Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

[lmill999]

Hello all. I own a Strat with Duncan Antiquity Surfers including the custom Surfer for the bridge. I absolutely love the neck and middle positions, but the the bridge isn't anything special to me. I typically like to use the bridge positions for singing, sustaining lead tones and I'm starting to wonder if the custom surfer isn't the right pickup for that. I still want to maintain some vintage tone though. Is the SSL-5 what I'm looking for?

[dystrust]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

I'm not sure that what you're looking for really exists in a pickup. I have a SSL-6T in my Strat and it's great for the singing lead tones you want, but it really doesn't sound vintage in full output mode (about 13K). In tapped mode (about 6.5K) it's close to vintage but maybe slightly thinner sounding, though this may be due to how I have the height set. If you really need both sounds you may be better off using something like a pickup booster for your leads. OTOH if close is good enough, I strongly recommend a tapped SSL-5/6.

[uOpt]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

No, I perceive those overwound Antiquity "custom bridge" pickups as not right, way too compressed, and I see the SSL-5 the same way, if anything worse.

If you rig has some capabilities to fatten up a Strat bridge pickup I would put in another surfer. My Strat with 2 surfers has a Fender CS Texas hot in the bridge which is a bit smoother (but vintage wind).

[DreX]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

I wish that tap point wasn't at 50%. It's just too weak. Normally a 6.5k wind is healthy, but the SSL-5 is 43 AWG AFAIK, and if you were to wind any coil with 43 AWG up to 6.5K, it's going to sound a lot weaker than if it had been wound to 6.5k using 42 AWG.

[FuseG4]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

"singing and sustaining lead tones"? No offense but it sounds like you should find a way to get those from your neck pickup and save yourself a lot of trouble.

Vintage strat bridge pickup tones are what I like, but at the same time I feel like the application is more like "cutting, stinging, jangly leads" and that's what they are good for! Everything else, use the other switch positions!

Do you have a tone control wired to the bridge pickup? This is about the only way I can imagine getting some creamy, fluid leads from a vintage-style strat bridge (barring any other gear besides the amp), and pick around the 20th or 21st fret or so.
I have used the SSL-5 in the bridge before and it gets closer to being a vocal-like lead tone but at the cost of too much of the vintage strat bridge "jangly and cutting" stuff and it throws the bridge/middle position tones way outta whack. But they do sound good with power chords for sure!

[TimmyPage]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

I really don't understand the response you're getting for this. The SSL-5 was developed for David Gilmour, a guy who is specifically KNOWN for his singing, sustaining bridge tones. (Before the SSL-5 was made in the late 70s, he used a Dimarzio FS-1 pickup in the bridge which had the same idea) So what if you lose a bit of the open character, what you get for it is a much smoother, warmer and more driven sound. That's the point. You will still have 4 positions with perfect vintage clarity and cluck.

Sounds pretty 'vintage' to my ear (theres one in the bridge of this guitar stock)


But yeah, if you prefer fat singing leads to 'cutting jangly leads' (both are valid, you aren't wrong for liking one over the other), the SSL-5 is going to do a lot more for you than a vintage strat pickup. Though really.. who are we talking vintage? The SSL-5 was developed in the late 70s, it's plenty vintage too..

[uOpt]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

I really don't understand the response you're getting for this. The SSL-5 was developed for David Gilmour, a guy who is specifically KNOWN for his singing, sustaining bridge tones. (Before the SSL-5 was made in the late 70s, he used a Dimarzio FS-1 pickup in the bridge which had the same idea) So what if you lose a bit of the open character, what you get for it is a much smoother, warmer and more driven sound. That's the point. You will still have 4 positions with perfect vintage clarity and cluck.

Sounds pretty 'vintage' to my ear (theres one in the bridge of this guitar stock)


But yeah, if you prefer fat singing leads to 'cutting jangly leads' (both are valid, you aren't wrong for liking one over the other), the SSL-5 is going to do a lot more for you than a vintage strat pickup. Though really.. who are we talking vintage? The SSL-5 was developed in the late 70s, it's plenty vintage too..

I don't think that the SSL-5 is still in the black Strat at the time of the Pulse and On An Island live shows.

In any case, those shows show that a EMG SA in the bridge, without going more wind or otherwise fatter than the neck pickup, provides proper singing in the hands of Gilmour.

[SoundAt11]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

Without going to far off track, I have an EMG SA loaded strat. It will do the Gilmour Pulse tone, but it doesn't sound anything like any lower output traditional singles coils that I've tried. They are smooth, sustaining, even (maybe a little bump in the mids), compressed, and can even get pretty heavy with the right amp. I think you'd need extra EQ-ing to make them go from being snappy single coils to big and smooth sustain-monsters.

[TimmyPage]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

I don't think that the SSL-5 is still in the black Strat at the time of the Pulse and On An Island live shows.

I'm 100% sure it is. We've had confirmation several times from his tech and from people working with Seymour that it's still the SSL-5. To me, what I hear at most of his shows is just a lot of volume. He uses the almost infamously fat Big Muffs, combined with a clean boost through a cranked HiWatt. If you look at his settings, he runs the treble around 9 or 10 am as well, and turns down the tone knob on his bridge pickup. I'm just saying that it has a LOT of things going for it to make it fat and smooth rather than bitey.

[qwerty]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

"Singing and Sustaining" sounds to me like the tone I get from position 4 on my strat.

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

I use G&L Legacys with a vintage style Alnico. One of my secrets for getting that tone is in the global Passive Treble and Bass controls that Leo Fender designed. It's really effective at shaping the tone of the bridge pickup.

One of my Legacys has the Texas Hot Custom bridge...that's a GREAT bridge pickup, and with the PTB, a tremendous range of tones.

Bill

[koshikas]

I don't think that the SSL-5 is still in the black Strat at the time of the Pulse and On An Island live shows.

In any case, those shows show that a EMG SA in the bridge, without going more wind or otherwise fatter than the neck pickup, provides proper singing in the hands of Gilmour.

Pulse is done with EMGs but on an island is all done with 'black strat' having SSL-5 in the bridge

EMG red strat was only used sparingly for shine on u crazy diamond in few shows during last tour

[uOpt]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

Pulse is done with EMGs but on an island is all done with 'black strat' having SSL-5 in the bridge

EMG red strat was only used sparingly for shine on u crazy diamond in few shows during last tour

I'm talking about the live DVDs in both cases. The Black Strat is used quite a bit on the Pulse video version and you can usually see whether the switch is on the bridge pickup or not. To me there is no way that there is a SSL-5 hanging out in the bridge in that version.

[MattyTheWalrus]

Re: Should I Buy SSL-5 For My Strat?

well... personally the ssl-5 is my favorite strat bridge pickup its in my favorite guitar my 62 reissue. Its great for singing solos. its my go to guitar for doing solos