Guide for best pickups

[Castaicmech]

I used the "pickup finder" on the SD website and it came back with 3 options. I liked the #2 choice, 2 STK-S7 for neck and middle positions, and a 59/Custom Hybrid pickup at the bridge. Well, I went and ordered the pickups and they arrived within a week. After opening the package I went to the wiring diagram page, and that's when I noticed that there were no diagrams for these and a 5-position slide switch. just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what I can do with this pickup combination. I'm not opposed to adding push-pull pots or even mini toggles any help with this would be appreciated.

 

[hamerfan]

Yeah, a bit funny. Just select 3 pickups (neck-single coil, middle-single coil ,bridge-humbucker). Its the same wiring as with the stacks, if you don‘t want to split them.
https://www.seymourduncan.com/resour...iring-diagrams

 

[Mincer]

Welcome to the forum!

Well, the first thing is determining what sounds you need. The S7 is thicker than an normal Strat sound, so my guess is that you aren't after traditional Strat sounds. So, what sounds are you hoping to get out of this combo? BTW, I love the Hybrid pickup. I use mine with STK-S4s.

 

[Castaicmech]

Thanks for the reply! To be honest, I've been playing for some time now. This is the first time swapping out pickups and that's because the Kramer Striker I bought sounds like crap! usually, my guitars had decent pickups from the factory, but these are junk so I decided I liked the way it played, just had to make it sound better. That's why I went with the pickups the finder came back with. I didn't look into it before ordering, but I thought the neck and middle were single coils! I was a bit surprised to see 4 wires just like the humbucker. So now I'm just trying to figure a way to make these work. Im sure these pickups will sound better than what the guitar came with! I guess I can put mini toggles on the two stacks and split them and be able to get that single coil sound but am I going to have to use a 3-position slide? Thanks again.

 

[Mincer]

Well, those are great pickups that you selected, and noise-free. They are probably a better match output-wise with your bridge pickup. Personally, I don't know if there is a huge enough difference in tone when they are split, but maybe in the position where you have the bridge and middle pickup together, you might be able to split both of those pickups in just that position to get a more Strattly in-between sound with 1 coil from each pickup (and still have those coils cancel out the hum).

 

[Castaicmech]

Hello again. I went and took another look at the wiring diagrams and found one that might work. With one push/pull pot, I can have all single coils or all humbucking! That could be interesting lol. Thanks again for answering my post, this seems to be a cool hang-out!

 

[hamerfan]

The stacks can be used in all modes like single coil, parallel and humbucking. I did not find it useful and got back to humbucking - the way they were meant.

 

[Mincer]

Hello again. I went and took another look at the wiring diagrams and found one that might work. With one push/pull pot, I can have all single coils or all humbucking! That could be interesting lol. Thanks again for answering my post, this seems to be a cool hang-out!

Yes, you can cut the coils to 2 pickups at once with a push/pull (or, push/push). I generally don't bother cutting one coil of a stack unless I want it to be used with a coil from another pickup. But some people like that sound. So experiment...you might find you dig it. Or it might be option anxiety. We all like to work differently, so you don't know until you try.