Questions about HSS with stacks?

[xKhalix]

Hey guys,

I'm trying to finalize a set of pickups before I order but I can't find the information I'm after. I'm leaning towards going with a Custom-Custom/Classic Stack Plus (m)/Classic Stack Plus . The hum canceling is important to me, but I'm wondering about how the tapping on these stacks works. What output am I going to get from the tapped stacks? Has anyone tried tapping these? I've heard positive things about splitting the Custom-Custom so I'm hoping I can get (as close as possible) to a classic strat sound by splitting/tapping these pickups, as well as having the hum-cancelling option. Are the STK S4's going to suit this or should I be looking at hotter stacks?

Is there any other combination that is recommended? The Seymour Duncan pickup picker doesn't have the option to specify stacks when picking HSS pickup combinations.

Thanks!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Questions about HSS with stacks?

A tapped stk s4 sounds like a untapped stk s4 which sounds like a ssl-1. All the tapping does is make it so you can split a humbucker and still have it be hum cancelling.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Questions about HSS with stacks?

You can tap - but given your wants I would simply wire up all noiseless - they are designed to sound like a singlecoil as much as possible in the first place.

If you want the CC lowered in output too for a more authentic position 4, then I'd suggest a push-pull with parallel as your lower output option. That way both options are also hum-free, and you can choose the desired position 4 tone rather than have it chosen for you.

 

[xKhalix]

Re: Questions about HSS with stacks?

I was thinking more along the lines of:
Pos 1: Full hum
Pos 2: Slug coil + mid
Pos 3: Mid
Pos 4: Mid + Neck
Pos 5: Neck

Pulled:
Pos 1: Screw coil
Pos 2: Screw coil + Mid (tap)
Pos 3: Mid (tap)
Pos 4: Mid + Neck (tap)
Pos 5: Neck (tap)

Kind of hoping to get the best of both worlds here of a hot rod strat and a vintage strat sound as close as possible. If tapping them gets me closer to that SSL-1 sound that may be what I'm after. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding though, do the STK S4's tap or split? Am I getting exactly half the coil when I add that third wire?

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Questions about HSS with stacks?

I was thinking more along the lines of:
Pos 1: Full hum
Pos 2: Slug coil + mid
Pos 3: Mid
Pos 4: Mid + Neck
Pos 5: Neck

Pulled:
Pos 1: Screw coil
Pos 2: Screw coil + Mid (tap)
Pos 3: Mid (tap)
Pos 4: Mid + Neck (tap)
Pos 5: Neck (tap)

Kind of hoping to get the best of both worlds here of a hot rod strat and a vintage strat sound as close as possible. If tapping them gets me closer to that SSL-1 sound that may be what I'm after. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding though, do the STK S4's tap or split? Am I getting exactly half the coil when I add that third wire?

They tap, but the tap has little affect (I can't hear it)on the tone in this situation. Unless you intend to split a HB to pair with the middle STK, there is no point in ever tapping it.

Just a little extra point I'd like to add, it's not really important. A tap is putting a wire in so that only a certain amount of the coil is being used in the active circuit. This is what's happening in a coil split too, except the "tap" is across different coils wound the opposite direction with a different polarity. This makes it confusing for the STKs, because they do technically split 2 different coils that are RW/RP from eachother, but one of the coils is a dummy coil and has no affect on tone either way. That probably wasn't the best way to explain it, but I just find it interesting that a tap is essentially a "stacked" split.

Look at the BG-1400 for an example of my paragraph above. It's a stacked HB that sounds like an HB but looks like a single coil.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Questions about HSS with stacks?

I wrote a blog about my HSS guitar that you might find interesting...it does some splitting of the humbucker and one of the coils of the stacks...and all positions are hum-cancelling. Maybe there is something there that can help with your decision.