Help to choose best single coil in HSH guitar?

[rmcfee]

I'm hoping to get some advice from the more experienced Duncan users here. I have a Strat type guitar (ash body) with a Custom Custom in the bridge and a DiMarzio PAF Pro in the neck.
The single coil in between them is a Duncan Alnico Pro 2. It sounds great by itself but I'm thinking it may be too low power to match up with the humbuckers for really good "out-of-phase" tones. I've heard this done with humbuckers to great effect si I know it can be done.
Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. - Rob McFee

[jeremy]

Re: Help to choose best single coil in HSH guitar?

are you really looking for out of phase tones of just stratty notch position tone?
for the strat pos 2 & 4 tones you want a bright lower output pup. an ssl2 would be what i would put in there, or maybe a stack if you dont split the buckers in those positions

[Stratsky]

Re: Help to choose best single coil in HSH guitar?

I have a HSH strat and I had an Alnico Pro II in the middle. The bridge is a Pearly Gates and the neck is a 59. The AP II didn't have enough output for me too, especially when combined with the humbuckers. I replaced it with a fender fat 50 and it made a big difference. I think with the HSH set up you need a bright single coil in the middle with a little more output that the AP II can give you. My $0.02.

[John Wymore]

Re: Help to choose best single coil in HSH guitar?

I have a HSH strat and I had an Alnico Pro II in the middle. The bridge is a Pearly Gates and the neck is a 59. The AP II didn't have enough output for me too, especially when combined with the humbuckers. I replaced it with a fender fat 50 and it made a big difference. I think with the HSH set up you need a bright single coil in the middle with a little more output that the AP II can give you. My $0.02.

I agree with this statement and have used the SH-5 "Custom" single coil with good results in this application. It's basically an SSL-1 with more output.