HSS suggestions

McToot

Wassup fellas. 

Perhaps a bit of a lame question, but until now I've never owned an HSS guitar and consequently have never taken much notice of the pickups and their outputs etc.  So I'm after suggestions for the ideal HSS balance (outputs I guess).

Basically 90% of the time I would use a strat-type for clean stuff on the neck pickup, or the in between settings (2 and 4), but obviously what I like about an HSS layout is the ability to wack the bridge on, kick in the Guvnor and get crunchy - AC DC to GnR kind of tones would be the range - ie not super high gain.  From the bridge I would go for fat, warm and medium output.  I guess this is PAF territory. 

What are peoples' experience of HSS sets which have provided the ideal balance of the classic stratty-ness and balls-out rawk machine?

bertie

I get very usable HB noises from a JB-Jr

you need to split the coils for pos 2 tho

ICBM

I think you want hotter than a PAF for the bridge pickup. If you have a PAF-type and don't split it in the bridge/middle position it doesn't sound right, and the bridge by itself isn't *that* much louder. PAF types can also sound a bit thin in a Strat.

But if you use a much hotter pickup - around twice the power of a typical Strat pickup - and split it in the B/M position, you get a better in-between sound, and a much fatter bridge sound.

So typically [insert large caveat about output and tone not being directly related to measured resistance] you want a bridge pickup in the 12K-16K range usually.

Catthan

I just fitted an SD lil'59 SC-sized HB in the bridge of one of my strats and I really like it; I wanted exactly was you describe + I didn't want to get a full HB-routed scratch plate and for this I find mini hums of this type very convenient.

Don t use mid+bridge position so I wasn't really bothered on how they sound together but ICBM has a point, you re probably better with a hotter HB if you want good mid+bridge sounds. Not so hot that it's out of balance though. A PU that's really good for this is the Suhr SSV bridge

musteatbrain

The creamery do a normal humbucker sized wide range humbucker that balances very well with a single coil from a volume perspective. If volume balance annoys you like it does me in hss sets it's worth a look

thomasw88

Have had some decent results using hottish sc's and a lowish output humbucker. Find that pos. two works quite well in that case ie neck n mid around 6.5k and then an 8k humbucker, for lead sounds works quite good.

stonevibe

I've used all three of these with success in HSS setups.

BK Emerald, Holy Diver & Nail Bomb.

xwolf5150

I've got a Duncan JB and 2 x Lollar Blackface singles in my Anderson with 250k volume and tone pots plus a mini switch split for the JB.
Every position is beautiful, especially 2 & 4.
I set the JB low to balance it out.
Totally loving this setup.

McToot

Really interesting guys - thanks for the input. Possibly most interesting is that the advice is not conclusive: it's back to that old horses for courses things again.

Fez

I agree with ICBM and would get Ash to build it.

In fact my current project - The Fezcaster is HSS so I am in the same boat. The pup config I am considering is a hot neck pup Oil City hardman weaker trad middle and 16k alnico  IV Bumhucker. Gotta sort some routing first though.

McToot

Fez said:

I agree with ICBM and would get Ash to build it.

In fact my current project - The Fezcaster is HSS so I am in the same boat. The pup config I am considering is a hot neck pup Oil City hardman weaker trad middle and 16k alnico  IV Bumhucker. Gotta sort some routing first though.

Sounds good Fez. I have been talking to @guitarweasel already. The poor feller is rushed off his feet with new winds, thanks in part to the good people of this forum. Well we wouldn't him sitting idle would we

Niallmo

What about a big, powerful single coil? Seymour Duncan Quarterpounder?

daveyh

I have a Jackson DK2 with 2x SD STK-1s and a SD JB TB4 in the bridge. Glorious strat sounds but with plenty of grunt too.

Dave_Mc

ICBM said:

I think you want hotter than a PAF for the bridge pickup. If you have a PAF-type and don't split it in the bridge/middle position it doesn't sound right, and the bridge by itself isn't *that* much louder. PAF types can also sound a bit thin in a Strat.

But if you use a much hotter pickup - around twice the power of a typical Strat pickup - and split it in the B/M position, you get a better in-between sound, and a much fatter bridge sound.

So typically [insert large caveat about output and tone not being directly related to measured resistance] you want a bridge pickup in the 12K-16K range usually.

+1

If you're mainly using the single coil strat tones, you actually want the humbucker to be hotter than the singles, you don't want it to balance with the singles because you want the split humbucker to balance with them.

