Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

A

AndreCo

New member
Hi, this is my first post.

So I'm in a few cover bands and I'm looking to have more versatility on my strat. I have now a Stelly pick up from rio grande on bridge position wich I like a lot, but sometimes I miss a humbucker sound on my bridge for heavier songs. Even though Stelly is a beefy sounding pickup (cool for hard rock medium gain), sometimes it's not thick enough for Muse like riffs, or Slash solos.

I know that there are a lot of options for splittable humbuckers, but for what I understand, they have the problem of the trade off between having a balanced HB with weak split single coil sound, or have OK split sound but with HB sound way hotter than the other single coils (middle and bridge position).

So I was thinking of simply putting two pickups side by side on the bridge position, maybe a Li'l 59 (wich is a medium output single coil sized humbucker) right next to Stelly and alternate between them with an extra switch. (attached photoshopped image)

For my surprise, I didn't find much information about joining two pickups together on internet, but i read somewhere that two pickups so close to each other might not work very well beacuse of "cross-talk" issues.

I think that if this works, it would be really useful even for other pickup combinations, to have the ultimate versatile bridge sound maintaning balance between pickups at the same time.

Do you guys have any insight about this? I would like to know a little more before I start drilling my pick guard and posibly guitar body too.
 

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Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

I've done that and it works fine. I used 2 single coils in series however, not independently.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

Welcome to the forum!

It reminds me sort of what Steve Morse does on his Y2D guitar. How would you switch between these? You'd have to sort out some switching issues if you want to have access to the additional pickup on its own or in combo with others. Doing it this way might be a compromise, too, as you won't get that bridge pickup sound with it moved away from the bridge.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

Yes, I'd want to put the more powerful humbucker nearest the bridge.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

This is where i read that two pickups so close together might become an issue, i think because of magnetic interference:

https://wgsusa.com/ultimate-5-pickup-fender-stratocaster-worlds-most-versatile-guitar

This guy actually decided to separate them after trying them together.

Yes, I was thinking Steve Morse guitar too, but in his case, the pickups aren't totally together either.

I was thinking of putting a switch in the place of the middle tone control (and only use a master tone control) in order to completely alternate between one pickup and the other, maybe a 3dpt switch?. After that switch, I would wire it in a standard Strat fashion. That is cool because in position 2, I would also have the option of choosing which pick up I want to combine with the middle pickup.

Also was thinking of leaving the single coil (Stelly pickup) in the original position, which is probably the most sensitive to high frequencies, so I don't loose the traditional Single coil sound, and sacirfice the HB position, moving in further way from the bridge, which I don't think would make such a difference.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

wow, that ibanez has a lot of pickups. OK so I suppose there won't be any noise issues then thanks.

yeah, it looks kind of weird but I like it, I think it looks cool from a not-so-purist point of view. I could just fit both of them together in a HSS pickguard, but I'm looking to retain the single coil sound as much as posible. I think I will give this project a try.

Now I'm just trying to figure out wich HB to choose. there are so many options. Initially I was thinking Lil '59, but I read somewhere that it sounds nothing like a real PAF humbucker. I was thinking also maybe a Pearly Gates, but it's only available in single coil size in custom shop and it's expensive. I'm looking for classic style PAF type humbucker sound, not high gain.

Any suggestions appreciated.
 
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Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

I wouldn't say the Little 59 sounds nothing like a traditional PAF-type. I'd say it is about as close as you can get within the design limitations. Another option might be the Lil Screamin' Demon. While it is more powerful than a PAF, it has the right EQ profile.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

Speaking of the Stag Mag and other magnet-pole humbuckers... Experience with those split/not split leads me to think the magnetic field changes must explain away some of the sound there. The Stag Mag is not high output at all even in Series, esp. for its DCR. But it's a clear, chimey humbucker that sounds like a fat-ish Telecaster bridge somewhat.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

I totally get what you are thinking, but have you considered just getting a decent graphic eq pedal instead? You can boost the lows and low mids, cut the highs, and end up with the fuller, thicker, heavier tone you are looking for without any surgery to your guitar.
 
Re: Dual pickup in Strat bridge position viable?

Dave Locher said:
I totally get what you are thinking, but have you considered just getting a decent graphic eq pedal instead? You can boost the lows and low mids, cut the highs, and end up with the fuller, thicker, heavier tone you are looking for without any surgery to your guitar.
Click to expand...

This would be a sensible option as there are a few programmable graphic eq pedals on the market now.
 
Just necroreviving this thread as I'm thinking about doing something similar. IIRC, Fender did a strat with dual Red Lace Sensors in the bridge. Which was sorta a humbucker but not really...
 
I did this years ago. I just won't give you a great humbucker tone. The singlecoil tones will often be compromised as well. It's just not a good final solution. Rather a set of great pickups, than this 'meh' combination.
 
Willybomb2 said:
Just necroreviving this thread as I'm thinking about doing something similar. IIRC, Fender did a strat with dual Red Lace Sensors in the bridge. Which was sorta a humbucker but not really...
Click to expand...

Pretty straightforward if you use 2 sc size pickups, maybe the hotter one towards the back. Your options open up even further if you route ur own pickguard and customize the positions. I made a pickguard with 2 neck pickups. It sounds great and I'm sold on it. I'm done with the standard crappy layouts.
 
Willybomb2 said:
Just necroreviving this thread as I'm thinking about doing something similar. IIRC, Fender did a strat with dual Red Lace Sensors in the bridge. Which was sorta a humbucker but not really...
Click to expand...

Yep, not really. The magnetic field of a Lace Sensor is not the same than with regular pickups. That's precisely why they can be mounted close to each other.

With other single coils or SC sized HB's, pairing two pickups may work or not, depending on the shape, orientation and strenght of respective magnetic fields.

In my own experience, some associations don't work well, because the tone is corrupted and/or because magnetic interactions cause whistling feedback.

Now, YMMV: the only way to know if two pickups work with each others is to mount them close to each others (even measuring them with a Gaussmeter/teslameter won't allow to know if they'll sound good or not).
 
freefrog said:
Yep, not really. The magnetic field of a Lace Sensor is not the same than with regular pickups. That's precisely why they can be mounted close to each other.

With other single coils or SC sized HB's, pairing two pickups may work or not, depending on the shape, orientation and strenght of respective magnetic fields.

In my own experience, some associations don't work well, because the tone is corrupted and/or because magnetic interactions cause whistling feedback.

Now, YMMV: the only way to know if two pickups work with each others is to mount them close to each others (even measuring them with a Gaussmeter/teslameter won't allow to know if they'll sound good or not).
Click to expand...

Here's a video where you can see how different the design and magnet structure of Lace Sensor pickups are from tradional pickups - and hence the shape and size of their magnetic fields. The Youtuber Dylan Talks Tone disassembles a Lace Sensor pickup in the video.

https://youtu.be/Jb-nhLNSIIY
 
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