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Praise to the HSS

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  • Praise to the HSS

    I've never really noticed how useful an HSS Strat is until I converted my MIM Stratocaster into one recently. The pickups are a neck STK-S7, a middle STK-S4, and a Black Winter bridge. It just blows me away how useful this thing is for my style of music. I set the middle pickup so that the amp is just barely at the edge of breakup with the volume at 7 and everything else falls right into place without any hum.

    The neck pickup is wound hotter than the middle so that without even touching the volume I can get a decent blues rock solo tone out of it without even trying. I can back off the volume even further and use my tone control to play some jazz if need be.

    The neck and middle position gives be the perfect edge of overdrive SRV type tone. It's nice and hollow while still having plenty of definition.

    The middle position is nice and "clucky" for middle position cleans. If I back the volume off a little bit I can strike a little harder for funky rhythm tones.

    The middle and bridge position with the bridge split is nice as well with not one coil dominating another, but to be honest I don't use it all that much even on a "real" Strat. It can be really good for funk or reggae if I ever need it.

    The bridge is really nice. If I switch to the bridge I get a nice overdriven bridge humbucker sound excellent for classic rock, but if I dime the volume it gets a bit hairier with a decent amount of distortion that can do a bit of classic metal and southern rock, like ACDC, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.

    Why don't more people use this type of setup? I know some of you must have some problems with it. It also works out nice electrically because you can just use 250k pots all around.

  • #2
    Re: Praise to the HSS

    I love HSS, too, but I understand people who don't dig it. It isn't something I use live a lot. It is sort of like a PJ bass...you don't really get a Jazz sound out of them. The trick is to balance the right pickups and electronics in your HSS. You came up with your solution- this is how I did it.
    Administrator of the SDUGF

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    • #3
      Re: Praise to the HSS

      I think a lot of people do like & use HSS. In general people idolize Strat neck/between tones and thicker bridge tones so it makes sense. Balance can be an issue, then again your humbucker can become a "gain switch." That said I'd love a hybrid bridge pickup that combined an alnico pole single coil with a standard bar magnet coil, as I do miss getting bright surf bridge sounds with any humbucker.
      Originally posted by King Buzzo
      I love when people come up to me and say “Your guitar sound was better on Stoner Witch, when you used a Les Paul. “...I used a Fender Mustang reissue on that, dumbass!

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      • #4
        Re: Praise to the HSS

        I've never thought of a Black Winter in an HSS, I might have to look into it. Seems like a good set you have there.
        You will never understand How it feels to live your life With no meaning or control And with nowhere left to go You are amazed that they exist And they burn so bright
        Whilst you can only wonder why

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        • #5
          Re: Praise to the HSS

          HSS Stratocaster has been my go to for long time...this got me to wondering about an HSS Les Paul...anybody tried????

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