Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

[Unbreakable]

I've got an American Deluxe Strat with the Humbucker in the Bridge position. Guitar plays great but I want a little more Umph! out of it. I was looking at replacing everything with some Seymours Duncans. I plan to have it professionally done but I do have a dab of elctrical experience. Are their any issues I need to be aware of when putting in new pickups? Any phase concerns with the middle pickup since it can run with either the bridge or neck pickup?

Next... for the bridge pickup I was looking at the SH-6 or SH-8. Any suggestions for a chunkier pickup from SD?

I'd like to know if there will be any wiring problems or any issues if I went with this arrangement...

SH-8 Invader (Bridge)
Hot Rails SHR-1 (Middle)
Cool Rails SCR-1 (Neck)

Thanks in advance for any info or advice.

 

[viewaskew2k5]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

Phat cat! Can not go wrong!!

 

[JustWendell]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

Welcome to the forum!

A dab of electrical experience is pretty much all you need (aside from a soldering iron) to be able to do pickup swaps yourself. And of course a wiring diagram which can be found here: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

There are plenty of duncan pickups with more umph. What type of sounds are you trying to get?

 

[Unbreakable]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

There are plenty of duncan pickups with more umph. What type of sounds are you trying to get?

I guess maybe umph was not the clearest of terms. Think of a guitar that is capable of the chunkiest death metal on one end, that can switch up into the sweetest Electric Jazz solos on the other. Trying to avoid going with an Active unit... I have no idea where to put the battery and I don't want to go cutting on my Strat.

 

[Unbreakable]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

Welcome to the forum!

A dab of electrical experience is pretty much all you need (aside from a soldering iron) to be able to do pickup swaps yourself. And of course a wiring diagram which can be found here: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

You raise another good question... If I do it myself (Soldering is a pretty easy thing) Should I clip the existing wires and join them to the wires of the new harware (Of course making sure that the proper wire goes to the proper place and not just matching colors) Or should I run the Seymour wire right to the source and maybe even do new pots and a capless switch while I'm at it?

Is there anything in the guts of a Fender that will limit an SD PUP for the love of creating the Ventage "Fender" sound?

 

[Artie]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

Not sure what you mean by a "capless" switch, but all three pickups you've chosen are humbuckers by themselves. You shouldn't have any noise issues. If it was me, I'd do all fresh wiring. Its actually easier than trying to adapt to the old stuff. Whether or not you use fresh pots is just a matter of what kind of condition the old ones are in. If they're good - use 'em.

 

[Unbreakable]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

Not sure what you mean by a "capless" switch

Can you tell I'm a newbie LOL. The wiring diagram shows a .022 value cap on the tone knob near the volume control. From what I understand caps will filter certain frequencies out. Will this hinder the SD PUPS or will it not matter. Are the SDs made to run in spite of the cap or are they designed taking it into consideration? in other words will removing the cap just be too much? Or are we talking tiny tiny details that the human ear can't hear?

 

[MikeS]

Re: Pickup Arrangement in a Fender HSS Strat

Can you tell I'm a newbie LOL. The wiring diagram shows a .022 value cap on the tone knob near the volume control. From what I understand caps will filter certain frequencies out. Will this hinder the SD PUPS or will it not matter. Are the SDs made to run in spite of the cap or are they designed taking it into consideration? in other words will removing the cap just be too much? Or are we talking tiny tiny details that the human ear can't hear?

You still need the capacitor if you want a one control. The tone pot is no different than the volume pot, but the reason it works as a tone control is because of the capacitor. As you turn the pot down more high frequencies are sent to ground. Make sense?

You can usually only desolder the existing pickup leads and then install the new pickups. There's no need to rewire anything else unless you wanted the practice or wanted to change the operation of the controls.