Are HSS guitars unpopular?

On paper, the HSS setup seems ideal. You get bright, clean stratty neck sounds and a deep barking les paul bridge for soloing with some in-between sounds sprinkled in there too.

For whatever reason, I don't seem to gel with them though. SSS, SS, or HH seem to work better for me when I'm playing live.
 
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Robin Trower plays mostly on the middle single coil and in 50 yrs i have yet to hear anyone complain.
 
lots of rockers from his era do. clapton uses it a lot. hell, even john mayer is using the middle position a lot these days
 
I don't understand how the middle pickup can be in the way when you play. how deep does your pick go?! (In dutch, that phrase would be so R-rated! 'hoe diep gaat je pick?') :banana:
 
The middle pickup has never left my Bullet S3 due to one of my local heroes playing it and loving the middle pickup tone. That was like 45 years ago and I still cannot make it sound like he did, but I also still have not given up on trying. Supposedly it is nothing more than a leftover stock Mustang or Duo Sonic pickup.
 
The Middle+Bridge in Series and parallel with the Neck pickup was one of the memorable clean sounds I had got with a HSS setup.

However i much prefer the resistor trick(partial split) rather than splitting the humbucker coils to coax single coil tones, the way PRS does with their DGT models, although the resistor value has to be experimented with to find your ideal sound in your head.

I have two HSS guitars, one has rails throughout, I put a rail single in the bridge of it as well. Initially I had dual sound setup for neck & bridge along with a blender knob for wide choices, then I went with split all setup. I find myself using the split all setup more often as when using the resistor trick theres minimum hum if any and the sound is much closer to a single coil pickup.

Anyways, the fender swimming pool route is just the ideal one to just mix and match any config you want. The problem is when the factory route is limited to fixed default config so theres that.

The middle rails pickup does get in the way of the pick when i use it, so I switch to finger picking to solve that.

Personally my favorite is the traditional SSS config in a strat and HH in a LP guitar, gives me a reason to own two guitars :D
 
orpheo said:
I don't understand how the middle pickup can be in the way when you play. how deep does your pick go?! (In dutch, that phrase would be so R-rated! 'hoe diep gaat je pick?') :banana:
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Hybrid picking is not as easy if a middle pickup is in the way.
 
Mincer said:
Hybrid picking is not as easy if a middle pickup is in the way.
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Hey bro, sidebar can you elaborate on hybrid and the middle pickup?

I get a lot of pushback from students on hybrid but never on the middle pickup and I just encourage them to keep going until they've got it.

I have never personally had any problems with the mid pickup or mixing with hybrid but it would really help if you could talk me through what is happening..

Are your fingers going so far through the strings that they actually touch the pickup? Same thing with the pic?

Thanks for any and all!
 
Actually, my pick is barely touching the strings...same as my finger. And I don't anchor any part of my right hand on the top of the guitar. But middle pickups don't work with my technique. If a millimeter of pick or flesh touches the top of the pickup once in 15 minutes of playing, that's too much for me, so I'll go without a middle pickup, or one lowered down pretty low.
 
I never had much use for a middle pup 'til I got one custom wound by Zhangliqun. Not the warmth of a neck or the "ice" of a bridge. Just a perfect clean snap. I love it.
 
That is discrimination. You need to get an Alder, Basswood and Maple HSS at minimum. Be inclusive, man!!!
 
Mincer said:
Used to be. I remember in the late 80s where many companies switched their HH and SSS models over to HSS.
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Likewise, most "popular" modern guitars I see (non-Floyded superstrats) seem to be HSS. From the cheap Aliexpress ones to the most common Suhrs
 
It would be painful to collect, but I would like to see the actual data, of all models across the top-N manufacturers. Where does HSS rank today? At last count I have 2 in HSS configuration. I still think HHH with splits are the pinnacle, but I do not want every guitar of mine to be HHH.
 
Since the middle and neck on mine are noiseless stacked designs, technically mine is HHH. So 'technically' HSS may not be so popular.
 
Flipping through a contemporary guitar magazine, most of the ads are shreddy metal 24 fret HH guitars.
 
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