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Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

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  • Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

    Hi all!

    I ve been visiting this forum for years but this is my first post

    I have a MIM Fat Strat since 2000 when I was 17 and since about 2004 it has a Little 59 on the neck position and a JB in the bridge position. I love those pickups - my only complain would be that the 59 is a tad more bassy than i d like it to be.

    I recently bought a 2019 Fender American Professional HSS Strat (v-mod single coils, Shawbucker 2) with maple neck and alder body in 3 Tone Sunburst. The guitar is very good but the v-mods get too treble-y with gain. The shawbucker is OK I guess but nothing to write home about. So I am about to change the neck (with a single-coil sized humbucker) and bridge pickups so as to have a HSH configuration. And for this I have a couple of questions, one of vanity and one of substance.

    The vanity question is the following : For the bridge position, I will get either the Pearly Gates or the JB (SH-4) full-sized humbucker in Zebra. But I am not sure about which single-coil sized mini humbucker matches in colour the light-coloured part of the Zebra humbucker - is it closer to the Creme or Parchment colour of the SD single-coil sized humbuckers? And moreover, for anyone who happens to know, would the Parchment or Creme option of the single-coil sized humbucker be closer to the colour of the stock v-mods? I love the looks of my guitar and I would like to stay as close to that as possible.

    The substance question is if you have any suggestions for a neck single-coil sized humbucker that is close to the 59 in character but with less bass. For the bridge position i am leaning towards the pearly gates - i m just afraid that it actually might be very close sound-wise to the stock Shawbucker which i did not like much (i don t know how to describe this, but let's say it lacked character) in which case I should go with the safe choice of the JB. Then again, i d like to have something different from my MIM Strat.

    So between the Pearly Gates and JB options, what do you prefer and which neck single-coil sized mini humbucker would you pair it with?

    My all time guitar favorite sound is that of Andi Latimer's (Camel) on Ice (not that I can match his playing, just saying):



    Apologies for the long (and confusing) post, i d be grateful for some help. I have to order the pickups from Germany as they are not widely available in Greece and I cannot even check the colours. The photos do not help much unfortunately, at least they are not conclusive.


    Thanks so much in advance!!

  • #2
    Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

    The sound in your link is so processed it could be one of a thousand different pickups that he could be using. Either of the pups you listed could do that but of those 2 I would lean toward the JB.
    Originally Posted by IanBallard
    Rule of thumb... the more pot you have, the better your tone.

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    • #3
      Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

      Welcome to the forum!

      For a neck pickup idea, you might look at the Cool Rails. It sounds great with a JB or PG, and has a clear, open sound that complements them. If your choice is between the PG and JB in the bridge, they both feel very different. The JB is very hot and compressed, and the PG is more open and touch-sensitive. The JB sounds great with a Marshall-type amp with at least some gain all the time. The PG, however, also sounds great dead clean.
      Administrator of the SDUGF

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      • #4
        Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

        The Shawbuckers are relatively low output pickups. If you like your JB, it's no surprise that you don't like the shaw. If you want something similar to, but different than, your JB a custom might be worth trying. The PG is fairly similar in specs to the shaw, you probably don't want that.

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        • #5
          Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

          Thank you very much for the suggestions guys!

          I think i ll go for thee full-size JB bridgr again. Makes for sense since as @chadd said the Pearly Gates might be too similar to the shawbucker.

          I am looking for an alternative to the neck little 59 with a tadd less bass. But i might end ul getting the little 59 again.

          The only think i can t figure out is whether the light colour of the zebra SD humbuckerss is closer to the parchment ot creme colour of their single coil sized humbuckers and which of those would better much the standard looks of the american professional strats.

          @Mincer : Great music!!!

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          • #6
            Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

            Oh thanks!
            The neck Red Devil has similar power but less bass than a Little 59.
            Administrator of the SDUGF

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            • #7
              Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

              For colors:

              This is aged white fender parts, parchment guard and duncan cream:


              This is aged white fender plastics, mint guard and Duncan cream:


              The Duncan Zebra is black and cream, so a single sized HB in cream should be pretty close.
              Oh no.....


              Oh Yeah!

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              • #8
                Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

                Wow, PFDarkSide, thanks, that was very useful!!

                Apologies for the late reply, things have been very hectic at work.

                Two weeks ago I got a Dimarzio Air Norton S because I found it locally and I thought heck, why not, I ll give it a spin. I put it in the neck position but I wired it at the middle switch position so that I could get N+B at position 2 (with 1 being the bridge) and to the 500k side of the dual pot that Fender puts in the american professional hss models.

                I liked the low mids of the Air Norton S but the treble is nowhere to be found. So i ll move it to the middle position. I have decided to go for the full size JB humbucker for the bridge so I only need to decide on the neck single-coil sized humbucker.

                I am still undecided between the Little 59, the Red Devil and the Jb Jr for that. I m looking for whatever will get me closer to a Les Paul neck sound, flutey and sustainy - think of the Gibson 61 humbucker or the Burstbucker. I know that it is impossible to get this sound on a strat, i just want to get as close as possible.

                Color wise maybe i ll get the parchment option so as to stay as close as possible to the current looks of the American Professional - the cream will match the zebra humbucker but it might stick out a lot. Thhe air norton s is in aged white.

                By the way, I like the sound of the middle v-mod pickup of my strat but man - stratitis!!! I have it almost flushed to the pickguard but still. It might be the fact that after removing the neck single coil (opposite magnetic field), there is nothing to counterbalance the pull of the middle single coil, hence stratitis got intense. I might be wrong - i ll only know after I substitute it with the single-coil sized humbucker.

                PS: I am disappointed because among other problems that my strat had, there is a dead note on the G string, in the G# note. It moves if i tune half a step lower. I am really hoping that this might be because of the pull of the single coil because it is really disheartening. If it was not for this, I would maybe keep the single coil.

                Thanks a lot again, and apologies for the late response. I really appreciate your input.
                Last edited by AuditoryDriving; 03-06-2020, 05:17 PM.

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                • #9
                  Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

                  G# as in 13th fret? Sounds like either stratitis (weird buzzing and wobliness due to the pickup magnet pulling the strings) or a neck relief issue. First, try backing the pickups down. If that doesn't work, try tightening the truss rod a little - it may have too much relief.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Colours and sounds for a Fender American Professional HSS

                    Hi Nagisa,

                    Thanks for your response.

                    I went through trussrod, bridge, springs etc adjustment multiple times, made sure all screws were tight etc. There is a sweet spot with the trussrod that balances the dead note on the 13th string, eliminates the wobble when doing a pull off from the 8th to 7th fret on the b string and the overall action. It definitely has to do a lot with the middle v-mod pick up and the staggered g string pole piece. Or at least i hope the dead note will be less evident.

                    I ll put the air norton in the middle, get an sd little 59 for the neck and a jb for the bridge and see what happens. I was contemplating on whether i should go for the red devil neck since it s alnico-based and there should be less string pull compared to the little 59 which is ceramic.

                    My other strat with a little 59 neck,, texas special middlle and full size jb bridge does not have wobble. To make things worse i use 8s on strats and ideally tune down half a step, so i really need to have as less magnetic pull as possible. The pickups are barely above the pickguard.

                    Thanks again, any ideas or suggestions are of course more than welcome.

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