Favorite humbucker in a strat?

L

ledvedder

New member
I'm liking the Tone Zone S in this strat, but I'm not a big fan of the look. I'm considering putting in a full size nickel covered humbucker. I just think it'll look much better. I'm eyeing either a Dimarzio 36th Anniversary or a Duncan Pearly Gates.

Curious what your preferences are?
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I’ve not tried it, maybe someone else has, but I have wondered how a Gibson 498T would sound in the bridge position of a Strat. The things I don’t like about it in my Les Pauls are, interestingly, what I think might make it good in an HSS Strat; mostly the crisp, bright sound.
 
I liked the ‘59b in a Strat. In my PRS CE24, which is basically a mahogany Strat, I really like the Screamin Demon, also like the Air Norton in the bridge.

That said, if you like the sound of the Tone Zone S, a full size humbucker is not going to sound like that, but the Tone Zone might be a good place to start. The Air Zone is pretty sweet, too.

This is a little unconventional, but a friend of mine has an Epiphone Dot with Fender Texas Specials. His dad glued them inside the covers from the Epiphone humbuckers, so it looks normal.
 
Years ago, I had a Lonestar strat that I believe had a Pearly Gates in the bridge. I remember really liking the tone of that guitar. But I'm not sure what pots were in it. I just rewired my strat with 500k to go with the Dimarzio pickups, so I'd hate to have to rewire everything back to 250k.

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My favorites are either a Custom Custom or a 59/Custom Hybrid. Both sound pretty massive in a Strat, and seem to blend well with single coils. BTW, the Lone Stars had a Pearly Gates +, which was slightly different than a regular PG.
 
Custom Custom, Jason Becker model, DiMarzio Air Zone. All of those work great in a Strat.
 
I have a Perpetual Burn with an A6 magnetic in a hardtail strat, and a Pearly Gates with an A6 magnetic in a traditional strat, both after doing a lot of other pickup swaps

I also really dug the Air Norton in the bridge spot of a strat. Man, the slight sag of the air bucker technology makes palm mutes sound SO heavy - more of a "shug" than a "chug" - and the air norton is a plenty bluesy pickup, too. At the end of the day, I swapped it out because I sometimes want some top end sizzle, and the air norton is all about smoothness and fatness

CaptainWhizz said:
I've not tried it, maybe someone else has, but I have wondered how a Gibson 498T would sound in the bridge position of a Strat.
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That combo actually works pretty well, IMO, though I generally don't like my pups wound that hot. Loads of clarity even with loads of gain


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Custom Custom is my current favorite. Custom 5 is usually my favorite pickup but it was too clangy in my Strat. A2 magnet fixed that right up. But I actually used to have a Tone Zone S in the very same guitar and I did like that quite a lot. The super distortion S, not so much
 
my go to strat bridge pup has been a pearly gates forever. with vintage output singles neck and middle and 250k controls, i think it sounds great and matches up very well
 
I pulled the trigger on a nickel Pearly Gates. I'll give it a try with the 500k pots before I decide if I wanna put 250k back in.

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Am I correct in assuming that running the bridge pickup with a 500k volume and 500k tone pot is equivalent to running it with just a 250k volume and no tone pot?

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ledvedder said:
Am I correct in assuming that running the bridge pickup with a 500k volume and 500k tone pot is equivalent to running it with just a 250k volume and no tone pot?

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Click to expand...

not quite the same but close
 
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