SSS Pickup Combination with Single-coil bridge humbucker

[carbon.strat]

Hi all!

I'm putting together an sss pickup set with a single coil sized bridge humbucker for a Fender Japanese strat. I typically play indie/alternative/dreampop music and am looking for a more powerful bridge tone for driven/distorted chords and lead lines. For clean tones, I'd still be relying heavily on the more conventional neck and middle single-coil strat sounds we all love. Which combination of Seymour Duncan pickups would you recommend for this setup? Also, if possible, would there be a way to still retain some funky quack in the 2nd position? It isn't a big requirement, since I'm ok to put tradition aside for this strat in particular. Thanks for your help and suggestions

[Mincer]

Welcome to the forum!

For the single coils in the neck and middle, I'd probably go noiseless, and something that has that chime seems pretty important. So, look at the Classic Stack Plus for the neck and middle. For the bridge, it depends on how much power you want and the EQ you like. On the higher end (and with more high end), there is the JB Jr, but if you want to retain some dynamics, you might look at the Little 78 or Little 59.

[carbon.strat]

Thanks for the welcoming post and pickup suggestions! The noiseless option for the neck and middle positions sounds great to me. I'm leaning towards the Little 59 in the bridge. As for pots, I'd like to keep the traditional master volume and 2 tone pot strat setup. It seems that 500k is the way to go for the volume pot. Which value tone pots would be wise to install? Also, would it make sense set up an auto-split to just for the middle+bridge position to retain the quack in position 2? The little 59 sounds great in series, but have read that the split sound can be very thin, just wondering if the classic strat plus middle and split little 59 bridge would still pull off that funky mid+bridge position sound?

[grumptruck]

lil 59 is fantastic in parallel as well.

[Mincer]

I'd go for a Little 69 in parallel with a Classic Stack. A split Little 59 doesn't sound quacky at all.

[beaubrummels]

I'd go for a Little 69 in parallel with ...

...but enough about my personal life.

[hamerfan]

Good calls on the middle and neck. I recently discovered that an surplus Hotrails wired in parallel makes a nice rhythm sound in the bridge.

[donaldr]

I know it's not a single-coil size humbucker but a noiseless singe-coil STK-S7 gives me what you are looking at, if you have the right amp. You can always add a boost pedal if needed.

I don't think there's any quack on 2nd position, but if I was looking for an SC humbucker I would definitely have a look at the Red Devil bridge. I would say the Little '78 proposed by Mincer looks very interesting.

[elelpe]

With Classic Stack Plus in middle and neck position, Cool Rails in the bridge gets my vote. It's not too powerful like Little'59 yet not thin sounding either. 250k value for all pots.