Sell me on HSH

[Chistopher]

HSH has always been the read-headed step child for me as far as pickup configurations go. SSS is vintage Strat, HSS is vintage Strat plus a beefier bridge tone, HH is what I started out on for the longest time so I will always appreciate it, I even like HHH and xHH, but to me HSH doesn't make too much sense. Positions 1 and 5 get the most use for me, although I prefer the sound of a SC neck to an HB, and I will use the middle position for when I want Stratty sounds, but I have never liked 2 and 4 all that much anyways and whether you split the humbuckers or not they sound worse to me on an HSH.

Those of you guys that prefer HSH, why? and what circuit do you use?

I'm thinking about giving a Bluesbucker neck, Area 67 middle, and Super Distortion bridge a chance in a friends guitar that she is having me mod, so I got to wondering why people do it in general.

[jeremy]

if you dont like the notch positions, then hsh doesnt make a lot of sense to me. to me its about getting some stratty tones alone with the bridge and neck bucker tones

[GuitarStv]

If you hate having space to pick between the neck and bridge on a 2 HB guitar, HSH is for you! :P

[Clint 55]

I don't like HSH. It's a lot of fat tones and cluck tones but doesn't sound very rock. A lot of crap to have to just have a fat neck and rock bridge. If you stick a mini hum in the neck I think it's more versatile because the neck is a little fatter but still cuts, then you get your cluck positions, and your rock bridge.

[Chistopher]

Yeah, that's why I was looking at the Bluesbucker. It does a better P90 neck sound than some P90s. I don't know how it sounds split though. Right now I think the play might be 3-way blade. In which case it might be a bit better to put a single coil sized hum in the middle, say a Pro Track in the middle

[nienturi]

As a fan of guitars with certain versatility i like HsH guitars for a long while. For a grinding rock tone, yep, you mostly use pos1 and 5. Okay. But for the arpeggios and cleaner parts pos 2 and 4 makes a lot sense to me, i really don't dig the tone while playing arpeggios with humbuckers; too matte to me. Nevertheless i can't defend middle position, i almost never use it.

[Teleplayer]

HSH position 4 neck / middle has never sounded much like a strat to me. I found it’s more useful as a clean rhythm tone with a bright neck humbucker and hum-cancelling single coil like the Area 67. My HSH setup normally has an auto-split for the bridge humbucker in pos 2, but I avoid the auto-split in pos 4 for the above reason.

[ArtieToo]

"read-headed"? Freudian slip?

[orpheo]

It rarely works. I like the look, like on that iron maiden strat I made a few years back (middle single was flush with the pickguard). But sometimes, like on that EVO set I used a while back, it works amazingly well.

I use a 5 way, 2 way toggle and push pull pot on that guitar.

toggle is middle on/off, push pull is split for the humbuckers.

The 5 way is bridge, both series, both parallel, both series out of phase, neck. The middle drops the output a lot, adds sparkle and cut, when the humbuckers are in full, and when I split it, I get very convincing strat tones.

It's hit or miss.

[marcello252]

since

- I don't like middle SC position
- I don't' like position 2 and 4 in normal strat, even less if the mix is from SC and HB
- I don't like the crowded look od the pickguard

for me it's a full No.

[jeremy]

i mean... i LOVED my old rg550. stock v1 and s1 with a fred in the bridge. every position sounded good and got use, was running a 2205 and 1960b at the time. hsh can be versatile and get you a bunch of great tones, if thats what you are going for