Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

[Techy Beccy]

Hi guys,

I'm sure this question has been posted 1,000 times...

I'm putting together a bunch of pre-loaded pickguards with some of the pickups I have laying around. What I'm curious about is, how does the D.C Resistance rating compare with how well a pickup actually works well will other pickups? like e.g. pairing a fender custom shop 69 single-coil bridge pick up ( in the neck or middle) with a humbucker in the bridge? In this example, all the Fender CS 69's are under 6k ... however, the bridge pickup sounds much different from the others... How do you think it would work in the neck or middle position with a humbucker in the bridge?

 

[BeKindRewind]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

Personally I find that it doesn't matter very much as long as you set the heights appropriately. In my HSS setup I'm using quite a hot bridge pickup (16.6k JB) with singles that are about 6.2k, and they go together like bread and butter ! I love going from Mustaine to SRV with the flick of a switch . I don't notice too much of a volume jump when switching between them, but I did tweak my amp and EQ pedal settings quite a bit to get a tone that balances nicely across the 3 pickups. Maybe that's the key. Furthermore, I put a coil splitter in there and it does a pretty damn good approximation of an SSS Strat when split.

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

It will work, but there is going to be a volume drop when you mix any traditional single coils with a humbucker. Some things to keep in mind: Singles run well with 250k pots (which are in most strats). Humbuckers usually sound better with 500k pots. There are some humbuckers that sound good with 250k pots, and some that do not. 300k pots are sometimes a compromise. If your strat already has a humbucker and it has 3 mounting screws for the tilt function, most normal (non trembucker) pickups will not have the 2 holes on that one side of the pickup, and you would have to drill another hole in your pickguard, leaving 2 holes in the pickguard empty. If you move the strat bridge pickup to the neck, you would still want a middle pickup in the middle, if it is reverse wound, to get hum cancelling in that one in-between position. Most traditional strats do not have a tone control hooked to the bridge pickup, which I think is ridiculous, so I usually switch the wiring so the bridge and middle have tone controls, but not the neck. Neck pickups sound better without the tone control attached anyway. You will probably need a trembucker (f-spaced) humbucker to get the polepieces to line up with the strings, although regular spaced humbuckers usually do work as far as the sound goes if you don't care how it looks. After you get it wired, you might find that the humbucker is out of phase with the middle when they are combined. If it is, just swap the humbucker's lead wire with its colored ground wire and that should fix it.

 

[Synapsys]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

Dc resistance =/= Output.

 

[Techy Beccy]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

I have several pickups to try out! But someone asked about trembuckers/humbuckers - I have both.. (I would say I have over 20 pickups here). So I have a TB-12.
I have 3 Strats, one is as far as I know all original fat strat from the 90's that is kinda shelved - I like it the way it is for now so .. Another partscaster with a Jimmie Vaughn body and USA American series neck - that is the one I play the most. Currently, it has a SSS configuration (it's routed for a humbucker though), I have fender custom shop 69's with a Lil screaming demon in the bridge - Sounds great! I have a tinkering problem. So I'm thinking of pairing the 69's with the TB-12 demon... and I got some Seymour Duncan STK4's and STK7 that I want to try with the little screaming demon - I bought 2x STK 4's (RW middle), .. but thinking I might try the STK 7 in the neck... It might end up too bright or loud.. guess if that's the case I'll put the stk4 in the neck... Seeing as I had 2 screaming demons -one in the single-coil profile - that I would try to get 2 different sounding scratch plates loaded. I'm not sure these will sound different enough???
The other option I was thinking of is pairing the TB-12 with a PAF style humbucker in the neck - which would make them very different from each other.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

Sometimes you have to lower a pickup to make it balance, and there is a point that the pickup doesn't sound good anymore. Only you might be able to make that decision, so I would absolutely try it. I know from experience that a SSL-1 doesn't blend well with a high output pickup like a JB, but as you move towards the middle of that spectrum, you get into the "just try it" realm.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

I know from experience that a SSL-1 doesn't blend well with a high output pickup like a JB, but as you move towards the middle of that spectrum, you get into the "just try it" realm.

Hmm my Wasburn USA MG 120 sounds fantastic with a JB in the bridge and a pair of SSL-1's. In particular I have it wired to auto tap the JB in pos 2 when both it and the SSL-1 in the middle are on, its actually quite nice and very "Straty" so----.

 

[Ascension]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

I have several pickups to try out! But someone asked about trembuckers/humbuckers - I have both.. (I would say I have over 20 pickups here). So I have a TB-12.
I have 3 Strats, one is as far as I know all original fat strat from the 90's that is kinda shelved - I like it the way it is for now so .. Another partscaster with a Jimmie Vaughn body and USA American series neck - that is the one I play the most. Currently, it has a SSS configuration (it's routed for a humbucker though), I have fender custom shop 69's with a Lil screaming demon in the bridge - Sounds great! I have a tinkering problem. So I'm thinking of pairing the 69's with the TB-12 demon... and I got some Seymour Duncan STK4's and STK7 that I want to try with the little screaming demon - I bought 2x STK 4's (RW middle), .. but thinking I might try the STK 7 in the neck... It might end up too bright or loud.. guess if that's the case I'll put the stk4 in the neck... Seeing as I had 2 screaming demons -one in the single-coil profile - that I would try to get 2 different sounding scratch plates loaded. I'm not sure these will sound different enough???
The other option I was thinking of is pairing the TB-12 with a PAF style humbucker in the neck - which would make them very different from each other.

A Demon would likely work well with the 69's. Make sure you put the RW/RP pickup in the neck if you intend to split the humbucker with the middle pickup so it will humbuck.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Single coils paired with humbucker bridge

Hmm my Wasburn USA MG 120 sounds fantastic with a JB in the bridge and a pair of SSL-1's. In particular I have it wired to auto tap the JB in pos 2 when both it and the SSL-1 in the middle are on, its actually quite nice and very "Straty" so----.

Everyone is different. I don't like the huge volume & tone jump going from positions 1 to 5. Some people like that as sort of a 'boost'. Whatevah.