Superstrats - HH or HSH?

Megii

Just erm hypothetically, supposing a friend was thinking of buying a 24 fret superstrat type guitar, locking trem, Ibanez RG or similar - what do people think regarding the merits of an HH pickup configuration vs the HSH pickup arrangement? Which would you prefer and why? So I can advise my hypothetical friend...

Whitecat

I hate the look of HSH and assuming no wiring/switching trickery I would simply prefer the middle position were both humbuckers on a guitar like that. So my vote is for HH. 

Oddly enough I’m not against HSS though, there is room for those in a collection for sure as they have a much better palette of tones than an HSH IMO (neck single = magic!)

Megii

Whitecat said:

I hate the look of HSH and assuming no wiring/switching trickery I would simply prefer the middle position were both humbuckers on a guitar like that. So my vote is for HH. 

Oddly enough I’m not against HSS though, there is room for those in a collection for sure as they have a much better palette of tones than an HSH IMO (neck single = magic!)

Cheers @Whitecat - I have to admit I am kind of drawn to the more straight forward HH, but if there's a compelling reason to prefer HSH I'd have to think about that. Re SSH, I'm sure it's great, but I have several strats, and I kind of feel those cover enough of the same ground really.

Whitecat

Megii said:

Whitecat said:

I hate the look of HSH and assuming no wiring/switching trickery I would simply prefer the middle position were both humbuckers on a guitar like that. So my vote is for HH. 

Oddly enough I’m not against HSS though, there is room for those in a collection for sure as they have a much better palette of tones than an HSH IMO (neck single = magic!)

Cheers @Whitecat - I have to admit I am kind of drawn to the more straight forward HH, but if there's a compelling reason to prefer HSH I'd have to think about that. Re SSH, I'm sure it's great, but I have several strats, and I kind of feel those cover enough of the same ground really.

They mostly do for sure, so unless you need that bridge pickup oomph there would definitely be loads of overlap. 

Anyway, I personally can’t think of any compelling arguments in favour of an HSH, but others might be able to. If “solo middle position single coil” is a legit reason to consider it then I’d counter that you have that covered already with your other Strats, and point you back at an HH.

Megii

Whitecat said:

Megii said:

Whitecat said:

I hate the look of HSH and assuming no wiring/switching trickery I would simply prefer the middle position were both humbuckers on a guitar like that. So my vote is for HH. 

Oddly enough I’m not against HSS though, there is room for those in a collection for sure as they have a much better palette of tones than an HSH IMO (neck single = magic!)

Cheers @Whitecat - I have to admit I am kind of drawn to the more straight forward HH, but if there's a compelling reason to prefer HSH I'd have to think about that. Re SSH, I'm sure it's great, but I have several strats, and I kind of feel those cover enough of the same ground really.

They mostly do for sure, so unless you need that bridge pickup oomph there would definitely be loads of overlap. 

Anyway, I personally can’t think of any compelling arguments in favour of an HSH, but others might be able to. If “solo middle position single coil” is a legit reason to consider it then I’d counter that you have that covered already with your other Strats, and point you back at an HH.

Fair points, cheers! I do prefer the look of HH (especially with a coloured flame/quilt top, which I also might be contemplating, hypothetically), and agree that I'd rather have both buckers than a middle single coil on it's own. I guess I am wondering what people think regarding the merits of various split coil options just from the humbuckers, as opposed to combinations including a middle single coil.

Funkfingers

The decision probably revolves around whether the middle position pickup would be in the way of your plectrum or digits.

Neither pickup layout is going to sound like a Fender Stratocaster. The Ibanez five-way HH circuit would do most things. The RG variant with a DiMarzio rails pickup in the neck position strikes a good compromise. 

The John Petrucci circuit is a good idea. The Musicman JP body is an excellent host for it. If you don’t need a vibrato system, so is the Ibanez RGA.

My advice to your friend is that he should be proud to be stout.

Megii

Funkfingers said:

The decision probably revolves around whether the middle position pickup would be in the way of your plectrum or digits.

Neither pickup layout is going to sound like a Fender Stratocaster. The Ibanez five-way HH circuit would do most things. The RG variant with a DiMarzio rails pickup in the neck position strikes a good compromise. 

The John Petrucci circuit is a good idea. The Musicman JP body is an excellent host for it. If you don’t need a vibrato system, so is the Ibanez RGA.

My advice to your friend is that he should be proud to be stout.

My, erm, friend is indeed a bit on the stout side lol, although not in favour of force-feeding skinny people. I may as well say - he kind of likes the look of this guitar...

