Need some help choosing pickups

AR15DCM

AR15DCM

New member
Hello !

I am building a strat with a mahogany body & neck, rosewood fingerboard. I am putting in three humbuckers but I am not sure how pick them out and in which order to place them.

I like the clean sound of the SH-4 SH-5 SH-6 pickups and would like to use one or if needed more of them.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
______________
Dean
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

Ok, that scale length tends to sound brighter even though you are using warmer woods. I used to play bass in a band where the guitarist played a strat with an Indian Rosewood neck. The neck had the fat 1 inch "boatneck" profile too. He used single coils with a super switch that was wired in a way that allowed him to also have two functioning humbuckers as well. The guitar did sound warmer than your average strat for sure but it also still had the 25.5" scale tendencies as well. For example it was not as "chunky" when it came to riffs or power chords. In drop D it had some real nice clarity with a nice balance of mids.

Anyway, that being said, the SH-4 JB would sound great as a bridge pickup. I like it more than the SH-5 and SH-6 personally. I really love the way the '59 humbucker sounds in the neck position of a 25.5" scale Strat as well.
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

SnakeAces said:
Ok, that scale length tends to sound brighter even though you are using warmer woods. I used to play bass in a band where the guitarist played a strat with an Indian Rosewood neck. The neck had the fat 1 inch "boatneck" profile too. He used single coils with a super switch that was wired in a way that allowed him to also have two functioning humbuckers as well. The guitar did sound warmer than your average strat for sure but it also still had the 25.5" scale tendencies as well. For example it was not as "chunky" when it came to riffs or power chords. In drop D it had some real nice clarity with a nice balance of mids.

Anyway, that being said, the SH-4 JB would sound great as a bridge pickup. I like it more than the SH-5 and SH-6 personally. I really love the way the '59 humbucker sounds in the neck position of a 25.5" scale Strat as well.
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I noticed that everything is geared towards either neck or bridge... But like I said, I am going with 3 Humbuckers so I will have Bridge, Middle, and Neck. So if, for example, I get the SH-6 Bridge and the SH-6 Neck... What do I put in the middle ?
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

AR15DCM said:
I noticed that everything is geared towards either neck or bridge... But like I said, I am going with 3 Humbuckers so I will have Bridge, Middle, and Neck. So if, for example, I get the SH-6 Bridge and the SH-6 Neck... What do I put in the middle ?
Click to expand...

I know you said you were going to go with 3 humbuckers. I was trying to steer you in the direction of what a typical neck and bridge humbucker would be like. Truth is nobody that I know of makes a humbucker specifically for the middle position of a guitar outside of stacked single coil sized humbuckers. It is not completely uncharted waters but it is close to it outside of the triple humbucker Gibson guitars out there.

I do not see the point of getting an SH-6 bridge and neck myself, does not seem very versatile to me at all. I would say just get another SH-6 for the middle if you were to do that. What I would do if it was me though would be a 59 in the neck position, something a little warmer than the '59 for the middle (WLH bridge, maybe a screamin demon) and a '78 for the bridge position in a 25.5" scale strat.
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

It it possible for you to choose a rail or single sized humbucker still??

Middle humbuckers tend to be just neck models. The position sounds a bit....well....average to most players. Even with most SSS strat players the middle's biggest use is with the 2 and 4 posi's.

You seem to be looking at very high output pickups - you play heavy music??
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

AlexR said:
It it possible for you to choose a rail or single sized humbucker still??

Middle humbuckers tend to be just neck models. The position sounds a bit....well....average to most players. Even with most SSS strat players the middle's biggest use is with the 2 and 4 posi's.

You seem to be looking at very high output pickups - you play heavy music??
Click to expand...

I was simply going by the clarity of the audio samples. The SH's seemed to be the clearest and yet still had some ass behind them.
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

Clarity....are you talking under heavy gain?? Thats perhaps where they shine best.
 
Re: Need some help choosing pickups

The audio samples on he Seymour Duncan web site.. When hearing the "clean" they were very clean whereas others sounded muddy. Even on the dirty everything was still very bright and you could hear the lows mids and highs very well. I mean they didnt play very long during the audio samples... but what I did hear I liked the SH's the best.
 
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Re: Need some help choosing pickups

I got an email from Joey McDermott at Seymour Duncan. Here is what he said...

Hello,
I would put the SH-5 in the neck, the SH-4 in the middle and the SH-6 in the bridge. Unfortunately we don't have any wiring diagrams for 3 humbucker at the moment.
Hope this helps
-Joey

Joey McDermott | Seymour Duncan
5427 Hollister Ave
Santa Barbara CA, 93111
Click to expand...

But there is a 3 mini humbucker diagram if that will work???


3lil_hum_1v_2t_super5way-small.jpg
 
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