Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chopper?

[Peter Krasov]

I'm modding my Squier Strat (basswood/maple/maple) taking inspiration from Robby Krieger Gibson LP. Here is it: https://www.williesguitars.com/product/2014-gibson-custom-robby-krieger-1954-les-paul-custom/

Since I want to keep Strat format, I'll be using Strat-size pickups.

As we can see, Krieger's guitar has P90 in the bridge and Seymour SM1n Minihumbucker in the neck, and this combo should be imitated in my Strat.

For bridge position my choice is obviously DiMarzio SDS-1 - really nice P90-ish sound, love this pickup hands down. But what humbucker singlecoil-sized pickup would you recommend, that could be relatively close to vintage Minibucker? My three candidates are Little 59 from Seymour, Fast Track 1 and Chopper from DiMarzio. Any ideas?

 

[jeremy]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

id say a cool rails might be closer than the lil 59 but getting something to sound like a firebird pup is tough since it has such unique construction. also the scale length and other construction differences will change things a lot. a cool rails neck and sds1 bridge would be a cool combo though

 

[Peter Krasov]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

id say a cool rails might be closer than the lil 59 but getting something to sound like a firebird pup is tough since it has such unique construction. also the scale length and other construction differences will change things a lot. a cool rails neck and sds1 bridge would be a cool combo though

Isn't Cool Rails model is close to Chopper?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

Cool Rails is sort of like the Strat-size version of the Jazz. I can see it working here. I think it would be a better choice than the Little 59. A Red Devil might also work.

 

[Peter Krasov]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

Thanks for pointing at Red Devil - totally forgot about it.

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

For neck pickups you will find most of those to be warmer sounding than a mini humbucker.
Firstly you could get a custom pickguard to fit a SM1n mini humbucker - Obvious I know!
Otherwise consider a cool rails neck or Dimarzio Cruiser bridge DP187, although you may still need 500k controls to get sufficient brightness.

 

[Peter Krasov]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

For neck pickups you will find most of those to be warmer sounding than a mini humbucker.
Firstly you could get a custom pickguard to fit a SM1n mini humbucker - Obvious I know!
Otherwise consider a cool rails neck or Dimarzio Cruiser bridge DP187, although you may still need 500k controls to get sufficient brightness.

Isn't Fast Track 1 is a hotter version of Cruiser Bridge?

 

[Teleplayer]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

Isn't Fast Track 1 is a hotter version of Cruiser Bridge?

Basically true. FT1 has more prominent mids and overall darker tone.

I was thinking most bridge single coils will be too bright to combine with the Fast track 1 in the neck.
I used another mini humbucker neck pickup which certainly had enough brightness for 250k controls in a Fender guitar. I have a SM-1n on order right now, but have not had experience with it yet.
From experience I can say the Fast Track 1 will require 500k volume and 500k tone when used as a neck pickup. In that case the Fast track 1 is possible, but I'm unsure if it will have the same bite as a SM-1n.

 

[Peter Krasov]

Re: Strat size hum for imitating Gibson minihumbucker - Little 59, Fast Track or Chop

Slightly fuller sound for neck position is even good. And yes — I'll also put 500k pots, because SDS-1 will benefit from them as well.