SSS is more versatile than HSS?

[Piing]

Want versatility? HSH With Dimarzio Bluesbucker DP163. Sweet P90'ish flavor. It sounds close to my boutique Harmonic Design Z90.
Plus a 3 position (on-on-on) DPDT (Dimarzio EP1108) to select Humbucker/Single-coil/Phase-Reverse for absolute versatility.

Great Strat quacking on pos. 2 and 4.

p.s.: even more versatile by adding a Schaller term-stop, to quickly convert it into a solid hard-tail bridge. My one guitar for all kind of gigs situations since 1994.

BTW: the third mini-switch is to combine both humbuckers (which can also be SC, depending on their individual switches).

 

[Eagle]

Even HH wired up like a PRS or Suhr is very versatile.

 

[HomespunEffects]

Well, i got a new pickguard for my MX Strat so maybe 90-90 is my new favorite. Will report.

 

[metropolis_4]

Humbuckers are great until you need to play stuff like surf or old country.

You just can’t get that hollow twang on the low strings with humbuckers. They’re too full and round and compressed. You can get close, but it’s never as good as having a single coil in the bridge.

 

[NightWalker]

Humbuckers are great until you need to play stuff like surf or old country.

well i dont play that kind of music

 

[metropolis_4]

well i dont play that kind of music

Well I do. The thought for the thread was what is more versatile

 

[NightWalker]

Well I do. The thought for the thread was what is more versatile

more versatile is the HSS,i have friends that play surf and country and use HSS but for that style of music they use the neck or the 4 position

 

[metropolis_4]

more versatile is the HSS,i have friends that play surf and country and use HSS but for that style of music they use the neck or the 4 position

Glad that works for them, but it definitely doesn’t work for me.

There’s no way I’m getting the kind of twang and snap I’m talking about out of any neck pickup.

 

[Piing]

Glad that works for them, but it definitely doesn’t work for me.

There’s no way I’m getting the kind of twang and snap I’m talking about out of any neck pickup.

Given the same neck pickup, how is it different on a HSS and a SSS?

 

[Aelred]

Given the same neck pickup, how is it different on a HSS and a SSS?

I think he meant that he needed a bridge pickup for the twang and snap.

 

[HomespunEffects]

Given the same neck pickup, how is it different on a HSS and a SSS?

he’s using the bridge pickup.

 

[Piing]

Slow CPU

 

[ucnick]

I use the Dimarzio rails, love the Super Distortion S version in the bridge. But Chopper and Fast Track 1 are also great there.
Other than that I've used the Seymour Lil' '59 which I like and the Hot Rails not at much. I have a single size parallel axis too but have only used in the neck position. Lil' 59 sounds better to me with 500K pot fwiw, as do all of them.

Tried Hot Rails pup my years ago, didn't care for it, gain-y tones ok but cleans just not good. Lil 59s notably better. IMHO best are Mojotone, DiMarzios, and Bill Lawrence (true BL made by Becky and her daughter, not those made by Bill's thieving ex-partner), forget the specific models.

I think I have a Chopper and Fast Tracks in my Aerodyne Strat. Don't exactly remember, it's been a while...

 

[Jarick]

You can't get the high output humbucker and vintage single coil sound out of the same pickup. I guess if something like that is needed from the exact same guitar, you'd want to try either a P-Rails or try a hotter pickup with coil split or parallel wiring.

Personally I like a PAF style bridge pickup with a lot of clarity and then hotter single coils for balance, and that gets pretty close. I almost never like the sound of a Strat bridge pickup. Teles are cool, a little more balanced.

In my Ibanez AZ right now I have a Duncan 59 bridge pickup with a Dimarzio Injector neck and Area 67 middle using 500k pots (although one of them may be 250k I can't remember). The Injector is a hot noiseless pickup around 8k I believe, and the bridge is about 8.5k with the middle being under 6k. The higher pot values bring out more clarity from the bridge and neck pickups, and the weaker middle pickup adds more high end. It's pretty good and noiseless all around.

The other more traditional setup I liked was a pair of Suhr ML or V60LP pickups with a Suhr Thornbucker bridge. Again hotter single coils with a brighter PAF bridge. I believe Pete Thorn runs the Thornbucker II with a pair of V63's (which are same as ML's but not overwound) and has a parallel switch for the bridge to get closer to a single coil tone.

 

[Will Onyx]

Teles are cool, a little more balanced.

I’ve had a couple Nashville style teles with 3 singles. They freakin smoked!

While I’m enjoying my new, recently found tones with a SSS strat, Teles will always be home.

 

[JoeBfstplk]

This is my solution:

Hu:

Watt:

Idono:

All Strat-oid bases covered. CS "Journeyman" '65 Strat with true singles. Eventually getting the Illitch dummy coil set-up for it.

The bridge HB I use is the Planet Tone Clearvoyant. In the cream-colored Kramer, it's a custom hotter wind from their "Sanctorum" pickup, to get a little more oomph. They are wired to a series/parallel switch on the Fender S1 volume pot in both. Normal state is parallel, to get a lower output to go along with the singles.

The trick I use in both is to set the pickup height a bit low, and bring up the pole pieces, which changes the focus of the pickup quite a bit, from a standard HB kind of tone to something a bit more like a slanted single coil sound. It's not 100%, but it actually fixes the "ice-pick" thing standard Strat bridge pickups often do, due to the diminished, but not zero, influence of the slugs. In the Kramer, the hotter wind ends up being just about where a stock Tele pickup would be, in output and tonality. In the blue Strat, it lands right about perfectly balanced with the middle "vintage" Split Blade. Switch to series on either, and it's time to rock out. Quacks nicely with the middle pickup in both, and clucks nicely with the neck. The Kramer does a pretty decent job covering Tele sounds with the bridge HB in parallel, while the blue Strat covers Tele better with the pickup switched in series.

I might eventually get another custom wound one with their "Afterburner" wind at some future point for the blue Strat. If I had all "vintage" output Fralin Split Blades in it, it'd be a perfect balance, but I have the "high output" neck, and the stock Clearvoyant is ever so slightly lower in output than the neck when combined with it. Balances perfectly with the middle "vintage" Split Blade, so it would be perfect if I had a "vintage" neck also. Then I'll have to figure out where to put the current stock Clearvoyant. Maybe in the 245 SE. Who knows. Maybe I'll get a Warmoth body and get my original Strat neck refretted, and juggle some parts to put together a guitar for it....