Single Coil Neck/Middle Pickups to pair with Seymour Duncan SH11 Custom Custom

[ArtieToo]

You may even be tempted to disconnect the tone control from the middle pickup completely.

This works great. Especially since many people never use the middle by itself. It keeps the tone controls isolated, but gives the middle a tone control in both the #2 & #4 positions.

500k Tone 2 (middle and bridge)

We just did this on a customers guitar. Works good too. Although, we did 250k because it was 3 true singles.

[Chistopher]

I would put the S4 in the middle and S7 in the neck. Usually for the middle I want a clean bright attacky sound, for the neck I want a rounder sound.

[Mincer]

Thank you for the advice! I’ve been just checking out the true singles, I haven’t even really delved into the noiseless. As someone newer into getting into pickups, besides the hum cancelling, are there any big differences/downsides to noiseless vs true singles?

The noiseless is a little louder than classic singles, and well, it is noiseless...so it will match the bridge pickup in not having hum come in when you switch to it. Actually, I'd go with 2 S4s, 500k volume, 250k tone for the singles, and 500k tone for the CC. The volume balance will be fine between all 3.

[Lampshadenoah]

The noiseless is a little louder than classic singles, and well, it is noiseless...so it will match the bridge pickup in not having hum come in when you switch to it. Actually, I'd go with 2 S4s, 500k volume, 250k tone for the singles, and 500k tone for the CC. The volume balance will be fine between all 3.

I’m leaning that way too. Just take some uncertainty out of the situation. I want to have more high output stuff too, but for what I play that is higher gain it’s the bridge pickup 90% of the time. Then I’ll just have some cleaner ones for other stuff. In the bridge/middle position I will have a good moderate output sound too. Feels like the versatility will be enough with just the two S4s. Waiting for some money to come in before doing this, so could be a month or two, but I’ll upload pics and of what I end up with!

As of now, I think your idea sounds the best to me. Rather not gamble with the S7 and trying to EQ out any muddiness with pots and make the S4 too harsh.

[Mincer]

Well, let us know how this project turns out for you!

[donaldr]

The STK-S7 is not compressed at all IMHO. It's the perfect continuity, sound and volume, from the STK-S4 neck (I don't have a middle pickup). It's a bright bridge pickup but less bright and with more body than a STK-S4 in the bridge.

I had a STK-S7 in the neck with a 250k pots and it was too dark IMHO. If you decide to have one I would definitely use 500k pots (don't know if you need both volume and tone 500k pots, you would have to experiment).

If you want the STK-S7, I agree with Christoper by having it in the neck with a STK-S4 in the middle for good quack in positions 2-4. But I never use positions 2-4 so don't quote me on this

I never had an SH11 so I cannot say if the STK-S4 neck would be a perfect match with the SH11 bridge. But according to specs, I would expect the STK-S4 to be brighter and lower output when switching from bridge to neck.

Since you want to order both for neck and middle, I would start with one or the other in the neck and nothing in the middle. Play a bit and decide if it's doing the job of not. If not then swap the neck for the other one.

[Chistopher]

Also, am I right in saying that the S7 doesn't have a "noisy" counterpart? I remember the Surfer Custom bridge being close though

[IMENATOR]

It depends on how you want to use those single coils and how you may change or not your Amp's EQ or not when going to the humbucker. For example you may set your clean channel for the best tone possible with single coils then your gain channel for the best tone possible out of the humbucker, in this case the single coils may sound too thin/bright in the gain channel. If you want to go back and forth single coils and bridge regardless what channel you want then the single coils I would choose would be higher output, less treble and ideally more mids (SSL6 or maybe even quarter pound), and probaby get them closer to strings for a better volume and EQ balance, but that also means they walk away from the vintage strat sound which may or may not be what you want.

[Lampshadenoah]

It depends on how you want to use those single coils and how you may change or not your Amp's EQ or not when going to the humbucker. For example you may set your clean channel for the best tone possible with single coils then your gain channel for the best tone possible out of the humbucker, in this case the single coils may sound too thin/bright in the gain channel. If you want to go back and forth single coils and bridge regardless what channel you want then the single coils I would choose would be higher output, less treble and ideally more mids (SSL6 or maybe even quarter pound), and probaby get them closer to strings for a better volume and EQ balance, but that also means they walk away from the vintage strat sound which may or may not be what you want.

