Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

[EAProwlerB]

Got a Fender American Special Stratocaster HSS to play with for a week. Really like the build quality and it is really a gas to play. Except that Humbucker is so unstraty I'm not sure what to do with it, sounds crappy even all by itself.
Any suggestions on a Humbucker that works really well with a strat for 60/70s rock?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

If you really want it stratty, the Stag mag is built for that. If you want vintage 60s 70s rock, the Saturday night special is made for that vibe.

 

[Demanic]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

59b or Custom 5.

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[AlexR]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

Depends on what you want out of the humbucker. Plenty love the WRHB, and the Shawbuckers are of course made/designed by the guy who made Gibson's 1980's offerings. Brothers in Arms is a tone that even the best search for that is using Shaws.

I think a better question is why individual consumers think a guitar mass produced should be made to perfectly suit them??

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

^ Yeah. I've been working on my sss and hsh strats since November and I literally just now got them dialed.

 

[Johnny the Kid]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

What if the purpose of the pickup wasn't to be stratty, but just to serve as many different customers as possible?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

Yapp a humbucker is usually a humbucker and sounds like a humbucker and messes up your position 2 unless you go out of your way to get a bluesy sounding one or split it or something.

 

[thebingopete]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

I think Fender first got the idea that they could do it was when Seth Lover designed the Widerange HB for them. They got a late start at it though.

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[BRHGM]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

Fender hired Seth Lover, the co-inventer of the humbucker in 1967. He developed the Widerange humbucker and other products. In 1985, Tim Shaw was hired at the Fender Custom shop. He developed the Shawbuckers, a different product from the Tim Shaw pickup he created at Gibson. Fender humbuckers are voiced to sound different than Gibson humbuckers. I'm not a fan of them.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

I like a Custom Custom or a 59/Custom Hybrid in a Strat, especially if it auto-splits in position 4.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

I have a Sidewinder in one of my Strats at present; I actually like the way they're constructed, but the sound is a bit uninspiring... Squashy/loose sort of low-end, rolled-off highs, no "sing," a bit congested... But it's fine split.

 

[Owwwccchhh]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

I have a MIM HSH strat and the humbuckers in that are awesome. I'm looking to change the bridge to accommodate my tastes, though they've done their job very well. Though I'm not looking for a "strat tone". Humbuckers have never been that stratty, you need a set of single coils to really capture that sound.

 

[MkIII Renegade]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

The DiMarzio Humbucker from Hell was designed to have a single coilesque sound in a HB format.

 

[stratguy23]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

There are a bunch of things to unpack in OP's post:

Fender got the idea that they could make humbuckers a long time ago, with the legendary Seth Lover and his wide range pickups.

A full-size humbucker is not meant to be "Stratty". If Fender wanted a "Stratty" bridge pickup, they would have used a conventional Strat bridge pickup.

As for humbucker in a Strat not sounding good by itself, that I can believe. A big consideration in an HSS setup is how well the humbucker matches with the single coils. Either you go with a high output humbucker, so position 2 is like a conventional position 2, or you go with a low output humbucker that matches the singles in output. These balancing acts are hard to do well, IMO; I generally don't like HSS or HS configurations unless the S is a P90.

As for humbuckers in a Strat that do 60s or 70s rock, you may want to try the Pearly Gates Plus or normal Pearly Gates bridge pickup. The Plus version came stock with Texas Specials (which your Am. Special has, I believe) in the Lone Star Strat. If you have an Atomic humbucker in the bridge currently, that is pretty hot, and I can understand frustration with getting vintage sounds from that.

In general, though, I am a fan of Fender humbuckers. They've never struck me as super awesome, but they've always struck me as getting the job done. They wouldn't be my first choice for modern metal, but for everything up to hard rock and classic metal, pickups like the Blacktop and Atomic and Twin Head are pretty decent stock offerings.

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

So the original Strat launched in 1954 was actually an LP? Wow...what a revelation!

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

Zephyrs.

This is my new recommendation...for any genre...for any guitar....

:laugh2:

I don't have that much experience with SSH Strats, but I have played some of the G&L Legacy HB models with the TB-4, and that seems to work pretty well. The split is usable, though not exactly stratty. The 250K pots control that upper-mid spike of the JB, smooths it out and gives it more focus.

Good luck!

Bill

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

The Atomic isn't terrible- I find it rather reminiscent of a JB, perhaps less peaky in the mids. But it shares the JBs characteristic trait of not cleaning up too well.

The Pearly Gates Plus is a great pickup for Strat types. I have one in a Showmaster; it sounds really good. And interacts nicely with the volume knob, as well as responding well to pick dynamics.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

Why do people who want a strat to sound "stratty" buy one with a humbucker in it in the first place?

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

I guess I am in the more rare group that really likes Fender pickups–including their humbuckers.

But for an HSS setup, I've had great luck with the JB, Screamin Demon and Pearly Gates.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Were did Fender get the idea that they could make Humbuckers?

I am not a big Fender Humbucker fan, either. Over the years, my favorite humbuckers that appeared in certain Strat models were always Duncans. It isn't unique to them, though...Epiphone or Gibson doesn't make my favorite flavor of humbuckers, either.