Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

F

Fly_with_v

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I have an Ibanez S570 that I just recently installed a Custom Custom in the bridge. It is perfect for what I wanted. I had a Steve Vai set (Evo's) and still have the middle and neck installed. I have never really like the middle pickup so I would like to replace it, (the neck will probably be replaced next).

Looking for something mainly to use for cleans and with the bridge or neck split. I do not really like hum too much at all. Mostly it will be used for 80's rock clean (er) sections of songs. I like to use the 5 way to get cleaner sounds without changing amp settings. Being in the middle I like it fairly low in the mount.

I am considering the SSL1, SSL5, and the Classic Stack STK54.

I am not very experienced with singles but love my Fender MIA Strat stock singles bell type clean tone.

What do you think?
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

Hello,
I got an Everything Axe set from Seymour Duncan for my JBeck strat. The bridge lil'59 is nice and smooth, not muddy. The bridge is a JB ultra tscreamin' smokin' beast I installed like Paul Gilbert. Beautiful. But to me the middle pick up-the "duckbucker" sucked. Really sucked.
So on advice from a fairly neutral source at the SD company ( he is fairly neutral and has actually told me to buy eleswhere for a couple of different things)so I trust him. He let me return the pick up and suggested an STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus and it worked beutifully in the middle as a clean and very cool sounding on the 2 & 4 positions(the in between ones). I trusted him and it is beautiful.
Hope this helps. They have sound bites at Seymour Duncan .com in the pickup section with each photo, I forget but easy to find. Much Luck
Steve Buff.
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus is Seymour Duncan's hum-free take on the SSL-2 (which is the flat version of the SSL-1, which has staggered polepieces intended for an old Fender's neck radius).

If you don't like hum, STK-S4 is an easy choice.

I'd tend to go with a flat polepiece radius, given an Ibanez's typical flatter radius fretboard. So I'd look at an SSL-2 or SSL-6 Custom Flat.

By the way, there's also the STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus, if you want a the Custom's output/tone but no hum.

If you want a little more oomph/warmth than the SSL-1/2, check out the STK-S7 Hot Vintage Stack Plus. Very popular for combining with hotter pickups, or for a warm but not excessive output neck pickup. There isn't an exact equivalent in their stock lineup.

I normally tend to like lower output in the middle, for more quack in 2+4 positions, but combining with humbuckers you may want a bit hotter, especially if you back away from the strings a lot. I haven't tried mixing a CC with singles, but I'd probably try the STK-S7 first, and switch to higher or lower output as needed [taking advantage of the 21-day swap if that didn't nail it right off].
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

I have several S-Series guitars and have played w/different pickups a bunch. My favorite middle in 'em is the APS-2. I wouldn't go w/a stack. Your guitar is already set up for coil-splitting in pos 2/4. If you don't disable that, those two positions will hum w/an STK. If you do disable it, all positions will be hum-free, but you'll be getting two HB's in parallel in 2/4. It won't be anywhere near as Stratty. Maybe you don't want that anyway? I guess the question is, do you use the mid pup more by itself, or in spots 2&4? If you mostly use it alone, then the stack makes a lot of sense.
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

+1 on No stack. I'd say given what you state, get a RWRP single like the SSL3

1. A stack is deeper than a normal SC, and you wont be able to drop it as low, so on an already thin S you may have picking issues with the middle pup being too high.
2. The SD stacks have a plastic casing that can make them slightly too wide for ibanez routes. This is hit or miss, sometime it works, a lot of time it doesn't, and if its too tight it can stress the PUP. The stack has a PCB on the bottom and if you stress it too much it can separate and your $70 pup is toast
3. The notch 2+4 position tones are not so good and wont be fully hum canceling with a stack which is what your already wired for.

On the other hand if you want high gain tones from the PUP on its own, you'll need some kind of humcancelling. For this kind of thing I find the older hotrails neck works well in ibanez, it had no plastic casing, and is not too deep.

HTH
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

With a megaswitch, you can have humbucking on 1/3/5 and split on 2/4. But you'd likely have to replace the switch and fiddle with a lot of rewiring if you want to avoid hum on 2/4, or go with not autosplitting the humbuckers as Guston7 mentioned.

The Stack Plus line have been said to be indistinguishable from the non-humcancelling equivalents, aside from lack of hum, by some pretty demanding single coil fans. Especially testing with them split, where they are the exact same coil, same magnet structure, only difference is the unused shielding coil underneath.

zakk_speed is right about the height difference. That and the pickup route dimensions are a bit more worrisome, checking the pickup specs the stack is 0.2" deeper, and 1/8" wider (Length isn't an issue, given lack of the old-fashioned tab).

Rails do fix the width/route issue. But the rails are only 0.05" shorter than the stack. You'll have less issues chewing up your pick on the polepieces with a rail than even a flat radius strat pickup.

I tend to like A5 on bass, A2 on plain strings for strat pickup tones. But that's usually not in mahogany or basswood, the most common body woods in Ibanez S/RG-series guitars. Still, I'd be inclined to try a Five-Two instead of the Alnico Pro Strat. But for a middle pickup with maximum quack combining with other pickups, a simple SSL-1/2 may be best choice if you decide to go with a non-humcanceller.
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

Agree on the megaswitch for an RG, but in a Saber it wont fit - you'd need to get one of the special Ibanez megaswitches (VLX91 I think). Sabers are lots of fun to install stuff into - if you into megaswitch schemes for sabers look up the Herman Li EGEN8 wiring scheme on the Dimarzio website.

I should qualify by saying I'm a bit biased - the only stack I've played I actually like is the PASTK-1N, and that pickup can be a world of pain to install, but worth every bit of the effort if your doing the PATB thing for the other pups. Most others seem to neither one thing or the other, so end up meh for me..YMMV etc etc. I do like the hot rails neck and the dimarzio fast track 1 in the middle for a humcacelling chimey tone, but they aint a single coil by any measure, and the notch tones aren't convincing.

If you like the Stack or modern SD rails my advice would be see if it drops into the route easily first at the right height, if it doesn't I would not force it.
 
Re: Middle Pickup for HSH Saber

SJ318 said:
He let me return the pick up and suggested an STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus and it worked beautifully in the middle as a clean and very cool sounding on the 2 & 4 positions(the in between ones). I trusted him and it is beautiful.
Click to expand...

That's the one that came to mind for me too. It's also noiseless.
 
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