SSS ideas for strat with floyd

[GuitarStv]

Maple neck, alder body, 12-16" fretboard radius, very balanced sounding guitar acoustically. Been kicking around this idea for a while, and am down to a few pickup selection ideas:

SSL-2/SSL-2/SSL-6
SSL-2/SSL-2/Twangbanger
Fralin Vintage Hots with a brass plate on the bridge.




I'm aiming for something in the ballpark of Niles Rodgers, John Mayer's Continuum Album stuff, John Frusciante, and David Gilmore. With a Floyd. If that's not too much of an ask.

Which set gets me closest? Is there a better/more obvious answer that I'm missing?

 

[Synapsys]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

True singles only?

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

True singles only?

Yep.

 

[dystrust]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

Maple neck, alder body, 12-16" fretboard radius, very balanced sounding guitar acoustically. Been kicking around this idea for a while, and am down to a few pickup selection ideas:

SSL-2/SSL-2/SSL-6
SSL-2/SSL-2/Twangbanger
Fralin Vintage Hots with a brass plate on the bridge.




I'm aiming for something in the ballpark of Niles Rodgers, John Mayer's Continuum Album stuff, John Frusciante, and David Gilmore. With a Floyd. If that's not too much of an ask.

Which set gets me closest? Is there a better/more obvious answer that I'm missing?

I have SSL-2/SSL-2/SSL-6T in the bridge of a Charvel Model 1A which is somewhat similar to what you're asking. Unfortunately I don't think you're going to do all of those sounds with a single pickup set without some compromises. You really need a fatter bridge pickup for most of David Gilmour's tones, while John Mayer and John Frusciante call for a more vintage-accurate bridge. I chose a tapped SSL-6 for my Strat in an attempt to do what you're after, and it works well but not perfectly. The SSL-6 at full output is great for Gilmour, but it's just a little bit weak tapped. I have a Fralin blender in that guitar, so I can blend in just a hint of neck pickup to fatten things up, and that works great. In addition to the blend pot I also have a master tone that I wired 50s style since I like that type of interaction, though I wouldn't say it's 100% necessary.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

I have SSL-2/SSL-2/SSL-6T in the bridge of a Charvel Model 1A which is somewhat similar to what you're asking. Unfortunately I don't think you're going to do all of those sounds with a single pickup set without some compromises. You really need a fatter bridge pickup for most of David Gilmour's tones, while John Mayer and John Frusciante call for a more vintage-accurate bridge. I chose a tapped SSL-6 for my Strat in an attempt to do what you're after, and it works well but not perfectly. The SSL-6 at full output is great for Gilmour, but it's just a little bit weak tapped. I have a Fralin blender in that guitar, so I can blend in just a hint of neck pickup to fatten things up, and that works great. In addition to the blend pot I also have a master tone that I wired 50s style since I like that type of interaction, though I wouldn't say it's 100% necessary.

I know that I like that the SSL-5 on it's own for leads, find a standard strat bridge a little too plinky, and like vintage bridge/mid sounds.

I guess what I'm asking is, is the in-between SSL-2/SSL-6 way too middy/dark or passable?

And is the Twangbanger bridge on it's own beefy enough? I was planning on running one tone for the bridge and one tone for the neck/middle, so I guess it would be possible to tame the highs at least.

Did you have to custom order the tapped SSL-6? That sounds like a promising compromise.

 

[dystrust]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

I know that I like that the SSL-5 on it's own for leads, find a standard strat bridge a little too plinky, and like vintage bridge/mid sounds.

I guess what I'm asking is, is the in-between SSL-2/SSL-6 way too middy/dark or passable?

And is the Twangbanger bridge on it's own beefy enough? I was planning on running one tone for the bridge and one tone for the neck/middle, so I guess it would be possible to tame the highs at least.

Did you have to custom order the tapped SSL-6? That sounds like a promising compromise.

The SSL-6 sounds identical to an SSL-5, the only difference is flat poles vs. staggered. The tap is one of the 'shop floor custom' options, so it wasn't much more than a 'stock' SSL-6.

 

[Jacew]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

The SSL-6 sounds identical to an SSL-5, the only difference is flat poles vs. staggered. The tap is one of the 'shop floor custom' options, so it wasn't much more than a 'stock' SSL-6.

Is it? Banzai Music in Germany carries tapped versions in retail.

If you order it as shop floor custom, can you order it with uneven tap? Like 60 % of coil cut out for instance. That would fix the low output.

 

[Mincer]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

I dig choice #1. SSL-2s and a -6 is where it is at for modern instruments with a plain 3rd string, and it solves the ice picky thing that most normal single coil bridge pickups have.

