HSS strats. What bridge humbucker are you using?

Boromedic

P.s. Also consider doing a series/parallel on a push pull rather than split, I personally think it sounds better. Especially with the Thornbucker+, especially when you consider splitting a humbucker that is PAF style will give you a really low output unless you do it PRS style and use a resistor in the circuit. Even then I prefer parallel to split. 

PhilM

Oil City Blitz Spirit in the bridge, Stone Tone middle and neck. On both main HSS Strats. Partial split with a resistor on pos 2.

ICBM

Boromedic said:

P.s. Also consider doing a series/parallel on a push pull rather than split, I personally think it sounds better. Especially with the Thornbucker+, especially when you consider splitting a humbucker that is PAF style will give you a really low output unless you do it PRS style and use a resistor in the circuit. Even then I prefer parallel to split. 

Parallel gives a lower output than split, though - the output impedance is halved, and there’s always some harmonic cancellation between the coils.

I prefer split usually - especially with a resistor - although for bass, parallel is better for some reason!

guitarfishbay

I was surprised how good split with a resistor sounded on the SSV. I think I’ll do that on all PAF output pickups in the future instead of a full split, sounds way less brittle 

Boromedic

ICBM said:

Boromedic said:

P.s. Also consider doing a series/parallel on a push pull rather than split, I personally think it sounds better. Especially with the Thornbucker+, especially when you consider splitting a humbucker that is PAF style will give you a really low output unless you do it PRS style and use a resistor in the circuit. Even then I prefer parallel to split. 

Parallel gives a lower output than split, though - the output impedance is halved, and there’s always some harmonic cancellation between the coils.

I prefer split usually - especially with a resistor - although for bass, parallel is better for some reason!

You know way more than me John obviously, why does it sound better though?!

guitarfishbay

On bass I find parallel gives a pleasing mid scoop which is often what you want for a bass, and maintains noise cancelling

west

Lollar imperial f space  in the bridge of my tom anderson droptop ... mine is paired with suhr v60lps ....

photek

+1 for the Thornbucker and Thornbucker+ both excellent paired with medium output singles (perfection with Suhr ML). Needs to see 500k though obvs.

ICBM

Boromedic said:

You know way more than me John obviously, why does it sound better though?!

Better is subjective .

I don't like parallel for guitar pickups very much, it sounds a bit 'weak' to me - it has a slight flavour of the Strat in-between sound, for the same reason... essentially two parallel single coils, which produce harmonic cancellation.

octatonic

Suhr SSV+.
A bit hotter than vintage.

Bennyboy-UK

My god, I've got loads of different ones and I like them all.

Seymour Duncan JB with SSL1s
Bareknuckle Rebel Yell with SSL1s
Seymour Duncan PATB1 with PATB-Stks
EMG 89 (and 85) with SAs
80s Hamer (Made by Dimarzio) Slammer HB with Slammer Single Coils
Dimarzio PAF Pro with other Dimarzio early 90s single coils (in Music Man Silhouette)

I happen to like a contrast in output levels, but it's no hardship to use the volume control, or change pickup heights a bit if you wanted to.

One pickup which was a bit of a revelation was a Rio Grande Tallboy - thats a humbucker made up of two traditional designed singlecoils mounted and wired so you can have true singlecoil sounds when split and a decent meaty humbucker sound as well with the coils in series (I think in series).

I got one of these for an HSS strat project, and it did what was advertised - however it made me realise that I don't really like bridge single coil sounds - so it was helpful from that perspective.

Cheers,
Ben.

ICBM

Bennyboy-UK said:

One pickup which was a bit of a revelation was a Rio Grande Tallboy - thats a humbucker made up of two traditional designed singlecoils mounted and wired so you can have true singlecoil sounds when split and a decent meaty humbucker sound as well with the coils in series (I think in series).

There's also the Seymour Duncan Stag Mag and Oil City Brassknuckle, which are the same idea. To me they do sound extremely good as split single coils, but not the same as a normal humbucker even when used as one (yes, they are in series normally). One of the useful things about the Brassknuckle I found when I fitted one to a friend's guitar is that splitting it to the bridge-side coil made it sound more like a Strat, and to the neck-side coil made it more like a Tele, even though both coils are actually the same - so I made it switchable for him.

zerolight

Right now I have an EMG 85 in mine. I know. Shocker. Not the done thing. In fairness it’s the first EMG I’ve owned in 34 years of playing. I kinda like it. Though it does have a mid thing going on like a tube screamer or something. One of my fav humbuckers in a strat type is the EVH Wolfgang bridge though. The Duncan Custom Frankie was pretty good. And I once had a killer Motorcity Blissterbucker in a strat type. 

mbe

I think bridge humbucker in parallel sounds really good combined with the middle single-coil pickup. That's how I have my HSS Pacifica wired instead of split.

guitarmanessex89

Thornbucker Plus. To me, the perfect bridge pickup for that style of guitar.

Kebabkid

This is pretty good explanation of a SSH guitar set up and why the guy chose the Thornbucker over Seymour Duncan JB that came in his CS Strat

fretmeister

Nice vid!

Dave_Mc

fretmeister said:

Nice vid!

Yeah it shows the difference pretty well between a hot humbucker and a PAF-type. A PAF type will still overpower the singles, but not just as badly. That being said, and you can get a bit of that from the vid, because the hotter pickup is more compressed it can actually sometimes sound less loud, not sure if that's actually true or psychological, though! But (as the video shows) the tone won't be just such a quantum leap from the single coils, it works better as an overall guitar, at least IMO.

Philly_Q

Dave_Mc said:

fretmeister said:

Nice vid!

Yeah it shows the difference pretty well between a hot humbucker and a PAF-type. A PAF type will still overpower the singles, but not just as badly. That being said, and you can get a bit of that from the vid, because the hotter pickup is more compressed it can actually sometimes sound less loud, not sure if that's actually true or psychological, though! But (as the video shows) the tone won't be just such a quantum leap from the single coils, it works better as an overall guitar, at least IMO.

The difference is easy to hear, but I have to say I liked the sound of the JB too!

fretmeister

I liked them both too.

But the Les Paul was even better!