Parallel Axis HSS set for Strat.
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depravity
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Re: Parallel Axis HSS set for Strat.
I am interested in this to, but not too many forumites use the PA single. I have and love the PATB-1 in the bridge of a floyd rose guitar (Fender Prodigy) and have always wondered about the PA singles.
There are a couple reviews that you can see by searching for PA-STK. It seems like the PA singles are not all that good for vintage single coil sounds, so you may not be on the right track with PA singles for the kind of tones you are looking for. You may be better served looking into other single coil type stack pickups. I have no experience with any single coil stacks so i won't be any help, sorry.
I am interested in this to, but not too many forumites use the PA single. I have and love the PATB-1 in the bridge of a floyd rose guitar (Fender Prodigy) and have always wondered about the PA singles.
There are a couple reviews that you can see by searching for PA-STK. It seems like the PA singles are not all that good for vintage single coil sounds, so you may not be on the right track with PA singles for the kind of tones you are looking for. You may be better served looking into other single coil type stack pickups. I have no experience with any single coil stacks so i won't be any help, sorry.
Re: Parallel Axis HSS set for Strat.
That's a very broad range of tones from one guitar, there are bound to be compromises.
The PA-STK1n is an interesting pickup, but it leans a bit more towards a P-90 sound than standard single coil. It'd probably do better on Gilmour's EMG stuff than his strat/overwound strat stuff. I don't think it'd really do Knopfler justice, though.
Knopfler does a lot of quacky stuff, you want low output pickups for that. A lot of Gilmour's tones tend towards high output, but he's gotten similar tones with overdrives pushing amps.
I'd probably go more for a PATB-3, with STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus in middle and STK-S7 Vintage Hot Stack Plus in the neck. That'd give you a hot PAF in the bridge, pretty good in betweens for quack, and slightly more heat in the neck for soloing.
You could try something like the PATB-1b, STK-S7 in middle and in the neck a STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus or PA-STK1n. That'd be more SRV for middle positions, and more Gilmour or Blackmore in neck.
Reason for hotter single/stack in neck is for Gilmour neck soloing, and cooler in middle is to improve quack.
If you really want the PA-STK1n, they're good sounding, but not quite like anything else. Bright and punchy but in a different way than an alnico rod magnet single coil.
Gilmour did use a conventional strat set quite a bit, but a lot of people who don't have his hands find they get closer to his sound with hotter pickups like the Custom single coil. Most people also have trouble getting EMGs to sound as stratty as he does, too... So something in between may work better for you.
Hope all this rambling helps more than it confuses!
That's a very broad range of tones from one guitar, there are bound to be compromises.
The PA-STK1n is an interesting pickup, but it leans a bit more towards a P-90 sound than standard single coil. It'd probably do better on Gilmour's EMG stuff than his strat/overwound strat stuff. I don't think it'd really do Knopfler justice, though.
Knopfler does a lot of quacky stuff, you want low output pickups for that. A lot of Gilmour's tones tend towards high output, but he's gotten similar tones with overdrives pushing amps.
I'd probably go more for a PATB-3, with STK-S4 Classic Stack Plus in middle and STK-S7 Vintage Hot Stack Plus in the neck. That'd give you a hot PAF in the bridge, pretty good in betweens for quack, and slightly more heat in the neck for soloing.
You could try something like the PATB-1b, STK-S7 in middle and in the neck a STK-S6 Custom Stack Plus or PA-STK1n. That'd be more SRV for middle positions, and more Gilmour or Blackmore in neck.
Reason for hotter single/stack in neck is for Gilmour neck soloing, and cooler in middle is to improve quack.
If you really want the PA-STK1n, they're good sounding, but not quite like anything else. Bright and punchy but in a different way than an alnico rod magnet single coil.
Gilmour did use a conventional strat set quite a bit, but a lot of people who don't have his hands find they get closer to his sound with hotter pickups like the Custom single coil. Most people also have trouble getting EMGs to sound as stratty as he does, too... So something in between may work better for you.
Hope all this rambling helps more than it confuses!
Re: Parallel Axis HSS set for Strat.
The Classic Stack Plus is an SSL-2 (Vintage Flat) with the least tone-affecting hum-cancelling around (and is said to be identical if you disable the hum-cancelling).
Vintage Hot Stack Plus doesn't have an equivalent non-humcanceller.
The Custom Stack Plus is an SSL-6 (Custom Flat) with the same hum-cancelling system. Hot Stack Plus is the hum-cancelling version of the SSL-3.
Gilmour fans tend to run to SSL-2 (or SSL-1, the neolithic stagger) or SSL-6 pickups. Possibly an SSL-3 in the bridge. Sometimes a mix. Tastes vary a bit, along with which era they are chasing, and whether they are limited by the straight-to-amp mindset.
If you want to avoid noise under gain, while being able to do classic (and modern) tones, the Stack Plus line is what you want.
I wouldn't necessarily rule out the PA-STK1n, either, especially mixed with a more conventional middle pickup. I've heard some nice neck solo tones done with them.
Question is, how precisely do you want to duplicate which of their sounds? Need to prioritize, getting everything out of one guitar is hard. (Might be easier using the tapped version of the SSL-6 in the neck, since it can drop down to a volume/tone close to an SSL-2, but that'd give up hum-cancelling.)
