New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

donaldr

donaldr

New member
I searched and read, searched and read, searched and read so many posts!!!

I want to swap the pup in my custom made HSS super strat. I don't know the wood of the body but the neck is maple with rosewood fingerboard. Currently (HSS) is EMG81-SA-SA. I don't like them, bridge 81 is one-dimension, middle SA is too dark and neck SA is flat.

So for the last couple of weeks I'm looking Dimarzio and Seymour Duncan. I like '80 hard rock and metal, but want something with a little more bass. I'm not new Metal at all. I also like blues like Kenny Wayne Sheppard and the like (with character). I say I would go a little bit more Les Paul sound (sorry no money yet for one). I'd also like to have a good clean tone for neck.

For wiring I now have VTT, but want to go V (bridge), V (neck+middle), T (neck). So no problem having 500K/250K volumes for bridge or neck-middle. I also may have pull-push volumes to have coil-split if it's wrth it.

I was thinking of:
Bridge: Custom Custom (or JB)
Middle: Vintage Hot Stack Plus (or ???)
Neck: Little '59 (or Cool Rail)

Am I on the right path? Any comment?
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

So you want blues and metal I first have to ask what do you play through? Amps, pedals?
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

If it were me:

PATB-1 - Area 67 - Area 61

or

PATB-1 - Area 67 - Area 67

or

PATB-1 - Area 61 - Area 67
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Rockstar216 said:
So you want blues and metal I first have to ask what do you play through? Amps, pedals?
Click to expand...
I play thru an Avid Eleven Rack, so I have a bunch of amps/cabs/pedals at my disposal to sculpt tones!!!
When I say metal, it's more old school metal (Iron Maiden, Metalica, etc).
 
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Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Frogman said:
If it were me:

PATB-1 - Area 67 - Area 61

or

PATB-1 - Area 67 - Area 67

or

PATB-1 - Area 61 - Area 67
Click to expand...
For Dimarzio single coil, I was more eying the Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2 for neck or middle.
 
New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

JB with two SSL-1s. I'd wire a push pull for the bridge tone pot to do series parallel.
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

SFW said:
JB with two SSL-1s. I'd wire a push pull for the bridge tone pot to do series parallel.
Click to expand...

+1. Love SSL-1s in an HSS, especially for bluesy stuff. I might consider using a Demon instead of the JB in view of balancing with the sc's. It will still do 80's and I like closer to PAF response in HBer for blues.
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Iron Maiden uses Dimarzio Super Distortion. The Fender Dave Murray Strat has a Super Distortion bridge and PAF Pro neck. The Jackson Adrian Smith uses Dimarzio Super Distortion bridge and Fender Samarium Cobal Noiselss neck & middle. IF you want Maiden in an HSS Strat, that's your answer. You can get SCN's cheap on ebay-they are great distored, but have absolutely NO TONE when clean.

Duncan JB is also a great classic metal pickup. It is smoother than the SD; especially the rhythm is not so fizzy and the lead is not quite so shrill. If you ever lusted for a Kramer Baretta, JB's your toy.

If you plan to play anythng other than metal; perhaps in a cover band or maybe a praise band, requiring you play both clean and distorted; then Demon+STK-S4+STK-S4 is a GREAT combnation. I play just about everythng and have tried just about everythng; I think it is THE combinaton. It is very musical, very flexible, well-balanced - a fantastic all-around set for the guy who plays everythng. If you only play metal though, you probably won't like it.
 
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Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Two of my Strats are HSS. The one pictured here has a JB in the bridge (w/push pull) and a Lil '59 in the neck. As you can tell by my avatar, Iron Maiden are my favourite band. This axe is possibly my most versatile.

The JB covers an awful lot of ground, especially as you can split it really well, and it nails 3 decades worth of rock tones really well. Depending on how aggressive you want to go with your metal tones, you might want to consider something a little hotter; Super Distortion is my go-to pickup for metal. Duncan Custom gets a lot of praise, but haven't played that myself.

The Lil '59 is a great little pickup too, it has a lot more about it than the Cool Rails, which might suit the JB (or something hotter, whatever you choose to pair it with) better. I personally like the slightly fatter neck pickup distorted tones, but SSL-1s would do the job perfectly too.

87090b6dfd2efb07634de53270f0a429d43c6e88.jpg
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

dotsdad said:
If you plan to play anythng other than metal; perhaps in a cover band or maybe a praise band, requiring you play both clean and distorted; then Demon+STK-S4+STK-S4 is a GREAT combnation. I play just about everythng and have tried just about everythng; I think it is THE combinaton. It is very musical, very flexible, well-balanced - a fantastic all-around set for the guy who plays everythng. If you only play metal though, you probably won't like it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I want a flexible axe, not only for metal for a bunch of thing (as stated in my original post).
Demon+STK-S4 seems a good combination. What will be the same combination but with a bit more output?
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Robbiedbee said:
Two of my Strats are HSS. The one pictured here has a JB in the bridge (w/push pull) and a Lil '59 in the neck. As you can tell by my avatar, Iron Maiden are my favourite band. This axe is possibly my most versatile.

