SSS --> HSS

[alex1fly]

Couple weeks ago I wired up a Frankenstrat with three singles, 1 250k volume, 1 250k master tone as per this diagram: https://www.seymourduncan.com/images...S_5W_1V_1T.jpg

Love how it sounds as is, but the 60 cycle hum with high gain is getting old. If I changed the bridge pickup out to a humbucker that usually uses 500k pots, can I keep either of the 250ks in place? I like the tapers how they are. I guess I could just try it and see...

Or keep the 250ks for the two singles and have a bridge only tone pot at 500k? What tends to work best with HSS?

[Mincer]

Many people love the sound of 250k pots with humbuckers. I love 250k with higher output brighter humbuckers like a JB. On my HSS (which uses a Hybrid), I use 500k for the master volume, 250k for the single coils' tone, and 500k for the humbucker tone. Experiment...you might find that you like the pots you have and not have to change anything.

[Aceman]

Try the Eric Johnson / Yngwie trick. Get a DiMarzio (or a Duncan) stacked humbucker (AKA silent single coil). Wire it as "split"

It will be a true single coil, but the proximity of the other coil will make it wayyyyy quieter. Yngwie used the HS3 and I believe EJ used an HS2. I've currently got a

Fast Track 2 that is awesome with a couple of stock singles in a Kramer SSS: Single Vol, Single tone and a series/split switch, all 250k

[Jack_TriPpEr]

Both Seymour Duncan's and Dimarzio single-coil sized humbuckers are designed to use a Strat's 250K pots. They wanted to make it easy for Strat owners (who are the market for these kind of pickups) to replace their stock pups with their aftermarket ones. So just go this route (i.e. not a fullsize humbucker, but a singlecoil sized one) instead, and you won't have to change out your 250K pots.

[JamesPaul]

I think I just commented on this in another topic. I vote you throw a JB in the bridge and use the existing 250k volume pot.

[Ace Flibble]

There are lots of hum-cancelling single coils which you can drop in if the hum really is the only reason you're changing pickups. Hot Stack, Hot Stack Plus, Vintage Hot Stack Plus and Classic Stack Plus all sound like regular single coils of various styles and all except the Hot Stack (not Plus) look like regular singles, too. Work out which one matches your current singles in EQ, drop it in and you're done, no more hum.

Whether in this guitar or any other, matching the common 500k pots for humbuckers with 250k pots for singles is easy enough. You can simply use 500k pots then wire an additional 500k resistor up to the singles so they 'see' 250k. The humbucker will continue to only be affected by the 500k pot. Or, depending on how much you use your tone control, you could use 250k pots but not wire the humbucker up to the tone control, so the humbucker is only affected by a single 250k pot (giving the same result as if it was on a 500k volume + 500k tone controls) while the singles can stay connected to a tone control to get the standard sound out of them.
When you do that kind of resistance mismatching you can sometimes end up with bigger volume jumps between pickups, but that can be compensated for by just choosing a quieter and warmer humbucker in the first place.
All that said, personally I've grown tired of worrying about it and just use 300k pots for everything. Close enough to 250k that you'll never tell the difference with single coils, and 300k was the original value used by Gibson and Epiphone in the 50s for P-90s and the first PAF humbuckers. It's really nowhere near as much of a change from 500k as some people fear.

Still, for this particular problem where a loss of hum is seemingly all that's wanted, hum-cancelling singles get my vote.

[Mincer]

If hum is the only issue here, the Duncan Stacked singles are remarkable, and dead quiet. The STK-S4 is my favorite Strat pickup, ever. And I don't ever worry about hum no matter how much gain I add.

[ErikH]

The Little Screamin' Demon would be great in that setup. Leave the pots at 250K.

[alex1fly]

Good thoughts here. Makes me want to try some of my extra pickups just to see if it'll work with the 250ks before ordering something up.

The guitar has these mid-forward, overwound ceramic powered single coils: https://dragonfireguitars.com/Crusad...Caps-10096.htm

The bridge single is slanted Jimi-style to warm it up a bit. My hope is to maintain as much of the tone and response of this bridge pickup as is, but without the hum. I've never tried a JB... maybe now is the time! I also have a Dimarzio Air Zone and Virtual P90 handy.

[ToneFiddler]

if you don't use the tone for the Bridge Humbucker, i would just leave the Volume pot at 250k and just disconnect the Tone for the Bridge spot.
That's how i currently run my chopper in a Tele and the humbucker in my HSS Strat..

[alex1fly]

How would I disconnect the tone for the bridge pickup only from this wiring scheme? http://seymourduncan.com/images/wiri...S_5W_1V_1T.jpg

[Mincer]

Keep in mind, that with a JB, it will overpower the singles. Many are cool with that, but it is good to be reminded.

[ErikH]

+1 for disconnecting the tone from the bridge pickup. Not sure of the details but rather than the tone pot coming off the volume, it would need to be wired on the switch and connected to the neck and middle pickups. The only drawback is the tone would still be engaged with the bridge and middle pickup used together (position 2).

The Air Zone is a great pickup but would benefit from a 500K pot. Might be too warm with 250K. Doesn't hurt to try it.
If you want to stay to the single-coil format, there's lots of options there. That's why I brought up the Little Screamin' Demon.

[Ace Flibble]

The guitar has these mid-forward, overwound ceramic powered single coils: https://dragonfireguitars.com/Crusad...Caps-10096.htm

Okay, I've run into those before and those don't really have a typical Strat sound. If anything they're closer to a P-90, or a Firebird but not hum-cancelling. A JB won't overpower them as long as you lower the JB a little bit further from the strings than usual. That said, the SD Hot Stack (not Hot Stack Plus) single coil will match in output and tone. It too has more overall output and more of a mid focus, like those Dragonfires, and also uses a ceramic magnet for a similar pick attack and an even magnetic field, but of course it's also entirely hum-cancelling. It's often used in the middle position of HSS guitars because it's such a versatile fit balancing between humbucker and single coil tones, but it works great as a bridge pickup in its own right.
Prince's guitarist in the 80s, Wendy Melvoin, had a couple of the Telecaster bridge Hot Stacks in a Rickenbacker guitar (yes, a Tele bridge Hot Stack as a neck pickup), specifically because Prince needed her to cover a huge variety of sounds, from humbucker to single coil and from totally clean to massively crazy distortion, and there was nothing else that did that middle ground better.

They can be hard to track down as an individual pickup, though, since they're not terribly famous and a lot of shops only stock them as a full (and expensive) SSS set. A Hot Rails can be found much easier, and a Hot Rails wired up parallel sounds very similar, just a tiny hair warmer. The Vintage Rails is also in a similar spot (wired normally) if you don't want the extra warmth of a parallel Hot Rails. (You'd think the Cool Rails would be an ideal middle ground, but that pickup is very low output when wired parallel, and a touch muddy, which is why the Vintage Rails exists; the Cool Rails and all the 'little' humbuckers are best for getting actual full humbucker tones.)
There's also the Hot Stack Plus which is a similar idea to the Hot Stack but with individual pole magnets, which causes a more uneven magnetic field and a more classic Strat sound. In this instance I would expect that pickup to be too thin to match with the middle and neck pickups; it's beefier compared to normal Strat pickups, but the bass is weak compared to anything with a bar magnet.

[Mincer]

Yes, the Cool Rails is sort of the little humbucker version of the Jazz pickup...a brighter humbucker sound.