I'm trying to choose a Seymour Duncan stack pickup that would best suit my use case. It's going to be going into a James Tyler-style super strat with series-split-parallel switches for each pickup, a mid-boost clone, and a custom in the bridge. I'm looking for more output than the stock vintage style Rosewell single coil they're like less than 5.8k A5's. I love glassy blues tones like SRV but I am also looking to get those Dan Huff and Landau-style studio cleans and wondered what stack would be the best. Right now I'm mainly looking at the classic stack non-plus, classic stack plus, hot stacks, hot chicken, and maybe even the parallel axis ones.
best stack for glassy blues and 80s studio clean tones?
- Thread starter stinkfeet
- Start date
eclecticsynergy
New member
Welcome to the Forum.
Generally for glassy tone and 80s type cleans, lower output is better.
Especially with a midboost on tap, you might not want a whole lot more mids than the singles you've got.
I'd say low output stacks probably would be the best choice.
Perhaps you might do better with a little less output at the bridge.
An A2 magnet would turn your Custom into a Custom Custom; those often do famously well in superStrats.
PS: Split and parallel modes generally don't tend to be great sounding options for stacked singles.
Might be viable options with high-output stacks, but IMO those kind of go counter to what you're looking for.
Just my two cents - and I'm not an authority when it comes to stacks.
Generally for glassy tone and 80s type cleans, lower output is better.
Especially with a midboost on tap, you might not want a whole lot more mids than the singles you've got.
I'd say low output stacks probably would be the best choice.
Perhaps you might do better with a little less output at the bridge.
An A2 magnet would turn your Custom into a Custom Custom; those often do famously well in superStrats.
PS: Split and parallel modes generally don't tend to be great sounding options for stacked singles.
Might be viable options with high-output stacks, but IMO those kind of go counter to what you're looking for.
Just my two cents - and I'm not an authority when it comes to stacks.
I would only use a split on a stacked humbucker if it was in combination with a coil from a rw/rp humbucker. By itself, it doesn't really do much for the sound (and there is noise). Just as pickups themselves, I think the Classic Stack Plus is what you want. I'd be interested in the specs of the pickups you want to take out of the guitar. Very very few stacked singles have usable sounds in series, split, *and* parallel.
I'm planning on turning my strat into a Dan Huff-style guitar. Almost all of his signatures come with neck-hot stacks (a couple have non-plus classic stacks) and series-parallel switches but some have all three. With the hot stacks, it seems to give the guitar some extra tonal variation. I don't mind the loss of humbucking.
The non-plus classic stacks have a bigger dummy coil so maybe those would work better than the plus'? The newer Tyler guitars come with bridge position stacks in the neck and middle to match output to the humbucker, But the real guitar Dan Huff uses has neck position hot stacks in it.
I probably won't want the parallel axis because it's already too bright? I saw a classic stack in the neck and a hot chicken in the middle and wondered about the combo. Would the hot chicken fit the glassy lightly over-driven tones I'm looking for?
Most of the time the mid-boost is just used as a buffer to make things more chimey and nice but can also be used to thicken everything up. Maybe the parallel axis would blend well with the mid-boost to help thicken them up and would better match the output of the custom?
donaldr
New member
What pedals and amp do you have? In "good old days" there wasn't much available but today you can almost play metal with vintage single coils with right pedals and amp!!!
A STK-S7/STK-S4/STK-S4 set can go a long way. Maybe with a SD Pickup Booster pedal?
Here's an example of PA-STK1 and PA-TB3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiEdEL1KVds
A STK-S7/STK-S4/STK-S4 set can go a long way. Maybe with a SD Pickup Booster pedal?
Here's an example of PA-STK1 and PA-TB3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiEdEL1KVds
Ascension
New member
Huff is a monster player. I remember him from his time in White Heart. Love his tone in that band and also in Giant. A ral master who many don't know as well as they should. It's just not fair that he also is such a killer singer! Big Dan Huff fan here!
For those who don't know, check this out.
Chistopher
malapterurus electricus tonewood instigator
I would say STK-S7 neck and STK-S4 middle. They will match the Custom very well.
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