School me on Duncan's line of Strat pickups

[donaldr]

My original plan has a fatal flaw. I can’t for the life of me find where I put the original pickguard, and I really don’t want to add $30 to the price of a pickup. I think I’m going to put in a 59 I have laying around and see where that gets me. If I’m still not jiving with a bridge humbucker, I’ll revisit things.

I don't know where you are located, but I ordered several pickguards from vendor Musiclily on Amazon.ca for 10$-12$ and they fitted my MIM Fender Strat perfectly.

 

[misterwhizzy]

The Pearly Gates and the Screamin Demon are also two humbuckers that are going well with single coils.
Here's a video of SSL-1 with Pearly Gates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggTyXwkwQx8
Here's a video of SSL-1 with Screamin' Demon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yusDUUUAaNw
And a seconde one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-xkwOtdvRM

Turns out my 59 won’t fit because of its long legs. My Demon has the same problem along with having a stripped mounting hole. I have a new baseplate on the way and will use the Demon when it arrives.

 

[misterwhizzy]

I feel a little foolish because I wired the JB I had incorrectly. I think I was at most ever getting one coil, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t grounded. I figured that out once I replaced my Demon baseplate and replaced the JB going wire for wire. It sounded way too weak, so I pulled the pick guard off again and compared it to the wiring diagram. Sure enough, my problem was clear as day.

Long story short, this pickup seems to be exactly what I want in this position. Even though it’s medium output, it has plenty of heft with the volume knob full up, but it cleans up very well with pick dynamics and turning the volume down just a hair. Obviously it nails hair metal tones.

I‘m not in love with the fourth position that I wired for auto-split, but this is starting to feel like the reason I bought the guitar in the first place, and it’ll definitely spend less time on the wall.

It’s really too bad I’m going to have to take the time at some point to reinstall my JB properly to give it a fair shake.