What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

[ratherdashing]

Pretty self-explanatory thread title ... what do you like for a bridge humbucker in an H/S/S Strat, and why?

If you have a different vintage output / hot output preference, state them both.

Thanks!

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

I like three: 59B, Custom and JB.

I love the JB with the new Duncan Stack Plus noiseless pickups and 250K pots.

I love the 59B with stock Fender style single coils or Duncan SSL or APS single coils.

And the Custom is simply a great pickup in any Strat.

I also like the Custom Custom alot...but with 250K pots it gets a little mellow and lacks bite, IMO. I like it best with 500K pots and those will make regular Strat single coils a bit to bright.

I prefer the Trembucker version of any of those when put in a Strat.

Lew

 

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Custom Custom no doubt. That is my favorite. A close second right now is the DiMarzio Air Zone. Has a lot of the same qualities of the CC but with a tighter low end. They both cut like nobody's business.

 

[XSSIVE]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

i really don't have a favorite since every guitar i build has a different pickup or body wood and i choose a pickup to go with the wood and the tone i want the guitar to have. i also try to avoid middle singles since they get in my way for some reason. i do have 1 H/S/S guitar on the way though, but i already know that middle single will be flush with the guard. anyway, back to the main topic, the bridge hum....

i do like the custom shop EVH/'78 a lot even being that i play with a more modern high gain, it works damn well and also kills for drop d...real articulate.

i've used tons of different hums in the bridges of various super strats and my head starts to spin when i try to compair them lol.

-Mike

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Custom Custom no doubt. That is my favorite. A close second right now is the DiMarzio Air Zone. Has a lot of the same qualities of the CC but with a tighter low end. They both cut like nobody's business.

Erik, do you use the CC with 250K pots? Lew

 

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Erik, do you use the CC with 250K pots? Lew

Nope. 500K. In my Frankenstrat, there's an APS-1 in the neck with a CC in the bridge, single 500K volume control.

I put a 470K resistor (because I didn't have any 500's) from the switch's hot lug to ground where the APS-1 connects. This way, when the switch is in the neck position, it's 250K (actually about 242K with the 470K resistor), in the middle it's 250K and in the bridge, full 500K.

Even in the middle with the CC and APS-1 on together, the balance is really nice. The highs taken from the CC are compensated by the highs of the APS-1.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Nope. 500K. In my Frankenstrat, there's an APS-1 in the neck with a CC in the bridge, single 500K volume control.

I put a 470K resistor (because I didn't have any 500's) from the switch's hot lug to ground where the APS-1 connects. This way, when the switch is in the neck position, it's 250K (actually about 242K with the 470K resistor), in the middle it's 250K and in the bridge, full 500K.

Even in the middle with the CC and APS-1 on together, the balance is really nice. The highs taken from the CC are compensated by the highs of the APS-1.

There ya go. Pretty clever.

I also use the CC with 500K pots. But in a stock Strat with 250K pots, it's going to lose some treble that, IMO, the CC does not have an excess of...it's a very smooth pickup without alot of treble bite.

Of course we don't know know what the questioner has for controls in his Strat...

Lew

 

[sufferinrewind]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Erik, have you made any clips with the Air Zone/PAF combo yet?

 

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

There ya go. Pretty clever.

I also use the CC with 500K pots. But in a stock Strat with 250K pots, it's going to lose some treble that, IMO, the CC does not have an excess of...it's a very smooth pickup without alot of treble bite.

Of course we don't know know what the questioner has for controls in his Strat...

Lew

Yup, my limited electronics knowledge and how Lynch had his early ESP's with a H-S config a 500K push/pull knob to change pickups helped. Only difference is in his ESP's, it was either neck or bridge pickup, no middle. On one side of the DPDT, there was a 500K resistor to ground.

The same trick could be applied to a stock 5-way Strat switch. Just swap the volume for a 500K, wire it so the tone is on the neck and middle only, put the resistors in place and there ya go.

 

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Erik, have you made any clips with the Air Zone/PAF combo yet?

Yup. I posted the link in the thread in the guitar lounge.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Nope. 500K. In my Frankenstrat, there's an APS-1 in the neck with a CC in the bridge, single 500K volume control.

I put a 470K resistor (because I didn't have any 500's) from the switch's hot lug to ground where the APS-1 connects. This way, when the switch is in the neck position, it's 250K (actually about 242K with the 470K resistor), in the middle it's 250K and in the bridge, full 500K.

Even in the middle with the CC and APS-1 on together, the balance is really nice. The highs taken from the CC are compensated by the highs of the APS-1.

That's actually pretty smart. I should try this on my H/S/S Strat, since I find the 500k pots are a little too bright for the singles, but just right for the bucker. I have a 500k master vol and 500k master tone w. .022 cap.