Funkfingers

I don’t blame him. The only flies I detect in the blue unction are the unadventurous pickup switching selections and the mystery in-house licensed vibrato. 

Megii

Funkfingers said:

I don’t blame him. The only flies I detect in the blue unction are the unadventurous pickup switching selections and the mystery in-house licensed vibrato. 

Those would seem to be good points that he ought to think about, cheers!

NelsonP

HSH gives you the option of les paul humbucker style goodness and the in between stratty sounds. You don't get that with HH.

Creed_Clicks

H only! \m/

digitalkettle

Some HSH wiring schemes only involve the middle pickup in positions 2 and 4...position 3 being both humbuckers or the outer coils of both humbuckers.

ICBM

The usual reason for HSH is to get the ‘Strat’ sounds in the 2 and 4 positions on the switch, but in fact you can get pretty close to the same sort of sound if you split the two humbuckers to the inner pair of coils - a 24-fret guitar does this better than a 22 since the spacing is more similar. It’s not the same as a real Strat, but then neither is one split humbucker combined with a middle single coil.

If you use one of the various varieties of superswitch you can have any combination of splits in the middle three positions.

If you want the closest to the two most popular Strat sounds, you can have:

Bridge humbucker
Both inner coils (‘Strat in-between’)
Both humbuckers
Outer neck coil (‘Strat neck’)
Neck humbucker

skullfunkerry

The middle single coil always feels in the way with HSH, so I'd personally go for HH

stratman3142

I think my next guitar might be an HSH. Ideally I like the Guthrie Govan signature guitar but doubt I'll be able to afford one in the near future so I might go for a Yamaha RG550.

Megii

ICBM said:

The usual reason for HSH is to get the ‘Strat’ sounds in the 2 and 4 positions on the switch, but in fact you can get pretty close to the same sort of sound if you split the two humbuckers to the inner pair of coils - a 24-fret guitar does this better than a 22 since the spacing is more similar. It’s not the same as a real Strat, but then neither is one split humbucker combined with a middle single coil.

If you use one of the various varieties of superswitch you can have any combination of splits in the middle three positions.

If you want the closest to the two most popular Strat sounds, you can have:

Bridge humbucker
Both inner coils (‘Strat in-between’)
Both humbuckers
Outer neck coil (‘Strat neck’)
Neck humbucker

Cheers @ICBM - I think those exact combinations would work pretty well for my needs. Not expecting to get authentic strat sounds, or even wanting that really. I guess I just want a good range of options that compliment each other, and go a bit beyond just neck/neck+bridge/bridge. If the guitar is not wired for that as purchased, I should be able to do any mods to wiring.

bananaman

It depends on whether it's 22 0r 24 fret for me. On a 22 fretter the middle pickup is usually where it is on a strat, so that position, and the in between positions, sound much better. On 24 fretters the pickup positions are slightly different, leading to much more anaemic tones from the single coil positions (yes I'm looking at you Ibanez).

thegummy

Personally I much prefer the look of HSH but would never use the middle single coil (and do like the three way switch with both humbuckers on the middle setting).

I've even considered just putting one in that isn't even connected just for the look but never get round to it.

Voxman

My PRS Cu24 is HH and the 5 position rotary switch gives me pretty good Strat like position 2 and 4 tones.

Personally I have no problem with the aesthetics of HSH and depending on the wiring it's a much more versatile layout that could help cover more tonal options without having to change guitars. And for gigging I tend to prefer one guitar that can do it all and gives more flexibility for song order. If you do change guitars you have to arrange the set to minimise guitar changes and that can be limiting and not ideal. 

Megii

Thanks all for the replies - I really do think I'm leaning strongly to HH for this guitar. Definitely after a 24 fret also, with great upper fret access. I'm suddenly not sure if I really want the locking floyd style trem though, so maybe we are talking a hardtail HH. Is that still a superstrat? - not sure, but there are Ibanez RGs like that anyhow.

Kebabkid

Have you looked at the wiring for the Suhr Pete Thorn? That's a twin humbucker design and is set out like this:-

Controls: Volume, Tone(Push/Pull Parallel Bridge Pickup),

5-Way Custom Pete Thorn Wiring
1.Bridge
2.Both Single
3.Both Hums
4.Neck Single
5. Neck Hum

Neck Pickup: Thornbucker
Bridge Pickup: Thornbucker+

I'm a HSS/superstrat guy but I've actually been impressed with Suhr's HH sounds on a 5-way switch, particularly the inbetween positions, but I recently heard an EBMM Albert Lee HH and a EBMM Luke III HH and they were both excellent in those formats.
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of spank/quack in there as well as the excellent and strong Humbucking sounds