Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

[doc42418]

Hey,

I have purchased the following pickups.

SL59-1B Little 59er

SL-4 Quarter Pound Flat

SDBR-1N Duckbucker

This is my Guitar: Fender Class Player 50s Strat, 2CSB (SN:MX18015402)

I am wanting to improve the sound of my guitar as it just sounds too brite and glassy as it is right now.

I would like for it to have a traditional warm quacky Strat sound in the neck for blues and a harder humbucker sound in the bridge for playing rock and occaisonal Metal.

I understand I will not get all the tones I am looking for in one guitar but I just want to get some advice on what would be the best configuration with the pickups I listed.

Please do not give me a hard time about which pickups I have obtained as I got really good deals on these pups used. Now I just need to know the best way to install them to get the best sound.

What would be the best position for each? Obviously the 59r will go in the bridge but what about the others?

Series or parallel?

Any advice would be appreciated. Please no bashing or arguing.

Thank you

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

Duckbucker Neck, Quarter Pound middle, Lil' 59 bridge. That actually sounds like quite a good set, so I don't see you getting much flack for it. The only issue is that the Quarter Pound might overpower the neck, but it can he adjusted to not be an issue. You might also switch the neck and middle in the above setup.

If you want an interesting setup, put the Quarter Pound in the bridge for a nice P90 rock tone, you know something thicker than a standard Strat bridge, but not quite a humbucker. Put the the Duckbucker in the neck, and finally wire the Lil' 59 in parallel in the middle. This setup will give you a more traditional vibe than the first setup, essentially having mostly "standard" tones plus a beefier bridge. The first setup will be more versatile, but the QP in the middle might be a bit more work with balancing pickup heights to ensure both similar volume and that the pickups sound nice together.

Here's the order in which I'd do them, with 1 being most likely and 3 being least likely:

1-Duckbucker neck/Lil' 59 in parallel/QP bridge
2-QP neck/ Duckbucker middle/ Lil' 59 bridge
3-Duckbucker neck/ QP middle/Lil' 59 bridge

 

[Synapsys]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

I vote for option 2, mainly because of the output specs of each pickup.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

I answered on another forum. The Duckbucker is designed to be wired in parallel, btw.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

I would put the duckbucker in middle, SL-59b in bidge, and leave the stock Fender Alnico 5 pickup in the neck.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

I'd vote for option #2 also. Have had a QP in one of my Floydcasters for decades and I love it. It's big and pretty aggressive with a very nice lead voice. Not particularly airy/chimey/delicate, yet it does deliver recognizable, distinctively singlecoil attack. Can be a bit noisy at high gain.

The QP is powerful, both in the mags and the winding. Especially at the neck you may have best results setting the pickup fairly low from the strings.

 

[chadd]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

I like the duckbucker in the neck, really nice clean tones.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Pickup Configuration/Placement Advice needed

Please post your opinion when try out these pickups.