The other thing is, if the single coil tones are more important it might even be worth considering a humbucker with rod magnets rather than the more usual bar magnet, because (theoretically at least) when split it's closer to a genuine single coil, in effect a humbucker made like that is more like two Fender-style single coils whacked together.

I say "theoretically", though, because I haven't tried them and don't know how well they work in practice ) And (again, theoretically) your full-on humbucker tone might suffer a little.

Kebabkid

Catthan said:

I just fitted an SD lil'59 SC-sized HB in the bridge of one of my strats and I really like it; I wanted exactly was you describe + I didn't want to get a full HB-routed scratch plate and for this I find mini hums of this type very convenient.

Hi J, same here ^^ and it balances well with the Fralin Blues I have in the neck and middle positions of my Strat. Coincidentally, I do have 2 X Suhr MLs (best single coil pickups I've ever heard) for the neck and middle positions that I bought off @Catthan and I'm sure they'll marry up well with the Lil'59. The Suhr pick up sets of 2 X MLs and one of their humbuckers always sound good and are worth trying at Guitar Guitar (Epsom).

If you can get over the cheap-looking aesthetics, the Rasmus Suhrs are pretty good guitars and have decent hardware and sounds. As they've been discontinued and came down in price, I reckon you should be able to get one used for under £500. Alternatively, hunt around for a PRS EG (my EGII has HSH but the HBs are coil-tapped) - great players and best of HB & SC worlds.

McToot

@Kebabkind - cheers Cos,

I actually have the guitar and it's already HSS so no need for the lil 59.  I've had a look round and can't find any of the Suhr HSS sets easily available for sale so I think I'm going to have a go with our very own Guitaweasel.  I've been promising myself some of his for a while now. 

The guitar is this one:



I want to treat it to full new electronics and switch too.  May put a separate thread up about what (good quality) pots and switches etc to get.

Cacofonix

I had a hot rails in my strat for a while.  Did the job just right and I used the bridge tone pot as a progressive coil split.

Swapped it out for a set of Irish Tours and sold it to someone on the old MR forum.

OilCityPickups

Dave_Mc said:

ICBM said:

I think you want hotter than a PAF for the bridge pickup. If you have a PAF-type and don't split it in the bridge/middle position it doesn't sound right, and the bridge by itself isn't *that* much louder. PAF types can also sound a bit thin in a Strat.

But if you use a much hotter pickup - around twice the power of a typical Strat pickup - and split it in the B/M position, you get a better in-between sound, and a much fatter bridge sound.

So typically [insert large caveat about output and tone not being directly related to measured resistance] you want a bridge pickup in the 12K-16K range usually.

+1

If you're mainly using the single coil strat tones, you actually want the humbucker to be hotter than the singles, you don't want it to balance with the singles because you want the split humbucker to balance with them.

The other thing is, if the single coil tones are more important it might even be worth considering a humbucker with rod magnets rather than the more usual bar magnet, because (theoretically at least) when split it's closer to a genuine single coil, in effect a humbucker made like that is more like two Fender-style single coils whacked together.

I say "theoretically", though, because I haven't tried them and don't know how well they work in practice ) And (again, theoretically) your full-on humbucker tone might suffer a little.

I do my Oil City Brass Knuckle ... basically two separate single coils in a humbucker package ... and people seem to like the formula. I believe the Creamery and Fralin do similar so as not to appear partisan
It does work exceptionally well, but sounds unique ... not really like a conventional humbucker ... more like an old Fender Wide Range.

ICBM

Seymour Duncan does the Stag Mag too - which is the same, better split single-coil sound at the expense of a less conventional full humbucker sound. You just can't get both a true Strat-type split and a true humbucker in the same package.

Kebabkid

@McToot - unless you source the Suhr pickups individually on evil bay, or maybe a Forumite has some, Peach Guitars stock them and you're looking at £60 each for the ML singles and £77 for an SSH+ or SSV+ HB, so a fair bit. Their HBs coil tap really well and sound and mix well with the singles.
As mentioned, get thee to Guitar Guitar and just try a Suhr HSS guitar and you'll hear how good their pickups work.

xwolf5150

I've got a Suhr V60LP neck and mid for sale £60 for the PAIR.

The neck was custom made by Suhr with a flat stagger to work better in the neck.

I have them in all my guitars and was saving these for a project that I've had to cancel.