78 and little 59 pairing suggestions

[Mincer]

The Silhouette Special was dropped off today and the 78 and little 59 are being installed. Having it wired HH with a 5 way. It’s what I’m used to in my HH Albert Lee so I figured it will give me the best point of reference tone wise to see if I’m missing anything once I get it back. Since I left the stock Dimarzio in the middle position (disconnected) to fill the hole it won’t be too hard to have it wired HSH if I decided I needed that “strat quack”. But honestly, the Albert Lee gives me a pretty good strat sound in position 4 so I’m hoping this will do the same.

The Albert Lee is a great guitar. I use a 5 way with my HH Silo Special, and I love the in-between sounds.

[eclecticsynergy]

The 5-way positions on the Albert Lee HH are nearly perfect in my book. Great coil combining.

[Stratty316]

The Silhouette Special was dropped off today and the 78 and little 59 are being installed. Having it wired HH with a 5 way. It’s what I’m used to in my HH Albert Lee so I figured it will give me the best point of reference tone wise to see if I’m missing anything once I get it back. Since I left the stock Dimarzio in the middle position (disconnected) to fill the hole it won’t be too hard to have it wired HSH if I decided I needed that “strat quack”. But honestly, the Albert Lee gives me a pretty good strat sound in position 4 so I’m hoping this will do the same.

[Stratty316]

It's nice to see the 78 mentioned again. I had forgotten about that pup.

I remember when it was called the Evenly Voiced Harmonics pickup... didn't know Duncan still made it until I saw the demo video. Now they make a Frankenstein set and use EVH's name... I'm kind of interested in those as well now. Working on possibly purchasing a Peavey Wolfgang with non-original pickups and thinking about throwing in a set of these if I manage to get it for a fair price.

[ArtieToo]

It's nice to see the 78 mentioned again. I had forgotten about that pup.

[Mincer]

Generally, I don't like split humbuckers much either, but in combination with another split humbucker (2 coils from 2 different pickups in parallel), it gets a good approximation of a Stratty quack sound.

[Lewguitar]

I went with an HH setup after trying an Axis and loving the 2 HH with 5 way switch. All positions cancel hum, and I get a reasonable single coil-ish sound if I want it.

Yeah, I think if I were going to put a humbucker in a Strat I'd go with two. And I'd leave out the middle single coil. The magnets which are the polepieces of a Strat single coil have a fair amount of string pull and they're always trying to pull on the strings and make them warble.

I'd want to eliminate that because it does affect the way the string vibrates. Humbuckers don't have the same degree of magnetic string pull.

Don't know about the five way switch. I'd probably go with a three way because I don't find the sound of split humbuckers very appealing.

Although those Dimarzio pickups in my Ernie Ball Axis do get really good split sounds.

What's going on with that? I've never looked inside. Wonder if it's just a partial split or something.

They're also the only Dimarzios that I've ever really liked.

Guess Eddie knows what he's doing.

Never doubted it actually.

[Mincer]

A Sustainer in the neck would be cool, indeed. This was the wiring I used.

[Stratty316]

I went with an HH setup after trying an Axis and loving the 2 HH with 5 way switch. All positions cancel hum, and I get a reasonable single coil-ish sound if I want it.

That may be the way I end up going. HH, 5 way and use a coil tap to get some additional sounds. I'll put an old single coil in the middle position for the visual (and future mods) but not hook it up because I prob won't use it. I was at guitar center today comparing the Charvel DK24 HSH and the DK24 HH and I think I like the HH set up a little more.

OR I could go crazy and put the little 59 in the middle and a sustainer in the neck....

[Mincer]

I went with an HH setup after trying an Axis and loving the 2 HH with 5 way switch. All positions cancel hum, and I get a reasonable single coil-ish sound if I want it.

[Robbiedbee]

Alternative option, the Duckbucker in the middle to go with the Lil 59 in the neck?

I currently run a Vintage Rails in the middle position, with Cool Rails either side. I suspect a Lil 59 in the neck next to a Duckbucker in the middle would behave a lot the same. I have the Lil 59 neck in another Strat and while I do like the pickup, I think a slightly more traditional single coil voicing in the middle position would give you much more variety in terms of sound.

