Bridge Humbucker on a Strat?

HoraceB

Any suggestions for a good wire tapping Humbucker for the bridge on a Strat? Looking for tone over distortion.

Cheers all.

LooseMoose

Full size or mini? Pearly Gates / JB have long been the S-S-H  standard but couldn’t tell you if they are tappable...

WezV

Have you tried a baseplate on the strat pickup?   it fixes a lot of issues for those who don't like strat bridge pickups, fattens them up  real nice

steamabacus

I like the Duncan Screamin' Demon (not as high output as it sounds) with a 'PRS'-style partial split.

HoraceB

Cheers for the feedback.

Looking at full size. I have tried baseplates too, I'm after getting my strat to cover all bases, the band I play in do a lot of various covers and it gets a bit too much to have to change guitars all the time at gigs especially as we run numbers into each other.

timmysoft

JB, all day long.

Stevepage

Yep, JB is what you're after. Works wonders in a Strat

xscaramanga

I'm a big fan of the Bare Knuckle VHII in mine. Only other humbucker I've had in a Strat was a DiMarzio Fast Track 2 (Hot Rails type thing) which was great for mega gain but nothing else. VHII is not just a Van Halen pickup—it's a sweet, musical humbucker with a nice midrange and sweet high end. Its offset coils can sound kind of single coil-ish, which can work well with a Strat.

Only problem I have with it on mine is that it has a lot more mid than the vintage single coils I have neck and middle, so sometimes it's tricky to get a tone I love with both. 

Schnozz

I like the JB too

normula1

I've a Bare Knuckle Mule with a partial split for position 2 and a push pull pot to enable the partial split on its own. I prefer the tone of the screw coil myself. I fitted a multi-turn preset and tuned the split by ear. IIRC it came out around 4k or so.

siraxeman

Stevepage said:

Yep, JB is what you're after. Works wonders in a Strat

One of my Strats has a JB in the bridge position.....but when it had mid/neck single coils there was a significant volume drop when you switched to the singles....as it was simply way more powerful than those. Now that guitar has a fast track and a chopper along with the JB its great.

I have another Strat that is stock HSS - and it has 2 fat 50's and a Diamondback humbucker in the bridge - this is a much better marriage with the single coils - as its lower output and not as forceful in the mids like the JB is. So while I think a JB is great in the bridge it needs other pups to balance with it to be a good overall combo IMO.

PhilKing

I have a BK VHII with Mother's Milks, A Stormy Monday with a pair of Sultans (this is my favourite combo), A Crawler with 2 BKP-91's and a Holy Diver with two Trilogies (my 80's sounds).  For blues/rock I think the Stormy Monday/Sultans can't be beat but the VHII with Mother's Milks is really versatile too.  I've used the old JB in the past (the 14.4 K version), and it works great but I'm not as keen on the current spec.

Funkfingers

Stevepage said:

JB is what you're after. Works wonders in a Strat

Schnozz said:

I like the JB too

I like the "JB2". i.e. a Seymour Duncan SH-4 or TB-4 in which the Alnico 5 bar magnet has been replaced with an Alnico 2. This is probably the cheapest way to simulate the old SHAH-1 Allan Holdsworth model humbucker without having to pay Custom Shop prices and waiting six to eight weeks for it to arrive.

If you want the sounds of a humbucker without cutting up yo' Stratocaster, I recommend this. http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/pearly-gates-for-strat/ I've only tried its Telecaster equivalent. Very Les Paul below the twelfth fret. Runs out of steam a bit towards the dusty end. I blame the screwed-on neck joint.

siraxeman

I like the JB Jnr that I've had in 2 strats in the past....a bandmate got a lil 59 for his and that sounded good also. Yes different to a full fat JB but still a nice creamy rawk tone all the same.

jdbwales

Duncan Custom Custom, all day long. Best Strat bridge HB I’ve ever tried - huge and thick rock tone plus splits well for cleans. It’s alnico 2 as well...

siraxeman

^^ the very first after market bucket I tried...had it twice now both times in a strat. I like it...but for me the JB was better in that it was more sparkly. The CC with 250k pots is nice and creamy but has no sparkle.

Another one I tried and liked but even less so was the dimarzio tone zone...very bass'y ...tried the evolution...thin on cleans and light overdrive. Fred sounds ok but has the slightly cocked wah voicing. 

Thing is with ALL high output buckers is they sound great distorted and on their own but often don't mix well for cleans with the single coils...and certainly not on their own. Too much grunt ruins a nice clean tone. All you can do is compromise one cleans...or dirty sounds. I don't believe there is a best of both worlds. So we guitarists usually go first for raunchy rawk toanz.

normula1

I wasn't too fussed on the stock Custom Custom. I ended up swapping the A2 magnet for an A5 and eventually again to an A4. This was before they released the Custom 5.

Funkfingers

normula1 said:

I ended up swapping the magnet

Try UOA5.

HoraceB

Wow! Some great replies, it would seem getting the single coil combination is quite a factor as well, atm I have a Loller Blond in the neck and a Suhr ML Standard in the middle. Any love for Suhr SSV? 

Jonathangus

There's a JB TB-4 in the classifieds at the mo for a bargain-tastic £30.

Philly_Q

jdbwales said:

Duncan Custom Custom, all day long. Best Strat bridge HB I’ve ever tried - huge and thick rock tone plus splits well for cleans. It’s alnico 2 as well...

siraxeman said:

^^ the very first after market bucket I tried...had it twice now both times in a strat. I like it...but for me the JB was better in that it was more sparkly. The CC with 250k pots is nice and creamy but has no sparkle.

I've heard it said that a JB works well with 250k pots in a Strat, but you need 500k for the Custom Custom. 

I'd like to try the CC, I think I might like it because I find a lot of humbuckers quite harsh-sounding in Strats.