Re: If you had a fender duo-sonic HS
People should know by now that I'm not one to mince words, so to put it bluntly, the notion that the difference in gauge between the two coils of a hybrid serves as a measurement of success is a bunch of nonsense. I'm fairly certain that DiMarzio has demonstrated this with some of their pickups. That there may be a weak relationship between the wire gauge and amount of mismatch between Duncan pickups does not mean a mismatch is a bad thing. It can be useful with the right application which can be the case when mating a 42AWG coil with a 44AWG coil.
Rather than the difference in gauge which is only a gross indicator of mismatch, the important factor is the difference in inductance between the pair of JB coils in series and a JB coil and a 59B coil in series. Expressed as a percentage of the total inductance of the hybrid divided by the total inductance of the JB, I'd say it's about 75%. I don't have the means to measure the inductance at the moment, but this number is based on what I hear and agrees with what I've been able to mine from the web.
What does this mean in layman's terms?
If you start with the way a split JB coil sounds and compare it to the way the hybrid sounds, you'll notice that the 59B coil adds a bit more beef and drops the peak frequency somewhat less than what you get with a regular JB. In other words, the upper midrange peak of a JB is shifted higher to the point that it bites more like a Screamin' Demon, though not quite as articulate. Compared to the JB it is brighter and tighter with more clarity, better string definition and less compression.
In series mode this hybrid will blend with the tonality of single coils better than a JB, making it quite suitable for an HSS setup (or an HS setup as is the case with the Duo-Sonic) such that you won't need to change channels/eq when switching pickups. Because the 59B coil adds a touch more fullness and power without altering the voicing much, switching from split to series can be thought of more as a mild or moderate boost depending on how much gain you're using. At upper mid gain levels the boost is fairly mild.
With '50s wiring, tone and volume controls work well over a wide range. I used it with 500k pots dropped with an additional 500k load applied when splitting.
