A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

[foo3001]

I´m about to have a telecaster DeLuxe-style guitar made for me. I know I want a Phat Cat for a neck PU, as I want the sound to be somewhere in between a strat/tele and a LesPaul.

My question is that which humbucker would be the best pair for a Phat Cat? I want a humbucker in the bridge position as I think a P-90 can sound a bit too nasal in the bridge position.

My main concern is that the humbucker will overpower the P-90, as most humbuckers have more output than the bridge PhatCat would. I know I want the bridge PU have medium output but I also want the set to be balanced so I won´t have to worry when switching between pickups. Is this avoidable with pickup height adjustments?

A PAF has already been recommended, but I don´t know.. I would like a wax potted pickup in the bridge as I hate unwanted feedback. There are times you´ll just have to play loud to hear yourself and I want to be able to do that without worrying about feedback.

Any suggestions?

[EDIT] Oh and I forgot, it would also be nice if the humbucker was also covered like the Phat Cat. It´s gonna be a custom guitar and I want it to be just like I want it. (I´m so damn vein )

 

[JOLLY]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

Welcome to the SD Forum!!

I'd be willing to bet a Jazz Bridge Model would pair up rather nicely with it.

 

[Kelsey]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

The folks at SD recommended a Custom Custom HB for the bridge when I asked about a Phat Cat/HB combo for a Strat. I think you can get covers for most of the SD line for a few dollars more. I think a Seth Lover, Pearly Gates, 59, or JB could work well, depending on the specifics of the guitar and hardware.

 

[italic zero]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

What kind of music do you play? What kind of sound do you want? What's the guitar made out of?

Those are the standard questions, it'll give us a better idea of specific pickups (there are a lot of them...)

 

[Stevo]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

I had a Seth Lover / Phat Cat combo for a while. It was a great match. Not only were the outputs compatible, I liked the way the EQ balanced out also.
I am pretty sure you would be ok with a jazz, 59, antiquity or an a2pro also.

 

[foo3001]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

What kind of music do you play? What kind of sound do you want? What's the guitar made out of?

Those are the standard questions, it'll give us a better idea of specific pickups (there are a lot of them...)

Well I´m a freelance musician so I get to play every kinds of gigs. From bossa nova to Van Halen. This guitar obviously won´t be able to pull off everything inbetween those but I think there´s a lot of sounds in the PC/humbucker combo. The sound I want is a slightly compressed tone, with tonal characters from both a stratocaster (brightness) and a LesPaul (body).

I´m looking for a bit compressed, well balanced tone that does have highs, middle and low end in a good balance. I don´t want to be able to describe the guitar as ´bright´, ´middy´ or ´dark´, I want it to sound balanced. I want to hear the wood.

It´s going to be an alder body with a maple neck.

 

[aaron]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

Just for grins, if you intend to split the humbucker and cancel hum in the middle position, you have to get an RWRP Phat Cat. The neck PC and the coil that would remain active in the hum are wound the same way with the same polarity.

Also, for brightess and body in the same pickup, my personal suggestion would be the Seth Lover. I'm this close to ordering an AP2 neck and Phat Cat RWRP bridge, but the Seth came in close second. It has a little bit more bite than the AP2, whereas the AP2 is very smooth. Course, it may be a tossup with an alder/maple guitar, that will be decently bright anyhoo. If you want something more bassy, go with an Alnico 5 pickup, like a 59 or a jazz. A JB would probably be too heavy for your desires, but both the 59 and the jazz are pretty bright, the jazz moreso, I think.

 

[jeremy]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

i have a phat cat/seth setup that i like alot, if you want wax potting, 4 cond wiring and a brighter tone id say a pearly gates would also match up well

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

i have a phat cat/seth setup that i like alot, if you want wax potting, 4 cond wiring and a brighter tone id say a pearly gates would also match up well

That's what I was about to say. :burnout:

 

[Tony_H]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

I was recommended a Custom Custom when I asked about a matching bridge HB to go with a Phat Cat. I haven't gotten to trying it myself. But I have paired the PC with a local-made A2 pup that's 9.6 k DC resistance, and the match was not the best - the bridge HB sounded too skinny compared to the Phat Cat.

 

[foo3001]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

i have a phat cat/seth setup that i like alot, if you want wax potting, 4 cond wiring and a brighter tone id say a pearly gates would also match up well

Thanks alot guys! You´ve been very helpful!

I would like the pickup to have wax potting as I hate uncontrollable squeals of feedback. I´m not sure about the pearly gates tone though, I´d like to hear it live first. It´s described as ´sweet and rude´ on the SD webpage, the tone I´m after would be ´smooth´ I guess. (It´s so damn hard to describe these things in writing..)

What I still need to know is what would be the best matches concerning the D.C resistances. I mean the PC neck resistance being 7.98k, what is the best bridge resistance in a humbucker to complement the PhatCat? One reply in this thread is that a 9.6k pickup in the bridge position might not quite cut it with the PhatCat. The others recommended (Seth Lover and Pearly Gates) are 8.1 and 8.5k.

