So after faffing around with various SCs and not finding what I wanted, I decided to stick a humbucker in my strat. I had a Bare Knuckle crawler in my spares box, but it was uncovered and I knew I wanted a cover. I picked up a cheap cover on eBay, but the holes were fractionally off. A careful bit of drilling and it went on fine. As the rest of the guitar is aged I attacked the chrome with acid, and in the morning it was much more to my liking. I realise that it won't be to everyones taste but that's fine, we can all like different things. I thought that I would have trouble soldering the cover on, but I bought a really good soldering iron last year with variable heat, and it was no problem at all. I thought that I might as well go the whole hog so I attempted wax potting for the first time. I found a run through on YouTube and it was pretty easy.
When I made this body I used a template for SSS, so I had to pull the whole guitar apart for some routing. The upshot of this is that, although it has been my no 1 guitar since I built it (last summer?) the setup was never ideal. When I reassembled I took the time to do some better tweaking. It is better for sure, but I may have slightly overdone the low E nut slot. Not 100% sure but the guitar definitely plays better than it did so happy for now.
I like the trad look of SSS but I also like HSS on a strat. I'm definitely happier with the sound right now, but I kept my old scratchplate so I can return to the old look at a later date should I wish to.
Comments
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
here's the red one again:
Never really liked a Strat in SSS. Haven't tried one with a humbucker though. Those Epiphone Coronets and the like (Wiltshire? Can't remember other names) are what I always thought a Strat should be like. Maybe I've seen too much Radio Birdman.
Have you got any coil splitting going on eg when bridge selected along with the middle pickup?
I much prefer push-push but I don't have one right now.
How do you find the output levels between single coils and the crawler ?
Jay