Is a Hss strat better allrounder than sss ??

siraxeman

I've had 2 Strats in the past with a JB Jnr - and I really like that to and no HSS pickguard required. Sounds a bit different to a full fat JB but still very good - just differenter.

richardhomer

siraxeman said:

I've had 2 Strats in the past with a JB Jnr - and I really like that to and no HSS pickguard required. Sounds a bit different to a full fat JB but still very good - just differenter.

My Strat which is set up got slide has a JB Juniour at the bridge. I really like it - and it certainly offends my eye a lot less than a full size humbucker.

CHRISB50

I definitely prefer the sound of a HB in the bridge, but I can't get past the look of it. 

I'm a bit OCD with things matching and being symmetrical etc. so seeing HSS sets me off. 

The Suhr Classic Pros sound great with a HB in the bridge, but the look of it offends.

It's one of those guitar foible things that I can't get my mind to accept.

TTBZ

Wiring up the bridge singlecoil to a tone knob can help massively. Personally I hate the in between sounds and can't think of any reason anyone would want them so for me hss would be a fine compromise. Or just h-h with good, splittable humbuckers .

ICBM

olafgarten said:

Isn't the Oil City Brassknuckle perfect for this, it's splits so it sounds like a Strat with the upper coil and a Tele with the lower coil and does a good humbucker sound but with more bite.

Yes, exactly that. The problem for some people is that it sounds less like a standard humbucker in the both-coils mode. It just depends what your priorities are.

normula1

ICBM said:

Interesting... what pickup is that with?

A Bare Knuckle Mule, the split resistor (actually it is a 20 turn cermet pot) is about 4.5k. I tuned it by ear in position 2 until it sounded right. What I can't remember is if the partial split is to ground or to the hot of the slug coil. Either way I primarily voice the screw coil.

Snap

For me, a strat has 3 single coils. Its a strat, not anything else. I've got one strat, one of the first release Classic PLayer 60s, so it has slightly hotter pickups. The middle coil gives a nice hot fatter tone that I use for a chunkier sound.

But I wanted a strat cos I like the sound of the single coils. The bridge pickup with lots of gains sounds ripping, and will do perfectly driven enough sound. If I want big fat high gain, I'd use a pedal as well, or tbh pick up the Les Paul. The PRS Paul's Guitar does high gain nicely, as well as mellow SC sounds, but nothing beasts high gain like my LP tbh. Its a fecking monster!

Voxman

CHRISB50 said:

I definitely prefer the sound of a HB in the bridge, but I can't get past the look of it. 

I'm a bit OCD with things matching and being symmetrical etc. so seeing HSS sets me off. 

The Suhr Classic Pros sound great with a HB in the bridge, but the look of it offends.

It's one of those guitar foible things that I can't get my mind to accept.

I know exactly what you mean - the conventional HB just looks 'wrong' in a Strat.  However, there are HB pups that look just like a regular single coil eg a Seymour Duncan stacked pick-up.  Also, Harmonic Design do a 'P90' sounding pup that looks like a single coil.  From what I've read the tone is actually a better fit for a Strat than a humbucker.  Of course if you just want a fatter tone with more output there are a variety of bridge replacement single-coils to choose from - they won't be quite like a HB, but could be a good option if you want to keep your Strat, well, more 'Stratty'. .  

Dave_Mc

^ I don't think it's "wrong", as some players claim, to put a humbucker into a strat- but I'd admit it's not my favourite look, really. I prefer more superstrat-looking HSS or HSH "strats". But that's solely on cosmetics.

ICBM said:

Dave_Mc said:

Haha I'm mainly a superstrat player at heart I think so a humbucker in a superstrat sounds almost more right to me than in a Gibson. But I know what you mean.

I like the strat in-between tone but the full humbucker tone is more important, so in that case I'm guessing a normally-constructed humbucker is the more sensible option?

Don't get me wrong, I like SSS too and as you (and everyone else) have said, there are things you can do with SSS that you can't do with HSS (and vice-versa). I wonder if it's a bit like what @ICBM says about the Fender/Marshall cleans/distortion thing- confirmed single coil fans can't see the point of HSS (or HSH) because they're willing to compromise on the humbucker tones but not the single coils tones while humbucker fans can't see the point of SSS because they're willing to compromise on the single coil tones but not the humbucker tones…

Yes, exactly. Go with the one that's the priority and accept the compromise in the other, since it's impossible to truly get both in the same guitar.

The only thing I haven't seen tried yet is an even more 'halfway house' pickup with one coil exactly like a standard humbucker with polepieces and a separate magnet, and the other exactly like a Strat pickup… it may exist but I don't know of one. Given that it still wouldn't sound *exactly* like a humbucker, it may or may not be worth it.

That's what I figured, thanks.

Yeah I haven't seen any like that, either. I've seen pickups with different coils, maybe one rail coil and one with screws/slugs (Entwistle does that, as does Dimarzio, Ibanez etc. I think), but that's not quite the same thing either.

But as you said, there'd likely be some compromise anyway.