 

[stevie_bees]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

I love the Twangbanger. I have Antiquity Surfers in my G&L Legacy at the moment, but it used to have Twangbanger/SSL-1/SSL-1 pickups in it. I've been contemplating dropping a Twangbanger in with the 2 remaining Antiquities. I found it was certainly beefy enough.

 

[Silver]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

Not helpful, but I always said that if a Floyd was around in Hendrix's time then he'd have had a Floyd'd SSS strat.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

Not helpful, but I always said that if a Floyd was around in Hendrix's time then he'd have had a Floyd'd SSS strat.

It's just a better design than a traditional Fender trem, and sounds great.

*quickly ducks behind a wall to avoid angry Fender traditionalists with pitchforks and their vintage correct cloth covered wire garrotes*




With judicious use of a tone control on the bridge the Twang Banger might work, but I haven't been able to find any clips of the singing lead type tones I prefer online so I'm about mostly leaning towards the SSL-2, SSL-2, SSL-6 option.

Is there any reasonably simple electronic way to brighten the bridge + mid combo with the SSL-6 (maybe using a super switch or push/pull pot to change the volume from 250 to 300k for more highs)? It seems like getting a tapped SSL-6 for a reasonable price might be a challenge for me here in Canada.

Was planning on doing 50's wiring, and putting a tone control on the bridge. Would the SSL-6 be better off run with no tone to brighten things up?

 

[Mincer]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

Sure, you can run an SSL-6 with no tone control, or even a 500k tone control to make it brighter, but I don't think you'll need to- the Floyd will add some brightness to it, anyway.

 

[Jacew]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

It's just a better design than a traditional Fender trem, and sounds great.

*quickly ducks behind a wall to avoid angry Fender traditionalists with pitchforks and their vintage correct cloth covered wire garrotes*




With judicious use of a tone control on the bridge the Twang Banger might work, but I haven't been able to find any clips of the singing lead type tones I prefer online so I'm about mostly leaning towards the SSL-2, SSL-2, SSL-6 option.

Is there any reasonably simple electronic way to brighten the bridge + mid combo with the SSL-6 (maybe using a super switch or push/pull pot to change the volume from 250 to 300k for more highs)? It seems like getting a tapped SSL-6 for a reasonable price might be a challenge for me here in Canada.

Was planning on doing 50's wiring, and putting a tone control on the bridge. Would the SSL-6 be better off run with no tone to brighten things up?

There's nothing like proper 6-screw trem for great tone!

 

[Chistopher]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

For the Floyd I say get an NFT Floyd without the fine tuners. I think SSL-2/SSL-2/SSL-6 is a good combo. For the wiring it might be worthwhile to you to wire the neck and middle to one tone control and the bridge to the other one given how you seem to be using them for very different purposes and also just how the neck and bridge sound somewhat similar whereas the bridge has it's own thing going on.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

For the Floyd I say get an NFT Floyd without the fine tuners. I think SSL-2/SSL-2/SSL-6 is a good combo. For the wiring it might be worthwhile to you to wire the neck and middle to one tone control and the bridge to the other one given how you seem to be using them for very different purposes and also just how the neck and bridge sound somewhat similar whereas the bridge has it's own thing going on.

The Floyd is an OFR, I'm basically De-Supering a Charvel So Cal strat.

I've got a 500k push/pull tone pot lying around in my parts bin that I might put on the bridge if I can find a tapped SSL-6. I figure between the tone control and the coil tapping I should be able to find some decent sounds out of both the bridge and bridge/mid. Probably put the other 250k tone control on the neck. Then adjust from there depending on how it's sounding.

 

[dystrust]

Re: SSS ideas for strat with floyd

Is it? Banzai Music in Germany carries tapped versions in retail.

If you order it as shop floor custom, can you order it with uneven tap? Like 60 % of coil cut out for instance. That would fix the low output.

AFAIK you can't get an uneven tap as a shop floor custom, but I'm not 100% sure. When ordered mine I didn't have that option. I'm guessing that Banzai music orders batches of them tapped; I've seen other retails that maintain stock of shop floor custom items.

Is there any reasonably simple electronic way to brighten the bridge + mid combo with the SSL-6 (maybe using a super switch or push/pull pot to change the volume from 250 to 300k for more highs)? It seems like getting a tapped SSL-6 for a reasonable price might be a challenge for me here in Canada.

Was planning on doing 50's wiring, and putting a tone control on the bridge. Would the SSL-6 be better off run with no tone to brighten things up?

On my Strat, tapping the bridge pickup works great for that, and it's honestly how I use the tap ~90% of the time. Tapped SSL-6s aren't super hard to find; hopefully you can find someone that will ship to Canada for a reasonable price. If you're not having any luck I could always order another one and mail it to you.