I was looking at the SSL-5s before but couldn’t find any example of them being used in a neck position so it put me off on trying it.

As far as the vintage strat sound, I don’t need to be be exactly that and have that be a top priority. Basically, with it going to be my only guitar, I want it to do MCR, Green Day, Taking Back Sunday, etc. (pop punky, emo, post hardcore/ish stuff) well and do more classic, cleaner stuff like Pink Floyd and John Mayer well enough.

If I had it my way I’d have a Les Paul and a separate Strat.

Basically, when starting my search for what I wanted, I wanted the modern C neck, 1.650” nut width and 9.5” radius with medium jumbo pickups and a maple neck. That felt the most comfortable for me. Then, I had to decide what configuration and which pickups. So, my idea was a bridge that could do the pop punk/emo stuff well (would have gone with the SH4 JB but wanted to have a bit more versatility and wasn’t sure about it in an alder body Strat. Plus, I had that in my old Les Paul Studio I had to sell) and then I wanted the single coils to be able to do the cleaner stuff.

So, I do want a “stratty” sound, but it doesn’t have to be TRUE; just has to be in that vein. If it was a bit “rounder” of a sound and less glassy and trebly with a bit higher output, but could do John Mayer, Hendrix, Clapton, Floyd etc well enough, that’s the goal.

Basically I wanted either a Tele or a Strat for the comfort since I have some hand problems and wanted to get both worlds close enough since I’ll only have 1 guitar.

My alternative was going to be a Tele with SH11 bridge and Pearly Gates neck. That also is appealing to me with the hard tail, since I most likely won’t be using tremolo and don’t want to have the complications with the Strat’s floating trem. But, the Strat is appealing because I wanted to be able to have some single coil sounds too for other genres, since for the pop punk/emo stuff mostly uses the bridge pickup.

So, moral of the story, looking for a way to get what I want from the bridge pup as the first priority, then as the second, having two single coils that can have a healthy balance of being able to meld with the bridge pickup okay, but also have the versatility to do the other artists I’ve mentioned.

[IMENATOR]

I was looking at the SSL-5s before but couldn’t find any example of them being used in a neck position so it put me off on trying it.

Check the Charvel HSS demos. Those are SSL-6, the flat pole version of the SSL-5 to hear those neck/middle tones. Those guitars do not use the SH11 but at least you can get some idea.

[elelpe]

S7 iin the middle actually can be somewhat useful for channeling Gilmour sound since you won't use SSL5 or S6 in the bridge position while keeping S4 in the neck for Mayer stuff.

500k volume 1 (b + m)
250k volume 2 (n)
500k tone

That said, lower ouput middle pickup will give you better quack.

[Lampshadenoah]

S7 iin the middle actually can be somewhat useful for channeling Gilmour sound since you won't use SSL5 or S6 in the bridge position while keeping S4 in the neck for Mayer stuff.

500k volume 1 (b + m)
250k volume 2 (n)
500k tone

That said, lower ouput middle pickup will give you better quack.

How about the S6 in the middle? How do you think it would compare to the S7? I know Gilmour uses an SSL-5 in his bridge for the “Comfortably Numb” tone. How do you feel about the S6 or S7 in the middle with S4 in neck vs the S6 or S7 in the neck and S4 in the middle?

[Lampshadenoah]

S7 iin the middle actually can be somewhat useful for channeling Gilmour sound since you won't use SSL5 or S6 in the bridge position while keeping S4 in the neck for Mayer stuff.

500k volume 1 (b + m)
250k volume 2 (n)
500k tone

That said, lower ouput middle pickup will give you better quack.

I do agree with the pots though! I was def thinking 250k neck, 500k everything else. I mean, maybe a 500k for bridge and just going straight S4 on both mid and neck with 250K volume pot and 500k tone?

[Lampshadenoah]

Also, let’s say we do bridge SH11 and neck STK-S4.

For the middle, assuming it’s going to a 500k volume pot, how would y’all compare the S6 to the S7 in the middle position?

and, for bonus points, of the one y’all would recommend of those two, would there be any argument for swapping the middle and neck pickup (S4 in the middle, S6 or S7 in the neck).

Thanks again for the input!

[Mincer]

Even with a 500k pot, the S6 & S7 has a lot of bass and lower mids, and are high enough output to hit a preamp pretty hard, making clean sounds not-as-clean. I'd keep the S4 in the neck, though, for certain.