Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

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BlakeC27

New member
Greetings all,

I'm relatively new to the forum due mainly to my recent decision to upgrade my 2011 SSS American Standard Strat (with an Alder body with a Maple neck) to an HSS configuration. I have two guitars; my aforementioned Strat and a LTD Les Paul-style guitar (which is my only experience with humbuckers thus far).

The reason I'm re-configuring my Strat is so I can play it more. It's a great guitar but sends a lot of time in its case in favor of humbucker equipped LTD. I basically use the Strat one style of play and the LTD for another. So I figure fitting a humbucker in the bridge of the Strat will help bring the two worlds a little closer together know very well that one will not replace the other.

One thing I want to avoid as much as possible during this process is spending a bunch of time and cash on different pickups in an attempt to tone chase. If anybody could suggest a good all-round humbucker I'd be very grateful. In terms of musical styles, I play mostly Blues, Blues-Rock, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, and some Metal. Amplification tends to be Marshall flavored whenever possible.

Many thanks for all future suggestions and comments.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

Welcome to the forum!! The SH16 59/Custom Hybrid would be a great choice to cover alot of ground! I have one in my main player and play blues/rock and metal thru a Splawn which is Marshall flavored.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

I haven't tried the hybrid, but it sounds like a good choice. I would also suggest the Screamin' Demon, it's bright and not high output so it should mix well with the singles. Would probably work well with 250K pots too, although I've only used it with 500k.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

The demon and APH1 are good pickups if you don't plan on splitting them, they will balance pretty well with most single coils. The hybrid is much more balanced when split but will be a little overpowering when in full humbucker mode.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

chadd said:
The demon and APH1 are good pickups if you don't plan on splitting them, they will balance pretty well with most single coils. The hybrid is much more balanced when split but will be a little overpowering when in full humbucker mode.
Click to expand...

splitting was mentioned.... the hybrid would be good if you want to split it too
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

The humbucker will be split by not in the traditional manner. I'm planning on trying a two-mode wiring scheme that will keep the humbucker split at all times to maintain the traditional five Strat pickup selector positions with a 250k volume pot and some form of tone control yet to be decided upon but for decisions sake, the standard 250k pot with 0.022uf capacitor wired as a master tone control with the second mode being the full humbucker and a just a 500k master volume (EVH-style), no tone control. So there is an option to use a 250k pot for this mode if there is a humbucker that works better in a Strat will that value.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

Another vote for the Hybrid! It seems to excel in an HSS design. I even wrote a blog about how I use mine.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

I have a 59/Custom Hybrid in one HSS and a F-Spaced Custom in another. Both are awesome in an HSS configuration. Also have a Larry pickup (Crunch Lab) in another HSS Strat- has it's own high powered flavor, also good.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

Yes the 59/Custom Hybrid can cover all the styles you mentioned.
But note that it is very sensitive to your picking attack (so not so compressed).

And what is the HB you like on your LTD LP ?
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

Francois said:
And what is the HB you like on your LTD LP ?
Click to expand...

The LTD is totally stock with ESP LH-150s made by the G&B Pickup Company as it is one of their low-end models. I measured the DC resistant of bridge pickup as 14.4k not 100% sure what type of magnets they have in them. From what I found online either Alnico 5 or Ceramic? Someone here might be able to confirm. Didn't measure the neck pickup.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

The Dimebucker has an astonishingly good split tone. I use one in a Washburn Mercury II in conjunction with a pair of Carvin AP11 singles. I use a standard 5 way strat wiring and use a push/pull pot to turn both coils on in the up position for a sort of boost.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

The 59 is another great choice. It doesn't have a lot of mids, and the lows are tight, but it has a low enough output to blend well with singles, and be used for any type of music for all levels of gain. It sounds pretty good split, too. I use a 59 in the bridge of my semi-hollow Godin (it is HH), and it rocks.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

I love the often overlooked SH11. It works great split, it's great with OD, and it's a bright pickup, so it should work well with the pots and caps.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

I would recommend...

..the D-Activator (DiMarzio) or any other similarly bright-ish pickup (like the Humbucker From Hell, very bright). I have had this pickup in my strat and it pairs well with the single coils, well as far as tone goes anyways..

My favorite bridge pickup though for the strat is a Burstbucker Pro (Gibson), it is also very bright, but it overpowers the single coils so I just have a set of those (HH) in my strat now..
 
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Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

Mincer said:
The 59 is another great choice. It doesn't have a lot of mids, and the lows are tight, but it has a low enough output to blend well with singles, and be used for any type of music for all levels of gain. It sounds pretty good split, too. I use a 59 in the bridge of my semi-hollow Godin (it is HH), and it rocks.
Click to expand...

When I was think about my tone, I do like a mid-scooped sound. Hence, asking about the 59. There is a lot to consider isn't there when deciding on a new pickup.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

I really agree with the crowd that you can't beat the 59/Custom. It will handle mild to wild better than most any other pickup.

Depending on the amp and fx, the 59 might be the next best choice.

I'll vote Demon for 3rd place.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

I really cant answer the question all that well, but i can tell you what i have had very good luck with in strats: SH-11 Custom Custom works very well, especially in bright guitars. I have a 59/Custom hybird in a Kramer F3000, which is basically a strat copy and that works fantastic! I used to have a MJ wound custom shop JB Concept that i want to put into another strat. The JB is one of those rare pickups that works very well with 250k pots and splits super well. My CC and 59/CC were/are wired with 500k pots without a tone in the chain.

I am thinking about putting my JB into my 50s HRR MIJ strat. I have a Dimarzio FRED in there now which is good, but that pickup seems to work best with a 500k without a tone pot.
 
Re: Best All-Round Bridge Humbucker For HSS Strat?

Haven't seen it mentioned in here yet.. the custom 5. I've had really good results with a custom 5 trembucker in hss. Although it was a cheaper strat copy with likely ceramic mag single pickups. So the slightly higher output of the custom 5 balanced well. Also has the mid scooped thing you're going for.
 
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