HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

[Benjy_26]

Hello all. I've recently begun messing around with some of my electrics again, and I've noticed that I'm not entirely happy with the pickups in two of them. Both are HSS guitats with floating trems, but the similarities end there. One is a 25.5" scale maple on mahogany guitar with a Wilkinson VS style trem and the other is an all maple single cut with a floyd and a 24.75" scale. I play mostly rock, pop, and some old school metal through a variety of amps.

I'm not exactly looking for suggestions, but more intersted in what you guys are using.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I've got a Brobucker bridge with an STK-S4m and an STK-S7n. I use to use a 59/C because it matches better with the single coils, but I like the balls through the walls nature of the Brobucker.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I've got a Brobucker bridge with an STK-S4m and an STK-S7n. I use to use a 59/C because it matches better with the single coils, but I like the balls through the walls nature of the Brobucker.

Are you splitting the bridge pickup in the notch position?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Are you splitting the bridge pickup in the notch position?

Yup. I always have my HSS guitars set to automatically split in position 2. I don't much care for middle singles combined with full bridge humbucker.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

JB+Hotrails+Hotrails or BL 500XL+L45S+L45S are my favorites...technically all Humbuckers. I’ve found the Bill Lawrences to be more versatile but the JB+Hotrails nail harmonics in a way that is unparalleled.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

JB+Hotrails+Hotrails or BL 500XL+L45S+L45S are my favorites...technically all Humbuckers. I’ve found the Bill Lawrences to be more versatile but the JB+Hotrails nail harmonics in a way that is unparalleled.

How good are the cleans with the Duncan set up?

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Yup. I always have my HSS guitars set to automatically split in position 2. I don't much care for middle singles combined with full bridge humbucker.

Is there a big jump in volume when going from the notch positions to the full humbucker?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Is there a big jump in volume when going from the notch positions to the full humbucker?

Nothing major. There is a bit of a kick when you switch to the bridge, but it's a useful one.

 

[Ascension]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Have 3.
In my Modern Player Tele it's a 59 Custom hybrid bridge, Standard wind Alnico II pro strat middle and a Tele Alnico II Pro neck.
In my Washburn USA MG 120 I have a JB bridge and a pair of SSL 1's RW RP in the neck.
In my 2017 Keisel DC 135 I have a Perpetual Burn bridge and a pair of AP 11 Carvins.
The Washburn and Keisel are wired to auto split the humbuckers in position 2 the Mordern Player has a manual tap switch. All 3 are humbucking with the bucker split and the middle single in pos 2.

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I have a few HSS Guitars. here are the configurations-

1988 Kramer F3000- Duncan 59/Custom Hybrid Trembucker, stock middle (probably a Schaller), 80s Hot rails neck. A fantastic configuration
2015 Fender MIM strat- Duncan Custom Custom bridge (put a Roughcast A2 mag in), SSL-1 middle and Neck. Dig this quite a bit.
2014 Fender MIM Strat-Alex Lifeson clone in progress-Duncan SH-9 Bridge, Fender Alnico 2 USA Middle and Neck.

I had a 2004 MIM strat that i put a nice Dimarzio FRED, stock middle and GFS Lil Killer 6k in the neck. I liked this combo so much i yanked the pickguard with this configuration and its waiting for another strat. The FRED is my favorite Dimarzio pickup by far.

 

[Aceman]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Two Kramer HSS maybe -

Kramer shred stick with a Screaming Demon bridge and two stock singles
Kramer Strat with Fast Track 2 and two stock singles

 

[justFred]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

SSS with a basement humbucker....under bridge single coil with 3.5" screws that rise behind...incredible.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Love HSS for Cover Everything guitars and wrote up a Coolrail + JB here...
https://www.guitaryoudreamabout.com...ng-a-Parker-Nitefly-into-a-Great-Cover-Guitar

SpinASplit and other mods take this from country to heavy rock... includes demo clips.

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[Mincer]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I wrote a blog about my HSS setup. I still love this setup, which covers a lot of ground (except, maybe metal).

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Two Kramer HSS maybe -

Kramer shred stick with a Screaming Demon bridge and two stock singles
Kramer Strat with Fast Track 2 and two stock singles

I forgot about the Demon. I liked it in my Alleykat and loved it in my Hamer. I may have to get another for one of these "strats".

 

[STLMTLHD79]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I would have to imagine the Screamin' Demon to be fantastic in an HSS setup, especially if you are looking for a moderate strat output.

 

[htwheelz67]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I run a few and the one that amazes me the most has a dimarzio super 3 HB and 2 D allen JM rockin blues single coils, I yanked this loaded PG from a 91 MIJ floyd rose strat before I sold it and put it in a 85 contemporary MIJ strat, all I did was change the stock singles for the D Allens. Funny thing is when switching from the 23k super 3 to the singles there is not much volume difference, I thought maybe the HB was wired in parallel but nope 23k is what the ohm meter says at the output jack. everything is stock in this PG, TBX tone control, push pull split, treble bleed even the wiring is weird, pos 1 is bridge, pos 2 is bridge and neck,pos 3 is neck, pos 4 is mid and neck and pos 5 is middle. I have played everything from worship at my church to metal at gigs with this guitar it is crazy.....its a perfect combo. As far as bridge humbuckers in a strat the super 3 at least the one I have that is 27 years old has one of the best sounds of any of my 19 strats that I own, yes it has a bit of compression but clarity at the same time, I also keep the TBX tone control cranked, I can get great classic rock tones, metal tones and when split nice hot single tones, I am going to add parallel to the mix. The super 3 was designed by dimarzio for strats even before it was available aftermarket and I can see why. 5 years later I bought back the guitar I sold that I pulled the PG off.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

Guitar: Warmoth Strat hardtail. Alder body w/QMT. Maple neck with Pau Ferro fingerboard.
Pickups: Dimarzio PAF PRO bridge, Cruiser DP187 middle, Satch Track DP425 neck.
Controls: 500k master volume, 500k master tone. 5-way blade switch with Auto-split for the bridge p/u in position 2.

The guitar is naturally mid focused and does everything from blues to shred.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I have 3 H/s/s guitars..
A Squier Strat that has a Custom 5 / Lace sensor Blue / Lace Sensor Silver
A Washburn MG130 With a Jb/Cool rails/ Cool Rails (stock)
A Washburn MG130 with a Custom 8 /Cool Rails/ Cool Rails. Been wanting to swap the neck CR out for something more traditional like maybe a Quarter Pounder or something.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: HSS Guitars. What do you have in yours?

I wrote a blog about my HSS setup. I still love this setup, which covers a lot of ground (except, maybe metal).

Dave, reread your blog and had forgotten your input on volume balancing...

My blog also describes balanced pickups, but I'm thinking it's time to describe an unbalanced setup...

Have many clients that like 2 and 4 for rhythm and more powerful neck for leads for rock and blues and have even more requests with humbuckers...

Thanks again for a good article.

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