The JB covers an awful lot of ground, especially as you can split it really well, and it nails 3 decades worth of rock tones really well. Depending on how aggressive you want to go with your metal tones, you might want to consider something a little hotter; Super Distortion is my go-to pickup for metal. Duncan Custom gets a lot of praise, but haven't played that myself.

The Lil '59 is a great little pickup too, it has a lot more about it than the Cool Rails, which might suit the JB (or something hotter, whatever you choose to pair it with) better. I personally like the slightly fatter neck pickup distorted tones, but SSL-1s would do the job perfectly too.

View attachment 39753
Click to expand...
Exactly what I had in mind!!! What do you have for middle picukup to fit those 2 humbuchers?
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Simply a stock MIM ceramic pickup. In this situation it's rare that I use it on it's own, but in the middle/bridge position (with the JB full or split) it gives some great tones.
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Robbiedbee said:
Simply a stock MIM ceramic pickup. In this situation it's rare that I use it on it's own, but in the middle/bridge position (with the JB full or split) it gives some great tones.
Click to expand...
I'm really juggling between the JB/Custom Custom with the Little '59.
And I really like the Demon/STK-S4. Maybe a Demon with the STK-S7 will do the trick.
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

After reading many threads and watching lot of videos I will follow dotsdad recommendation and will go with a tb-11 screamin deamon bridge but with an stk-s7 neck instead of the recommended stk-s4. I will also go HS instead of HSS.

I want to do it myself (I know how to solder!) but I know nothing about how to do it. Now it's wired VTT 5-way switch but I want it VVT 3-way switch, reversed volume config (bridge volume first, neck volume second and tone third):
- 1st pot: 500K, volume for tb-11
- 2nd pot: 250K, volume for stk-s7
- 3rd pot: 250K, tone for stk-s7
3-way blade switch: neck pup, bridge coil split, bridge full

Are the pots the right value?
What capacitor to use for the tone?
Can a 3-way telecaster blade switch be used?

Anyone can do me a diagram of the wiring please?
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

SFW said:
JB with two SSL-1s. I'd wire a push pull for the bridge tone pot to do series parallel.
Click to expand...
This is nice...i have this setup, but my push pull does coil split rather than parallel.
Another nice setup would be JB and two SSL-5's so they can hang with the extra grunt of the JB, but of course its a trade off for that sweet vintage chime of the ssl-1's.
JB's work great in strats and also sound great with 250k pots so there is no problems with the usual 500k/250k mismatch between singles and a humbucker. its also pretty convincing when split - nice and sparkly.

Caveat: JB's are not particularly bassy pickups and you mentioned you want bottom end. They are geared more to the mids and higher mids - however use that sucker on a recording or in a live band mix and you will not miss the low end. It's voice just rips thru. Fantastic pickup for a wide range of applications - especailly 70s or 80s hard rock, but it can hang with the more modern crunch machines too. I guess the best comparison i can think of is that if a Custom is a Mesa Boogie Rectifier, then a JB is a cranked JCM marshall.
DSC_0490_zps339efd2c.jpg
 
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Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

I'm going to suggest the PATB-3 as a bridge pickup. I've had one in my strat for a long time, and it's designed to recreate the thickness of a Les Paul style guitar in a strat, and I think it does a fantastic job of that. It's big, warm, thick, and the notes sound really smooth and clear all the way up the neck. It also handles gain really really well, it has just the right amount of compression and 'squish' for 80's and 90's metal, and it has great twang and chime for earlier classic rock and blues. Check some youtube clips:

I really like his tone here, he switches to the PATB-3 at about 30 seconds.


This guy is a little.. animated, but you can still hear how these pickups handle that sort of 80s metal sound.


Like I said, it's possible to get some really amazing lead tones from this pickup.


For the middle pickup I'd suggest an SSL-1 or the Classic stack S4, something nice, thin and bright to get good split tones with in positions 2 and 4.

For the neck.. it's all up to you, I'm still working that one out. I started with an SSL-1 but it missed the oomph my ears like, so I've been using a cool rails for a long while and I really like them, but a big part of me is yearning to go back to a more single-coily sound. Maybe either the hot stack or custom stack in the neck. If you like a bigger sound in the neck then either the Cool Rails (which, again, is freaking fantastic) or the Lil 59, which I've heard great things about but haven't played personally.
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Guys, I'v decided on HS with Screamin Deamon bridge and STK-S7 neck...
 
Re: New pickups for my HSS cutom strat

Will that work?
Connect tb-12 black to switch a1
Connect tb-12 white and red to switch a2
Connect switch a common to 500k volume in
Connect 500k volume out to output jack

Connect stk-s7 black to 250k volume in
Connect 250k tone in to 250k volume in
Connect 250k volume out to switch b3
Connect b common switch to output jack

Connect 500k volume ground to bridge
Connect 250k volume ground to 500k ground
Connect 250k tone ground to 500k volume ground
Connect output jack ground to 500k volume ground
Connect stk-s7 ground to 500k volume ground
Connect tb-12 bare and green to 500k volume ground
 
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