Strat Paul?

[Sheeny]

Hi all,

I would like to swap my existing stratocaster single coil pickups with two single coil sized humbuckers (neck and bridge) and a middle single coil, and have the option using a multi pole rotary switch to select the following combinations:

1. Neck humbucker
2. Neck single coil (split humbucker)and middle single coil = strat position 2
3. Neck and Bridge humbuckers.
4. Middle single coil and bridge single coil (split humbucker) = strat position 4
5. Bridge humbucker

I would use a stratocaster pickguard plate without the standard 5 position slot switch and just use the following 3 knobs as follows:

1. Volume control (closest to strings)
2. Rotary switch (pickup selector)
3. Global tone control

In essence, I would like to have a Les Paul and a Stratocaster in one.

Hope that makes sense? Tone of pickups would match LP and Strat.

I look forward to any advice.

 

[Hank-]

Re: Strat Paul?

Check if your strat has swimming pool route in there, then should be able to use regular humbuckers with a new pickguard. You won't be able to get both great/authentic strat & lp tones from it, but with full humbuckers the sound will be bigger, fatter & louder, closer to a super strat setup atleast.

 

[BRHGM]

Re: Strat Paul?

It will be different, but won't sound like a Les Paul hybrid. It will still sound like a Strat, a beefier one. The Les Paul's mass and mahogany are much of its sound. The maple cap and ebony finger board on a mahogany neck also contribute to its sound. I have a Strat and a Tele with humbucker in the bridge and they still sound like a Strat and a Tele. One of my Les Pauls has P-90s, but it still sounds like a Les Paul.

 

[Sheeny]

Re: Strat Paul?

Check if your strat has swimming pool route in there, then should be able to use regular humbuckers with a new pickguard. You won't be able to get both great/authentic strat & lp tones from it, but with full humbuckers the sound will be bigger, fatter & louder, closer to a super strat setup atleast.

Thanks very much, my preference is to maintain the 3 single combination coil look. Would hotrails (or similar) have the option to be split?

I very much like the sound of strat position 2 & 4 but want to be able to select the big gutsy output of a humbucker as well.

 

[Sheeny]

Re: Strat Paul?

It will be different, but won't sound like a Les Paul hybrid. It will still sound like a Strat, a beefier one. The Les Paul's mass and mahogany are much of its sound. The maple cap and ebony finger board on a mahogany neck also contribute to its sound. I have a Strat and a Tele with humbucker in the bridge and they still sound like a Strat and a Tele. One of my Les Pauls has P-90s, but it still sounds like a Les Paul.

I do have the option of upgrading the body & neck to be more dense, as its a ground up build. So I'll definitely consider that info. I've never found the LP to be a comfortable instrument to play either standing or sitting, the Strat is my preference.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Strat Paul?

Just make an HSS strat with a full sized humbucker and true single coils. Plus switches for bridge pup always on and to series/split/parallel the hb. That will be extremely versatile and it will sound good. Mini humbuckers kind of sound like crap clean. When I tried one I thought "this thing sounds the same as the piece of crap squier pickup it's supposed to replace."

 

[baritone]

Re: Strat Paul?

Lots of varied advice on this topic. Here's mine:

A pair of Cool Rails. Otherwise, if you want a hotter bridge pickup, consider the JB Jr. The Cool Rails pickups give more of a "classic" Gibsonish tone, while the JB Jr. will sound more hot-rodded. The JB Jr. will give more satisfying split sounds than the Cool Rails.

 

[BRHGM]

Re: Strat Paul?

You could do an everything axe with hot rail/vintage rail/cool rail or JB jr/Duckbucker/lil 59 or even a combination of hot and vintage stacks. It's really hard to balance a hot full sized humbucker with singles. You may want to start with a vintage pickup like a 59, a PG or a Seth first. Yes you can get them in four wire.