HSS with a hot humbucker - regular singles?

[DonP]

I see a lot of strats with a hot humbucker and vintage singles, like a hot rails just swapped in the bridge with not other changes.

What are the thoughts of having singles vs. something noiseless when having a humbucking pickup in the bridge?

What are the thought of having vintage N & M but something hot in the bridge?

I'm asking because I have a hot rail, but I don't have a noiseless N & M. I have vintage singles, and hot singles. Just trying to figure out what to do.

Is having vintage strat tones better than having matching outputs?

[Synapsys]

It depends on your needs. I have a guitar with a Hot Rails and two Classic Stacks, and they have a definite output mismatch. In another guitar I have a Hot Rails and two Custom Flat Strat pickups, and the output is way better matched.

But the EQs and feel are quite different from each other.

[ErikH]

I went through this myself. A PAF style humbucker matches vintage singles perfectly. A hot humbucker will definitely have an output imbalance with them. I settled for in-between. The neck/middle singles are Classic Stack Plus noiseless and the bridge is a Perpetual Burn. While I really liked the Whole Lotta Humbucker neck in the bridge, I need/wanted a little more from that position in this guitar. I put a Custom Custom in there and while nice, was a little much for what I was after so decided to go back to the first bridge pickup ever in this particular guitar, the Perpetual Burn. More people need to try this one. It is fantastic.

[Demanic]

If I were to pair true singles with a hot humbucker in the bridge, and not worry about volume drop, I'd go with Quarter Pounders. And I would know that it's going to be a loud guitar in every position.

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[dotsdad]

Wire the hot rails in parallel instead of in series. Then it's a cool rail and won't overpower the vintage singles. Connect the rear tone to bridge and the other tone to neck&middle. Enjoy!

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[Mincer]

Lots of guitarists spend a majority of time on the bridge pickup, so the neck and middle are less important. For me, I like noiseless singles like a Classic Stack in the neck and middle. The volume balance is good, and there is no noise. I do switch pickups a lot, though, so all positions are important to me (btw, I like position 3 to be neck + bridge).

[DonP]

I do have a full set of QP's. I could use them for N & M.

I plan on using a push/pull on the Hot Rail bridge for series/parallel wiring.

I mostly use the bridge pickup.

The guitar currently has a neck + bridge option - not sure if I like it. I'm not a Tele guy. It came with Lindy Fralin Woodstock set. It is ok, but I want a little more power.

My problem is that I have lot's of regular singles but no low output rails or stacked singles. I guess I'm in a waiting pattern unless I go true single.

[alex1fly]

You can do it. The bridge will be hotter. This isn't necessarily bad, especially if you wire the bridge to a switch for parallel/series or coil split. Without a switch, you might be able to balance the volume with height adjustments, but maybe not.

My HSS Strat has a Thornbucker in the bridge and Texas Specials in the neck/middle. The Thornbucker is a good deal hotter. Really not a big deal - if I'm switching between N/M and bridge pickups within a song I just ride the guitar volume as necessary. It's not a huge adjustment - maybe 10 for the singles and 8 or 9 for the bridge pickup.

[DonP]

You can do it. The bridge will be hotter. This isn't necessarily bad, especially if you wire the bridge to a switch for parallel/series or coil split. Without a switch, you might be able to balance the volume with height adjustments, but maybe not.

My HSS Strat has a Thornbucker in the bridge and Texas Specials in the neck/middle. The Thornbucker is a good deal hotter. Really not a big deal - if I'm switching between N/M and bridge pickups within a song I just ride the guitar volume as necessary. It's not a huge adjustment - maybe 10 for the singles and 8 or 9 for the bridge pickup.

This got me thinking - why not a 250K volume for the neck and middle, a 500K volume for the bridge, then a master tone?

I've been beating up this Lindy Fralin Woodstock set this morning. I know I'd be whimping out, but I think I could live with it. I was getting a good Maiden tone playing some Powerslave tunes. And if I downshift the gain, I could pull off some classic AC/DC.

[Frater106]

Following.

[DonP]

Following.

I raised the Lindy bridge pretty high. I'm getting good tones out of it so I'm staying for the time being. If I pull the pickguard, I'll take the tone off the middle and put it on the bridge only.

[eclecticsynergy]

I raised the Lindy bridge pretty high. I'm getting good tones out of it so I'm staying for the time being. If I pull the pickguard, I'll take the tone off the middle and put it on the bridge only.

I love the Woodstocks. Low output is part of their magic.
I also enjoy having a bit of volume boost when I switch to the bridge.
Then again, I don't need anything too hot there: vintage-plus to medium output is enough for me.
I'd don't like having to tweak amp settings when I switch guitars.

[ThreeChordWonder]

An alternative I don't think anyone has mentioned yet is to auto coil split the humbucker in P2.

This can, for sure, be accomplished using a superswitch and retain the classic 1 volume 2 tone control arrangement. It can also be accomplished with a standard 5 way,, but I think having an active middle tone in P3 wouldnt be possible. It would create a short on the switch. A tone control dedicated to the bridge would be active in P1 and P2, and a tone control dedicated to the neck would be active in P4 and P5, however.

Plan B would be to have no tone control on the humbucker, but dedicated tones for the middle and neck. That would give active tone controls in P2 to P5, but none in P1, and having two active tone controls in P4 needs to be evaluated, and, if possible, IMHO, defeated.