eclecticsynergy
Well-known member
Re: Which humbucker for HSS strat?
I agree about the 59B; great clean tone and it takes distortion really well too.
For a tight budget, being such a popular pickup means there are almost always used ones to be had on eBay.
One hitch is that most 59s don't have the 4-wire lead required for splitting. If you do get one with the right wires, IMO it works better in parallel than split. That's easily done with a DPDT, whether a mini switch or a push-pull pot. If you do elect to split, a resistor to limit the amount of signal that gets shunted to ground is useful. This works well to give vintage output humbuckers a little more beef when split.
One low cost alternative might be the GFS Vintage 59, $35. These are a great deal. They also have a neck version of their Fat Pat on sale for $30; it's wound to 10K and would be a little stronger (the bridge model is 14K and probably would be too hot for your purposes). Not sure what shipping to Scotland would involve, or how much it would cost. Might be worth finding out.
I've heard good things about Tonerider, but I have no personal experience with them. They're based in the UK, though- that would be convenient in your case.
I agree about the 59B; great clean tone and it takes distortion really well too.
For a tight budget, being such a popular pickup means there are almost always used ones to be had on eBay.
One hitch is that most 59s don't have the 4-wire lead required for splitting. If you do get one with the right wires, IMO it works better in parallel than split. That's easily done with a DPDT, whether a mini switch or a push-pull pot. If you do elect to split, a resistor to limit the amount of signal that gets shunted to ground is useful. This works well to give vintage output humbuckers a little more beef when split.
One low cost alternative might be the GFS Vintage 59, $35. These are a great deal. They also have a neck version of their Fat Pat on sale for $30; it's wound to 10K and would be a little stronger (the bridge model is 14K and probably would be too hot for your purposes). Not sure what shipping to Scotland would involve, or how much it would cost. Might be worth finding out.
I've heard good things about Tonerider, but I have no personal experience with them. They're based in the UK, though- that would be convenient in your case.
