Matching singles with Little '59

[ErikH]

In trying to educate myself in the single coil arena, I need to ask this. I'm putting my Little '59 back in my Strat (bridge position). What I need to know is which of these two single coils would match up better?

SSL-1's = Alnico V Staggered
APS-1's = Alnico II Staggered

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go staggered with the singles.

Note: No hot rails, cool rails, vintage rails or any other mini humbucker. I want single coils for the middle and neck.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

What are the woods the guitar is made from?

Also, what sound(s) do you want from this particular axe?

 

[ErikH]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

What are the woods the guitar is made from?

Also, what sound(s) do you want from this particular axe?

MIA alder Strat, maple/maple neck.

Well, I know what the Little '59 will do, and that is give me some more grunt in the bridge without the hum and allow me to play rock, country and blues. I've had it in the guitar before.

I want to be able to get the nice vintage Strat sound yet warm, not thin sounding either.

If this helps, I have a "neck on" switch that allows me to have the neck and bridge pickups on at the same time or all 3 pickups on at the same time.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

APS's will get you there. I have an EB/MM Albert Lee sig set in my strat (MIJ 62 RI)which is very close to an APS-2 set (perhaps a bit underwound). I can play pretty much anything with this set of pickups that you can think of. I can go from country, to jazz, to blues and even hard rock with just some adjustments to my tone knobs.

The in between sounds agere great too, very "Knopfleresque". I also wire my tone pots to only work on my neck and bridge pickups, which gives mye some more control over what I'm doing.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

Very cool. You nailed it when you said "Knopfleresque". I just couldn't find the right word or player to reference.

Out of all my guitars, this is the one that I've been the most unsatisfied with. It's mostly because of the stock pickups, my lack of knowledge of many single coils other than Fender models (stock, TS's, 57/62's), and that all of my other guitars have humbuckers. I've changed pickups so much that at some point I'm going to have to fill in some of the pickguard screw holes and re-tap them.

I appreciate the help, neighbor.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

No problem.

Good luck with it.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

You won't go far wrong with either of those pickups, but I think the APS's will probably be a better match for the humbucker.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Matching singles with Little '59

Thanks for the input, Stevie. I threw the Little '59 back in last night and I'm glad I did. As good as the SSL-6 sounds, I think it's too hot for a true single coil. The hum is insane.