Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

[Herby]

I just purchased a SSL-5 T. I'm very disappointed. I thought in the tapped position it would resemble a Fender Strat tone. It doesn't. It sounds fat and thick, not thin and airy. The only difference I see in the tapped and full positions is the volume of the pickup. The tone is exactly the same. I could achieve the same results with the volume knob. Another drawback I noticed is the B and high E strings are very weak. Almost not there. The stock pickup is much louder than the Duncan (tapped) pickup. In full coil mode it's about the same.

Does anyone have experience with these pickups and is this supposed to act like this?

Thanks,
Herb

[ratherdashing]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

I know the SSL-5 is not everyone's cup of tea, but I've never heard anyone make these kinds of complaints about them. I love mine - still my favorite Strat bridge pickup.

[Herby]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

...but is it supposed to act the way I described above or is there a chance I may have a faulty pickup?

[DMyers77]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

According to the tone chart, the SSL-5 shows a Resonant Peak of 6 KHz when tapped. An SSL-1 (stock strat tone) has a resonant peak of 10KHz. So they're not going to sound the same, but tapped should be brighter than than full on (Resonant Peak of 4.9KHz.)

How did you wire it up? You aren't grounding the tap (red wire), are you?

The B and E strings being weak could be related to pickup height. Press your E strings down at the highest fret, and set the distance from the string to the pickup's magnet between 1/8" - 1/16". Does that make a difference?

What guitar are you putting this in? Most non-US made strats have ceramic pickups that already have a good deal of output... maybe more than the SSL-5.

[idsnowdog]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

Tapped pickups are supposed to emulate the sound of a lower output pickup, not sound exactly the same. A different gauge of wire and a different number of turns will create a different sound.

[ratherdashing]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

...but is it supposed to act the way I described above or is there a chance I may have a faulty pickup?

Well, most of what you described above is subjective/opinion, but no, none of that is consistent with the SSL-5. It's possible it's faulty, or the wiring is faulty.

[Herby]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

Warmoth neck on Squire Strat body routed for Rose system. 2 stock high output SCs neck and middle. The Seymour in bridge position. I actually kind of like the stock cheap pickups. I'm still working with them. The pickup height on the SSL 5 was a bit low, about 1/4". The neck had a shim to lower the action because of the Rose and because I like the feel. I removed some shim material, did some surgery on the pickup cover to allow it to be raised a tad more. I also flipped it around (reversed it). Much better and much more balanced across the poles. The tapped setting is still a little disappointing. Not bright enough for my taste but workable. The untapped setting however is smokin. Sounds GREAT! This thing is a "gain puppy" It eats it up. Crank in more gain and it comes alive and flat out screams! Lovin this pup

It's amazing what a little adjusting can do. Thank you everyone for the input that prompted me to experiment further before giving up.

[idsnowdog]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

If you can live without a tone control you could turn one into a Q filter. Bill Lawrence sells them for a reasonable price and they give a nice classic strat spank with higher output pickups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCeLI2MeOxQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnSX1Fyy7Oc

[trevorus]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

Ok, where is this thing tapped at? Between the three wires, there is ground, tap, and full. Could you wire it so when tapped, the tap wire is now ground and keep the hot where it is? I don't know what the DCR would be, but it might yield different results.

[Tune-O-Matic]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

The SSL-5T is tapped at 50% of the winding/DCR so using the the tapped wire to ground gives you the same wimpy sound especially when its in the bridge of a strat which is where I imagine most people have the SSL-5. I wish SD up put the tap at 75% of the winding to make it a little more useful. I did however find that if you use a superswitch and wire the tap in the 4 position to be in parallel with the middle pickup it yields a much more convincing "quack" tone or whatever people call it. It's not dead-on like it would be if you had two lower output strat pickups in the middle and bridge but its much better. I have always found you lose a bit of the "quack" in the 4 position because the SSL-5 is so hot.

[Herby]

Re: Seymour Duncan SSL-5 T

So what would happen if you wound a pickup with the stock wire and magnets of a Strat pickup and where the tap comes in add a different wire to it and wind more onto it? Sounds like a new pickup project for Seymour if it's doable.

I guess a good mod would be to carve a slot for two SCs for bridge and just run 2 different pickups. It would resemble a humbucker. You could also run them series for a humbucker effect... that gives me an idea for a new project. I've got another strat body lying around here somewhere...