What medium hot single sized pickup to match two SSL-1

[marcello252]

Ok, I have to choose what kind of single sized pickup to put in bridge position in a 80s MIJ basswood stratocaster with rosewood fingerboard, to match a couple of SSL-1 I have for middle and Neck pos and I need some opinion, cause I'm not able to decide (no, I can't buy many different types and pick one, too expensive).

some points:

- I'd like a hotter than standard pickup, I don't like the standard strat bridge PU, too trebly

- SSL-1 is in my opinion a pretty hot PU by itself, mine are around 6.4K

- I already have a SSL1/SSL1/SSL5 strat, good but there's something lacking in terms of tone for me, not in terms of volume, so I'd like something different if possible

- once I tried a DMZ FS-1 I remember it was bit more satisfying than the SSL5 but it's too distant in my memory too recall exactly how

- I tried a JBJR but, even if I like the full size JB, it was very bad sounding in this strat, and it was too loud

- I don't care about hum cancelling

- I'd like a tone to pop out from the band with when I need it, without big vol jumps

- I usually play from clean to fuzzy distortion, not metal, when I play clean I'm not in glassy knifelike sound.


I'm actually considering: SD SSL5 , DMZ FS-1, SD Hot Stack (plenty of them in the used market I see), SD lil 59, DMZ ProTrack

I don't know other DMZ alhought, generally (apart the FS-1) I don't get along so well with the DMZ signature tone


Opinions are welcome, thank you.

 

[Mincer]

Since you already have an SSL-5, a Quarter Pound is a darker alternative for a bridge pickup, and something like the Cory Wong Clean Machine might be good as it is hotter, but more scooped than the Quarter Pound.

 

[Chistopher]

I got a "retrospec" antiquity II surfer bridge. It doesn't have the factory aging on it, it looks like a new pickup.

They measure about 10k and specwise are between an SSL-1 and and SSL-5. I've heard them described as an underwound SSL-5 and that's what they sound like to me too.

 

[jeremy]

i love the vintage hot stack in the bridge. not as hot or dark as the ssl5, but more muscular than the ssl1

 

[donaldr]

i love the vintage hot stack in the bridge. not as hot or dark as the ssl5, but more muscular than the ssl1

+1. I think it's a very good match to an SSL1-2. I have one paired with a STK-S4 (noiseless SSL-2) in the neck (no middle) of a Strat copy and this is a combination that will never leave that guitar. From clean, to blues, to classic rock and hard rock. Takes distortion very well. It's wired to its own tone pot.

I would definitely buy a single coil version of the Vintage Hot Stack. Seymour please?!?!?!

 

[Mincer]

I think it would drive me crazy if I heard hum in some positions, but not others.

 

[marcello252]

I think it would drive me crazy if I heard hum in some positions, but not others.

quite common in a HSS guitar indeed And usually every SC set has pos 2 and 4 hum cancelling

 

[Mincer]

quite common in a HSS guitar indeed And usually every SC set has pos 2 and 4 hum cancelling

It is, but not in my HSS. I fix that up quickly.

 

[marcello252]

BTW, is the Hot Rails really hot or is it in the JBJR ballpark? I've never tried one

 

[jeremy]

its a bit hotter than the jb jr but its not as bright

 

[GuitarStv]

I echo the quarter pounder suggestion. Very meaty and dark sounding single coil, works well with gain in the bridge. Never really sounds sharp or knife-like. It's a good bit hotter than an SSL-1 though.

 

[trevorus]

I put a Lil 59 neck wind in the bridge of my G&L Legacy. The stock pickups were solidly vintage output, so the more polite wind of the neck version matches really well with those.

 

[Mincer]

That's just it...the SSL-1 isn't very hot.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

Or the Lil59 bridge. It's louder than SSL1s but nowhere near as hot as the JB Jr.

I concur about the Quarter Pound Strat too, though. Great pickup.
Fat & muscular yet still gives singlecoil attack character when you dig in.
I used one in a Floydcaster for more than forty years.

 

[marcello252]

The quarter pound option is getting interesting. Has anyone directly compared a SSL5 and a Quarter Pound? just to put them in the right perspective

 

[Clint 55]

The quarter pound option is getting interesting. Has anyone directly compared a SSL5 and a Quarter Pound? just to put them in the right perspective

The QP is even hotter, bassier, broader, and middier than the Custom. While the Custom is middy, the QP's mids take on a metallic quality.

 

[freefrog]

The quarter pound option is getting interesting. Has anyone directly compared a SSL5 and a Quarter Pound? just to put them in the right perspective

In the 80's, a friend of mine had fit his (original) L Series Strat, refinished in pink, with SSL1 neck, SSL5 mid, SSL4 bridge...

The SSL4 has 3.5 times more inductance than a CS69 Strat PU. The SSL5, "only" 3 times but it keeps a pointier resonant peak than the QP. So the QP can be seen as closer to an humbucker, while the SSL5 remains a Strat PU whose resonant frequency would have been relocated in the hi-mids - reason why it's possible to mimic a SSL5 with a SSL1 associated to some preamp + a 1nF or 1,2nF capacitor from hot to ground.

 

[marcello252]

The SSL4 has 3.5 times more inductance than a CS69 Strat PU. The SSL5, "only" 3 times

where can I find the inductance level of SD pickups? I was also interested in the inductance value of my SD tele broadcaster PU but I'm not able to find a list, just few piece of info here and there

 

[freefrog]

where can I find the inductance level of SD pickups? I was also interested in the inductance value of my SD tele broadcaster PU but I'm not able to find a list, just few piece of info here and there

AFAIK, the only inductance values ever published by Duncan were about Antiquity PU's. Those that I share here and there have either been measured with lab gear here, either been inherited from other people, like my friend luthier /winder.

I've not at disposal the inductance of the Duncan Broadcaster, sorry about that. What I can say is that SSL1's typically measure 2.6H, SSL5=6.2H, SSL4=7.2H.

With values found elsewhere, just keep in mind that inductance changes a bit with frequencies (L value measured @ 100hz is not the same than @ 1khz).