No, really going in a different direction again. Cool Rails are generally held to get rather one-dimensional under gain, but be pretty neat with lower distortion. There are advantages to the Vintage Rails, but it wont sound precisely like a rod magnet pickup.
The Classic Stack Plus is an SSL-2 (Vintage Flat) with the least tone-affecting hum-cancelling around (and is said to be identical if you disable the hum-cancelling).
Vintage Hot Stack Plus doesn't have an equivalent non-humcanceller.
The Custom Stack Plus is an SSL-6 (Custom Flat) with the same hum-cancelling system. Hot Stack Plus is the hum-cancelling version of the SSL-3.
Gilmour fans tend to run to SSL-2 (or SSL-1, the neolithic stagger) or SSL-6 pickups. Possibly an SSL-3 in the bridge. Sometimes a mix. Tastes vary a bit, along with which era they are chasing, and whether they are limited by the straight-to-amp mindset.
If you want to avoid noise under gain, while being able to do classic (and modern) tones, the Stack Plus line is what you want.
I wouldn't necessarily rule out the PA-STK1n, either, especially mixed with a more conventional middle pickup. I've heard some nice neck solo tones done with them.
Question is, how precisely do you want to duplicate which of their sounds? Need to prioritize, getting everything out of one guitar is hard. (Might be easier using the tapped version of the SSL-6 in the neck, since it can drop down to a volume/tone close to an SSL-2, but that'd give up hum-cancelling.)
Re: Parallel Axis HSS set for Strat.
Despair, thank you so much for such detailed guidance. I had no idea that teh stacked series were hum cancelling versions of existing pickups--that really helped my research.
Ok, so i guess i am expecting too many tonal varieties from the same guitar. However, my budget only allows for one really good versatile guitar.
Being a rock player, i cannot compromise on hi gain tones so the pickups mush overdrive well.
Judging from the tone sample, i feel that singles in neck and middle positions do have an inherent character due their positioning.
Even the clean samples of the cool rails sounded nice to me.
So i am curious, maybe i don't need a guitar to NAIL mark knopflers clean tone as the neck/middle single coil combo does have a certain quack which i could live with.
I guess i need to also take into account that i would like a hi output humbucker, maybe a Duncan Custom in the bridge and should look into singles which will match that too.
The Hot Stack, the one with the single bar also sounded cool.
If you have a few minutes i'd love to hear what you suggest about that pick up and recommendations for a bridge humbucker as well.
I was more interested in the PATB as a complete set, but have ruled it out due to the P90ish nature of the single coils.
Btw, what about Dimarzios ?
Thanks dude!
Faisal
Despair, thank you so much for such detailed guidance. I had no idea that teh stacked series were hum cancelling versions of existing pickups--that really helped my research.
Ok, so i guess i am expecting too many tonal varieties from the same guitar. However, my budget only allows for one really good versatile guitar.
Being a rock player, i cannot compromise on hi gain tones so the pickups mush overdrive well.
Judging from the tone sample, i feel that singles in neck and middle positions do have an inherent character due their positioning.
Even the clean samples of the cool rails sounded nice to me.
So i am curious, maybe i don't need a guitar to NAIL mark knopflers clean tone as the neck/middle single coil combo does have a certain quack which i could live with.
I guess i need to also take into account that i would like a hi output humbucker, maybe a Duncan Custom in the bridge and should look into singles which will match that too.
The Hot Stack, the one with the single bar also sounded cool.
If you have a few minutes i'd love to hear what you suggest about that pick up and recommendations for a bridge humbucker as well.
I was more interested in the PATB as a complete set, but have ruled it out due to the P90ish nature of the single coils.
Btw, what about Dimarzios ?
Thanks dude!
Faisal
Re: Parallel Axis HSS set for Strat.
Not sure why you'd avoid the PATB-1b, it's a great pickup.
PATB-1b (Original Parallel Axis), STK-S7 (Hot Vintage Stack Plus) mid & STK-S6 (Custom Stack Plus) neck.
The STK-S2 Hot Stack can have an ugly ceramic bite, but I've heard people get amazing sounds with it, too. Concrete Blonde's James Mankey used them for a long time (through a Matchless DC-30 plus Hiwatt rig).
I'd suggest the STK-S9b Hot Stack Plus if you want a hot neck pickup for Gilmouresque leads. But that'll compromise the quack more, and not do too well for standard strat neck pickup tones.
The PA-STK1n doesn't sound quite like a P-90, just somewhere in between a single coil and a ceramic P-90 in tone.
Not a fan of DiMarzio, but all of the sounds you've mentioned are easily obtained from Seymour Duncans.
Not sure why you'd avoid the PATB-1b, it's a great pickup.
PATB-1b (Original Parallel Axis), STK-S7 (Hot Vintage Stack Plus) mid & STK-S6 (Custom Stack Plus) neck.
The STK-S2 Hot Stack can have an ugly ceramic bite, but I've heard people get amazing sounds with it, too. Concrete Blonde's James Mankey used them for a long time (through a Matchless DC-30 plus Hiwatt rig).
I'd suggest the STK-S9b Hot Stack Plus if you want a hot neck pickup for Gilmouresque leads. But that'll compromise the quack more, and not do too well for standard strat neck pickup tones.
The PA-STK1n doesn't sound quite like a P-90, just somewhere in between a single coil and a ceramic P-90 in tone.
Not a fan of DiMarzio, but all of the sounds you've mentioned are easily obtained from Seymour Duncans.