 

[frankfalbo]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

I like the CC in an Alder strat style guitar, and I always use 500k pots because I'm using a hotter neck pickup, like a G&L, some kind of rails, or something with 1/4" magnets. If you're using 250k pots with vintage output singles, then I like a Pearly Gates/PAF style pickup. Kudos on the resistor step-down idea.

I find the Air Zone pick attack to be a little ambiguous, but it's a better sound than the TZ IMO. I like the idea of the AZ/TZ hybrid that's been tried a lot. I haven't done it yet but I have an AZ here that's ripe for the task. I don't think the bridge position benefits as much from the "Airbucker" technology, because the string vibrations are so much smaller back there by the bridge. The stronger magnetic field of something like a Distortion/Super D or regular TZ doesn't impact the sustain or vibrations as much as at the neck position. So it might be time to "let the air out" of one of the AZ coils. Now which one should I "deflate"....

 

[ErikH]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

That's actually pretty smart. I should try this on my H/S/S Strat, since I find the 500k pots are a little too bright for the singles, but just right for the bucker. I have a 500k master vol and 500k master tone w. .022 cap.

That's what I found out too with the APS-1. It was pretty darn harsh with the volume all the way up before I put the resistor in place.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

For mating with vintage singles, the Jazz Bridge is great...the poles line up good enough. Also the 59B

I don't use JB's in mahogany guitars, but I really like it in HSS strats. My HSS Fender US strat has the TB-4 JB and 2 Surfers right now. It's a real toss up between the Jazz bridge and JB for me, in that guitar.

 

[ratherdashing]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

For mating with vintage singles, the Jazz Bridge is great...the poles line up good enough. Also the 59B

I don't use JB's in mahogany guitars, but I really like it in HSS strats. My HSS Fender US strat has the TB-4 JB and 2 Surfers right now. It's a real toss up between the Jazz bridge and JB for me, in that guitar.

Cool ... I'm eyeing the JB myself. I have a FRED in mine right now, and though I like the output there's something about the tone that doesn't do it for me ... not enough Stratty attack is the best way to describe it.

Do you use 250k or 500k pots with that?

 

[Lake Placid Blues]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

i really don't have a favorite since every guitar i build has a different pickup or body wood and i choose a pickup to go with the wood and the tone i want the guitar to have. -Mike

I agree with this. The pup must be choosen based on the attributes of the specif guitar, and the neck woods do matter. I notice the difference anyway. For example, I may try a Pearly Gates or a Dimarzio PAF Pro type on a rosewood board neck. A brighter strat may require something along the lines of a CC or a Dimarzio Tone Zone.

I have had good luck using the A2 Pearly Gates in RW board strats with vintage SC's in the neck and middle. It balances nice, and the PG has the right blend of fatness and harmonics, and output for most strat bridge position work.

The Dimarzio Fred worked very well on a RW board mohogony body strat, but not so good on a maple neck alder guitar.

I use a TZ on my maple Charvel. Once agian the woods dictating to a large degree the choice of pickup. It's still got the stock controls with 500k pots. I use ofton 250K pots on strats, even with a humbucker, nonetheless. It's the only high output pickup I use on a strat type guitar. High output works on a H/H guitar, but they don't balance well volume wise, or tonally, with most singles.

I have an old Bill Lawrence medium output humbucker that is now out of production. It is sehr wonderbar in a strat bridge. It's great totally clean, giving no hint of brittleness, and still works good in combonation with the middle single coil without splitting. It's fat enough, that it gets a great violin singing tone under distortion too.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

Yup, my limited electronics knowledge and how Lynch had his early ESP's with a H-S config a 500K push/pull knob to change pickups helped. Only difference is in his ESP's, it was either neck or bridge pickup, no middle. On one side of the DPDT, there was a 500K resistor to ground.

The same trick could be applied to a stock 5-way Strat switch. Just swap the volume for a 500K, wire it so the tone is on the neck and middle only, put the resistors in place and there ya go.

Or what about concentric pots with a switch to choose between 500k and 250k depending on which pickup you're using at the time?

 

[DracoAran]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

I am absolutely digging the Parallel Axis 3 Blues Saraceno trembucker.

I also like the Anderson H3, Dimarzio Air Zone, and Breed.

 

[bungalowbill]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

I've had good luck with the 59, and the JB. I'm using a Custom/59 hybrid that BachToRock made up for me and I love it. Its the best HB I have used in a Strat...very even response and the harmonics jump out at you.

 

[Fiesta Red]

Re: What's your favourite Fat Strat bucker?

59 in the bridge, but needs 500K pots.

-Mark