbucker! How much did the pickup sound different when you dropped it in a strat?

[BLUtunes]

Originally Posted by royd

The problem with using a regular 5 way switch is that when you go to the second position, you're blending the full humbucker with the middle pup and you lose the great quack that position usually has. I don't remember what value pots or cap I currently have but I have used 500K & 250K pots at various times and have swapped a variety of different caps in and out... you can use any value for either, you just get a different sound. Common wisdom isn't always best. Pots and caps are inexpensive so if one value doesn't work for you, you can always swap to another.

Yeah. I can see that. If your hummer can do coil tap, then I suppose there would be a way to work around this.

I use one tone and one volume that works on all of the pups. On a normal strat panel, you could set it up for a common tone control on the two singles and another on the humbucker or just choose one pup to go straight through with no tone control.

have fun! And nothing that you do has to be permanent.

This is actually very helpful advice. Thank you for that! What about setting it up so that you have one volume for the single coils and another for the hummer, then a single tone control? And maybe you could have one 250 kohm resister on the overall tone and another on just the hummer wire so it would "see" 500k?

[aknow]

Originally Posted by BLUtunes

Very cool idea! And a good way to re-purpose a nice classic humbucker! How much did the pickup sound different when you dropped it in a strat?

Brad: It sounded ( still does) entirely different. The 1st time I pushed the pickup selector all the way down I nearly exploded my brain. It still had that strat sound but at least 3 times more powerfull, and not at all thin or shrill. I've had the mod so long, it looks almost original to me. Those older T-top humbuckers are really powerful.