The folks at SeymourDuncan had recommended a Custom Custom, which rates at 14.4k. This confuses me a lot as the PhatCat bridge pickup would be only 8.49k. I know a P90 and a humbucker have completely different tonal characters, and I´m sure this has a lot to do with a P90 sounding fine and a humbucker sounding thin even when the resistance is the same.

But as I said earlier, I´d like the bridge to have a little more punch, without being over-the-top-hot (especially compared to the PhatCat). The tone I hear in my head (concerning the guitar, not my tinnitus ) is not bassy, not middy and not too treble- y either. Sort of like in my LP standard but with slightly less punch and low end.

I still would very much appreciate your views and tips on this, as there´s so much to choose from.. I guess it´s pretty safe to say that I´m starting to get lost with all the wonderful choices the people at SD have to offer..

 

[Kelsey]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

When comparing pickups of different design (P90s or Phat Cats vs. HBs), I don't think the DC resistance is very informative aside from VERY broad strokes. I can tell you from my experience with Tele neck pickups that an 8K Phat Cat is much louder than an 8K Tele neck pickup or a 6.3 K Firebird-style neck mini-HB, but not as loud as a 7.8K Fender alnico 2 Atomic 2 neck HB. You generally want a higher output pickup in the bridge, which in relation to the Phat Cat or neck HBs would mean something at or over 8K. Different height adjustments at the neck and bridge pups should help balance out some of the difference, too. It is a bit of a crap shoot across different guitars (different types and even different specimens within type) when you start mixing types of pickups. I think a PAF-level bridge HB will work fine with a Phat Cat, so anything hotter should work as well -- you can get away with raising the Phat Cat closer to the strings because of its design and use of alnico 2 mags -- let your tastes and the specific guitar dictate the choice from there.

 

[foo3001]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

Thanks a lot Kelsey for answering my question! That cleared a lot of things for me. (Thank you to all the others, too, who took the time to answer my questions!)

Well. Just thought that I´d still like to hear your opinions on this. At the moment I´m thinking of getting a CustomCustom bridge. Has any of you guys tried a siglecoil/p90 + CC combo?

My guitar is going to be an alder body with a maple neck. What do you think, will the CC work in that kindof guitar? I hope the pronounced mids of the CC won´t be TOO pronounced with a bright-sounding guitar..

 

[foo3001]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

* bump *

 

[BachToRock]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

I use a Custom/59 Hybrid in the Bridge with a Phat Cat in the Neck in 2 guitars and the combo sounds great!
The Custom/59 Hybrid has a P-90-ish sound because it takes on some single coil like qualities with the mis-matched coils... it is 11+k so it matches up really nice output wise.

 

[flank]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

if you want balanced, the CC is very middy, one of the more unbalanced pickups i would have to say......though it still is very good in that way, because its very creamy and and the highs are smooth, stilll it had way too many mids for my liking, so if you want balanced, the CC might not be it

as far as DC resistance, i wouldnt get to caught up with numbers.........i had the CC/PG combo, and the PG neck was nearly louder than the CC bridge when at same height, despite the DC resistance being way lower.......its just not a good way to try to match them i guess

 

[foo3001]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

if you want balanced, the CC is very middy, one of the more unbalanced pickups i would have to say......though it still is very good in that way, because its very creamy and and the highs are smooth, stilll it had way too many mids for my liking, so if you want balanced, the CC might not be it

What kind of guitar did you have the CC in? I´m kind of aware that it is a mid-heavy pickup but the fact that it´s smooth on the highs is kinda tempting.. I hate the ´icepick´ tone, especially as i mostly use Fender/other bright amps.

Oh and what did you change to from the CC? I mean, which pickup would be smooth and compressed and nice etc etc without the middyness (is that a word?? )

 

[hacker]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

I use a JB in my warmoth tele with the phat cat neck. I love the way this guitar sounds. If you want to hear it, click on the link below. The rhythm track is the middle position played clean, and the lead switches between the phat cat and the JB with slight OD.

http://www.soundclick.us/fastk6/09/01/freemp3/mattb+cortezthekiller.mp3

This track has the JB with slightly more dirt on lead-

http://www.soundclick.us/fastk6/10/01/freemp3/mattb+mondayblues.mp3

 

[foo3001]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

I use a JB in my warmoth tele with the phat cat neck. I love the way this guitar sounds. If you want to hear it, click on the link below. The rhythm track is the middle position played clean, and the lead switches between the phat cat and the JB with slight OD.

Thanks for that!

What amp / OD were you using for those songs?

 

[hacker]

Re: A Bridge humbucker to go with a Phat Cat neck?

The amp is a Fender Vibrolux reverb, and the overdrive is an 80s Tubescreamer. I get a little added warmth from a maxon AD80 (analog delay).