So, the reason why I like this pairing is because there isn't too much of a drop in output between the neck and middle positions. But the neck and middle together sound absolutely brilliant. The notch position between the two pickups sounds really good. Stratty, quacky, clear.

[Lewguitar]

I guess the other question, or possibly the real question is am I missing anything tone wise by going HH vs HSH with this combo? I am assuming they will react in a similar way to the Dimarzio HB's in the Axis and Albert Lee when split with a 5 way. Additionally, I have thought of putting a dummy coil in the middle since I am not 100% sold on the H-S look which would also allow me to revisit the middle pick up if I opt not to use one at this time. The Alen Hinds Xotic model does this and I thought it was a cool idea.

I've never had a dummy coil so I don't know.

But I do have an Ernie Ball Axis and those pickups do split well and do get a good single coil tone, as you know.

Better single coil tones than any humbucking pickups I've ever owned, and better than the 78 which I have owned as well.

But I no longer bother wiring my guitars with humbuckers so they can be split.

I've played Strats for over 50 years and I know from experience that splitting humbuckers is never going to satisfy me because they'll never really sound like a Strat single coil.

The 78 does sound terrific as a humbucker. It's a great pickup and I prefer alnico 2 humbuckers which the 78 is.

[Teleplayer]

It totally depends what you are going for, and how you can use the middle position. For me, having a Single coil in the middle position adds versatility and is more usable for clean tones. The Cool rails was also pretty good when used in position 3. You may absolutely love the Lil 59 in the middle and neck as your taste and amp setup is probably totally different from me. So any of the choices make sense if its something useful for you.

I just wanted to make the point that I didn't think dual lil 59's was a great combination for the notch position. Having a brighter pickup in the middle adds a more of an "out-of-phase" quack-tone which you might expect from a Strat. As examples you can look at setups such as Duncan's "Everything Axe" or Paul Gilbert's signature "Injector" set. Both of these sets have mid-heavy pickups in bridge and neck, but then a much brighter pickup in the middle. The bright middle pickup is mainly chosen so you will get more defined and contrasting tone in the notch positions. Its actually compensating for the thickness of the bridge and neck pickups.

[Stratty316]

I guess the other question, or possibly the real question is am I missing anything tone wise by going HH vs HSH with this combo? I am assuming they will react in a similar way to the Dimarzio HB's in the Axis and Albert Lee when split with a 5 way. Additionally, I have thought of putting a dummy coil in the middle since I am not 100% sold on the H-S look which would also allow me to revisit the middle pick up if I opt not to use one at this time. The Alen Hinds Xotic model does this and I thought it was a cool idea.

[Lewguitar]

I have used the lil 59 neck in the neck position but never in the middle. I actually didn't like the lil 59 neck pickup because it was too thick for my preference. I much prefer the Cool Rails neck and use it with 500k controls though a marshall style amp.

Later I setup a HSS strat with 2x Cool Rails neck p/u's. I liked the Cool Rails in the middle position, but is quite thick sounding and bluesy. However it lacks definition when combining neck and mid in parrallel for pos 4. When combining two lil 59s it would be even thicker, and that was the logic behind my comment above.

I don't think of the middle position as being like the neck position, because it senses different string harmonics. Not actually bright in the top end, but more mids IMO. I think of it more like the bridge position with the top end brightness completely killed.

Thanks. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Thanks for yours.

Me? I'll never put a full size humbucker in the bridge of a Strat again. Done it several times and I'd rather have TWO humbuckers in a Gibson or PRS.

And I'd rather have three regular single coils in a Strat, hum and all, and that's how my two Strats are because nothing noiseless sounds good enough to me to take the place of my Antiquity Surfers.

But the OP is using a 78, which is an A2 pickup and not overly bright, and Little 59 neck. Three different pickups is weird to me, so I vote for a second Little 59.

Even though I wouldn't use that myself because I prefer single coils in a Strat even if they do hum.