Favorite Pickup Configuration

Favorite Pickup Configuration

  • SSS (Strat)

    Votes: 17 15.3%
  • SS (Tele)

    Votes: 6 5.4%
  • HSS (Fat Strat)

    Votes: 18 16.2%
  • HH (Double Fat Strat)

    Votes: 45 40.5%
  • HSH (2 Hum, 1 Single)

    Votes: 8 7.2%
  • HHH (3 Humbuckers)

    Votes: 5 4.5%
  • Other (Please specify)

    Votes: 12 10.8%

  • Total voters
    111
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

My favorite really changes with my moods. Which probably explains why almost all my guitars have a different pickup configuration. I voted HSS just cause i think thats the most verstatile... :)
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

I like the aerodyne Tele pickup design; P90 neck and single coil bridge. I'd trade out the bridge for a tele hotrail and that thing would smoke.
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

Other- 1 bridge 'bucker. I like a neck pickup sometimes, but the 1 volume, 1 pickup setup totally kicks my ass :D
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

I voted HSS because I really like most of the Fat strats I've played recently, But what I play is SSS *strats rule* With my pick-up booster I can get that bridge pick-up sounding like a humbucker anyway, I think I'm gonna throw a JB Jr. in there so It'll basicly be like a HSS configuration.
Rock On :13:
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

Somebody please educate me. I really don't get the HH thing. I mean I love the thick, LP sound but you can get damn close (and beyond) with a single humbucker and a decent amp and distortion. Any HH I've ever played offered such a small difference in sounds between pickups I could hardly tell the difference.

An HSS on the other hand will go from wall of chunk, to quacky surf, to sweet and soulful Hendrix. And Toss in a Fender S-1 switch and you can access decent SG sounds, damn close LP sounds, and a few new sounds too.
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

Gamera said:
Somebody please educate me. I really don't get the HH thing. I mean I love the thick, LP sound but you can get damn close (and beyond) with a single humbucker and a decent amp and distortion. Any HH I've ever played offered such a small difference in sounds between pickups I could hardly tell the difference.

An HSS on the other hand will go from wall of chunk, to quacky surf, to sweet and soulful Hendrix. And Toss in a Fender S-1 switch and you can access decent SG sounds, damn close LP sounds, and a few new sounds too.
The differences in tone between the bridge and neck pickups in HH are PHENOMENAL to me. The middle singlecoil on strats has never been a distinct personality for me, too much like the neck pickup, except in combination with the other two ;)

Wait... So why does no one like HSH? I mean... you've got the two humbuckers everyone likes, AND a single coil stuck inbetween them! How can you lose?

Does it really interfere that much with everyone's picking?
slade
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

XSSIVE said:
well, it depends on the guitar for me...but if i had to pick one style it would be HH...no matter what i hate having a middle pickup (i drop it all the way down on my strats) it just tends to get in the way.

-Mike
+1
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

danglybanger said:
The differences in tone between the bridge and neck pickups in HH are PHENOMENAL to me. The middle singlecoil on strats has never been a distinct personality for me, too much like the neck pickup, except in combination with the other two ;)

Wait... So why does no one like HSH? I mean... you've got the two humbuckers everyone likes, AND a single coil stuck inbetween them! How can you lose?

Does it really interfere that much with everyone's picking?
slade
By the looks of it seems so. :)
The paul gilbert Ibanez model has a HSH setup but he sayd that he has never actually used the Single coil in the middle.
Looks wise IMO the HSH looks better but seems to interfere with picking,
even look at the height of the middle coil on steve vais guitars, Very low indeed :rolleyes:
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

They are all different. Each does its own thing well. Which is why I need to buy ab out 13 different guitars. Or at least 4 or 5. :)
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

I prefer two of them equally...

SSS - traditional Strat style and I prefer noiseless pickups.

HH - double Fat Strat style but I prefer a coil-split option (like on a JS1000).

If I had to go with only one I'd get HH though.
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

Gamera said:
Somebody please educate me. I really don't get the HH thing. I mean I love the thick, LP sound but you can get damn close (and beyond) with a single humbucker and a decent amp and distortion. Any HH I've ever played offered such a small difference in sounds between pickups I could hardly tell the difference.

An HSS on the other hand will go from wall of chunk, to quacky surf, to sweet and soulful Hendrix. And Toss in a Fender S-1 switch and you can access decent SG sounds, damn close LP sounds, and a few new sounds too.


What about clean comping with the neck pickup?

Some of us do play jazzier things with our Lesters. :burnout:
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

I went for HSH because thats how my JEM's setup... the Hums give a thick, powerful distortion sound and the Single is great when playing on clean, no nonsense :P
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

I've played and owned pretty much every variation I can think of and my favorite do-it-all config remains a Fat Tele (HB in the neck, SC in the bridge) in which the HB is split on positions 2 and 4 of a 5-way selector. I've got a late 90s Tex-Mex Tele that's set up like that and while other instruments come and go, that one remains. In fact, a big part of the reason so many others have gone after coming is that I discover that they don't really do anything that the Tele can't already do.

I have been thinking about throwing a duckbucker in the middle, though, and wiring a seperate on-off mini-switch just for it...
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

probably HH cause my first real guitar had that and thats what i've gotten so used to.

on the other hand, HSS is badass too! for sheer versatility i'll pick HSS

but for mere opinion, HH i love!!!!!!!!!
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

I voted HH too but only if I can split them and get a single p/u sound out of them. I also like the SSS and SS configuration. I used to like the HSS the best but found the that it was too hard to balance the output between the H and the SS - yes I know that it is supposed to be hotter for soloing and such but just a little too drastic for me - having said that, I do have a guitar with that configuration.
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

For me it´s a tie between H-S-S and H-H, i can get the tone I need out of either with the right pickups ;)
 
Re: Favorite Pickup Configuration

JB_From_Hell said:
Other- 1 bridge 'bucker. I like a neck pickup sometimes, but the 1 volume, 1 pickup setup totally kicks my ass :D
I was a big fan of that config. for a while, now that I have a JB in the bridge again I'm happy I have a tone knob :13:

Rock On!
 
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